Being the subject of documentaries runs in the Vreeland family. Celebrated Vogue editor Diana Vreeland’s career was chronicled in her own doc, “Diana Vreeland: the Eye has to Travel” and she logically played a part in films by Bruce Weber and about Bert Stern.
Through her influence, her photographer grandson Nicholas apprenticed with Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, but instead of following in her footsteps, he charted his own course as a Tibetan Buddhist monk.
Nick Vreeland’s life and complicated relationship to the worldly discipline of photography are explored in Guido Santi and Tina Mascara’s “Monk With a Camera.”
Typically, young men of Vreeland’s background either become playboys or elite public servants, like his ambassador father. He was well along his way to the former, considerably aided by his precocious talent for photography.
Meeting models was never a problem for him, but a chance introduction to Khyongla Rato Rinpoche changed his life. Through the spiritual instruction of his lifelong teacher, Vreeland found the meaning he had been seeking.
Although the Tibetan exile initially discouraged him from taking robes, Vreeland’s calling would not be denied. It helped when his cameras were stolen, thereby eliminating such distracting influences. However, his brother gave him a replacement as a going-away gift, should inspiration later strike him.
Years later, necessity would serve that function while spearheading a relatively ambitious fundraising drive to expand the growing Rato Monastery, his teacher’s former home. As a Vreeland, he still had plenty of well-heeled contacts, but the financial crisis threw a spanner in the works. However, sales of his striking photographs successfully covered the sudden shortfalls. Such resourcefulness even impressed His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
