Rummaged Souls

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“Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.”
(From “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy)

Those men are ship carpenters working all day along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).

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How Far

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“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
(T.S. Eliot – American born English Editor, Playwright, Poet and Critic, 1888-1965)

Anand is wearing a kantha silk scarf made with a hand embroidery.
This artcraft is done by ladies involved in several workshops that we have settled with GURIA, a Human Rights organisation fighting against the sexual exploitation of women and children, particularly those forced into prostitution and trafficking.
Each scarf is unique and made in sarees provided by women in Benaras who take this opportunity to get rid of pieces that they brought in order to celebrate happy moments, festivals or parties.
Those accessories carry traces of happiness in their yarns…
Our model shows his body for the purpose of this brotherhood and happiness chain as this is a way to catch the attention on this fight for Human Rights and human dignity.
(Scarf style “Kingdom” – 100% silk – Collection RED HALO)

RED HALO is a collection of household linen based in Benaras (Varanasi – India) providing work to people who were living with difficulties and education to children.
“Like” the RED HALO page on Facebook and join this amazing human adventure in Varanasi,www.facebook.com/redhalo.in

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A Choice

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“Colours have a beauty of their own which must be preserved, as one strives to preserve tonal quality in music. It is a question of organization and construction which is sensitive to maintaining this beautiful freshness of colour…
Colour is never a question of quantity, but of choice.”
(From Matisse’s essay “The Role and Modalities of Colour”, 1945)

At sunrise this lady was drying a few sarees after washing them in the holy waters of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
She was a pilgrim coming from the other part of the country, she was probably staying in one of the ashrams nearby.
Watching her doing her laundry and spreading those bright colours which was a happy moment as it was bringing life to Panchganga Ghat.

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The Bank of Karma

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“The paths to liberation are numerous, but the bank along the way is always the same, the Bank of Karma, where the liberation account of each of us is credited or debited depending on our actions.”
(From “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel)

After taking a bath in the holy waters of the Ganges, this young man was drying under the winter rising sun.
It was in front of the little akhara which stands at Panda ghat in Varanasi (Benaras) where he came to exercise before sunrise.

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Omnia Vanitas (All is Vanity)

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“Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, and you who read this.”
(Blaise Pascal – French Mathematician, Philosopher and Physicist, 1623-1662)

This image was shot at Scindia Ghat along river Ganga in Varanasi (Benaras).
This young man was striking several poses in order to catch my attention so I could take a few snaps of him but I was pretending not to see him as I am mostly working on natural poses.
It was a Sunday afternoon before sunset and he came there to wash his laundry, his attitude was amazing, full of narcissism, each of his gesture was carrying vanity and pride…
After a while I couldn’t help laughing and I took a few pictures, in fact he knew that I was leaving the akhara nearby where I often take pictures of the pehlwani (wrestlers).

The pillar on the left belongs to the remains of a massive palace which used to stand on Scindhia ghat.
The entire structure has sunk several feet into the earth since its erection and is still gradually and slowly sinking.
Sometimes in the winter when the holy waters of the Ganges come very low it is possible to see it otherwise most of the time it stays underwater.

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The Road Toward Freedom

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“I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos-especially activity that seems to have no meaning.
It seems to me to be the road toward freedom…
Rather than starting inside, I start outside and reach the mental through the physical.”
(Jim Morrison – American singer & poet, 1943-1971)

This man was bathing before sunset in the holy waters of the Ganges at Shivala ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
He smiled and laughed at my joke regarding his untied langot…

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At the Door to Paradise

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“Did you imagine that there could be emotions in heaven?
Emotions are closely tied to ego games.
Check your emotions at the door to paradise.”

(“The Politics of Ecstasy” by Timothy Leary – American writer and psychologist, 1920-1996)

(Cushions style “Manali” in Cotton & Silk – 30×45 / 45×45 / 60×60 – col. Black / col. White – Collection RED HALO)

As usual Anand shows his body in order to catch the attention on the fight for Human Rights and human dignity in which we are involved.
RED HALO is a collection of household linen based in Benaras (Varanasi – India) providing work to people who were living with difficulties and education to children.
“Like” the RED HALO page on Facebook and join this human adventure in Varanasi, www.facebook.com/redhalo.in

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Vanishing Moments

 

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“We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again.
We cannot develop and print a memory. “
(Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographe, 1908–2004)

In the end of summer afternoons people enjoy taking deeps in the Ganges in order to forget the heat.
Those young men were swimming in front of Manikarnika Ghat, the burning ghat before Alamgir Mosque which stands in the distance.

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Shushila, the Hijra

 

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This is a portrait of Shushila which I took a few days ago inside her guru’s house in a little city located nearby Varanasi (Benaras) in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Shushila is 35 years old, she was born in an Hindu family of the same town, she studied at school untill the age of 16 and she joined an hijra community when she was 17.
She didn’t become hijra (Hindi: हिजड़ा, Urdu: حجڑا), nor she was forced to be so, she was born like that as an hermaphrodite and therefore she is considered as a member of “the third gender”, neither man nor woman.
Like most of the hijras, she refers to herself linguistically as female, and wears women garments.

Becoming an hijra is a process of socialization into a “hijra family” through a relationship characterised as chela “student” to guru “teacher”, leading to a gradual assumption of femininity.
Typically each guru lives with at least five chelas; her chelas assume her surname and are considered part of her lineage.
Shushila’s guru is Sunita, a Muslim hijra, who has been teaching her to perform religious ceremonies at weddings and at the birth of babies, involving music, singing, and dancing.
Hijras are intended to bring good luck and fertility and they are most often uninvited to Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Jain family’s and even to Christian’s for Christmas.
Hijras are said to be able to do this because, since they do not engage in sexual activities, they accumulate their sexual energy which they can use to either bestow a boon or a bane.
It is said that hijras’ curse brings bad luck or infertility.

One day Shushila will become the guru of her community after Sunita’s death.
Sunita decided that it ill be like that and Shushila will follow exactly what her guru said, she will carry the same teaching with younger hijras.
It is nice to see that in this community Muslims and Hindus are living together and respecting their beliefs, their religion.

As I was asking, she told me that she was happy with her life, she said that in her society she wouldn’t have been able to do anything else so she was enjoying her life as an hijra.

I took many pictures of her, I said that I wanted natural poses, I was trying to show her soul like I did with her guru’s portraits.
With Sunita we tried to make her laugh as she wasn’t used at all to be in front of a camera and finaly I like this one which is far away to what I wanted.
After showing her she said she was happy of the result.

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The Makeup Artist

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“It is said that no star is a heroine to her makeup artist.”
(Richard Corliss – American writer for Time magazine, b.1944)

My friend Carmen Arbues Miro is the amazing make-up artist of “1789 : Les Amants de la Bastille”.
Her stage makeup work is well-known worldwide, she is in charge of superproductions in Las Vegas, Macao and Paris and many movie stars won’t allow any camera to shoot before she spends a moment with them…
I always loved to work with Carmen, her magic fingers can do anything.
She always brought a positive energy during the fashion shows and fashion shoots we used to do…

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