. >> she opened the door for him to work with prominent photographers irving penn and richard avedon.le in the studios of these photographers, i was the assistant. i was the student. i was the devotee, as it were. it is the relationship that i have with my teacher now. >> it was richard avedon's son john who in 1977 first introduced vreeland to khyongla rato rinpoche, founder of the tibet center. under rinpoche's supervision, vreeland began learning about tibetan buddhism. >> then in 1979, he went on a photography assignment in india. because of his growing interest in tibetan buddhism, he included a visit to dharamsala, headquarters of the dalai lama. vreeland received permission to photograph the tibetan leader. his camera had an extremely slow exposure, so his subjects had to sit absolutely still for one minute. that was a challenge for the dalai lama. >> the shutter opened and we waited 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, and then his holiness started to move. and we did one time after another after another, and suddenly after all these attempts to get a fu

. >> she opened the door for him to work with prominent photographers irving penn and richard avedon.le in the studios of these photographers, i was the assistant. i was the student. i was the devotee, as it were. it is the relationship that i have with my teacher now. >> it was richard avedon's son john who in 1977 first introduced vreeland to khyongla rato rinpoche, founder of the tibet center. under rinpoche's supervision, vreeland began learning about tibetan buddhism. >> then in 1979, he went on a photography assignment in india. because of his growing interest in tibetan buddhism, he included a visit to dharamsala, headquarters of the dalai lama. vreeland received permission to photograph the tibetan leader. his camera had an extremely slow exposure, so his subjects had to sit absolutely still for one minute. that was a challenge for the dalai lama. >> the shutter opened and we waited 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, and then his holiness started to move. and we did one time after another after another, and suddenly after all these attempts to get a fu