Receiving

© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).
The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

“For it is in giving that we receive.”
(St. Francis of Assisi – Italian Catholic friar and preacher, Founder of the Franciscan order, 1181-1226)

This scarf has a hand embroidery done by ladies involved in the 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 silk saries provided by many women in Benaras who take this opportunity to get rid of pieces that they don’t want to wear anymore.
Those fabrics carry many stories, most of them were brought in order to celebrate happy moments, festivals or parties and in some ways they still keep traces of that in their yarns…
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.

(Scarf style “Kingdom” – 100% silk – Collection RED HALO)

“Like” the RED HALO page on Facebook and join this amazing human adventure in Varanasi,www.facebook.com/redhalo.in

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Unchain my Heart

© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).
The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

“I’m under your spell
Like a man in a trance
You know darn well that I don’t stand a chance
Unchain my heart let me go my way…”
(“Unchain My Heart”, song written by Bobby Sharp and recorded in 1961 by Ray Charles)

(Collection RED HALO – Accessory item style “Heart” with Zardozi embroidery)
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.
(Copying those products is against this social work)

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{This evening for New Year Eve, opening of a new RED HALO shop at HOTEL SURYA ( S-20/51A-5,THE MALL ROAD,CANTONMENT) in VARANASI with the latest collections}
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“Like” the RED HALO page on Facebook and join this amazing human adventure in Varanasi,www.facebook.com/redhalo.in

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Lal Baba, the Ultimate Sadhu

© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).
The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

“Some offer their wealth, their austerity, and their practice of yoga as sacrifice, while the ascetics with strict vows offer their study of scriptures and knowledge as sacrifice.”
(Bhagavad Gita)

This is a picture of Lal Baba who is a Saivite (follower of Shiva) sādhu.
He was born in the Indian state of Bihar but he stays most of the time in Varanasi (Benaras).
I didn’t see him since a few months, no one could tell me where he was whenever I was asking at the ghats so I was happy to see him again a few days ago as I was walking with my friend Rajesh along the Ganges.
People call him Lal Baba because he mostly wears garments in red shades, “lal” means red in Hindi.
His huge turban keeps a few meters of dreadlocks and gives him an impressive presence.
Sometimes people think that he can’t see much because of cataract but in fact his eyes have an amazing deep blue colour.
I told him that Benaras is not the same without him and he laughed.
This is a link to another picture with him shot a few years ago:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3160715&id=139421082424

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Into a Graceful Humanity

 

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. 
There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”
(Jawaharlal Nehru – Indian Prime Minister, 1889-1964)

This is another picture shot at Ahilyabai ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
This man is one of the two friends who came to bath with the man whom I shot while he was putting his blue kurta on.
It was at dusk when the holy waters reflect an amazing light and when friendship and happiness melt into a graceful humanity.

In a Silent Look

 

A latin proverb says “Often there is eloquence in a silent look”.
My friend Anand drove me on his boat from the main ghat of Varanasi (Benaras) to Ramnagar which is on the other bank of the Ganges.
Later as we were ready to come back this young man met us at the beach and asked if we could take him and a lady who probably was his mother on board in order that they could reach faster the city of Lights.
He found funny that I was taking pictures here and there and sometimes I was showing him what I had captured on my screen.
He was happy when I started to take a few portraits of him, he felt important.
We didn’t talk much, it was too hot even if it was still early that morning, what we shared was silent, with the eyes.

Spreading Happiness

 

Once again I came back to the upper terrace which is at a few meters from Bivi Razaia Masjid, a small mosque, located in the chawk of Varanasi (Benaras).
Up there I know a Muslim family who works on the dyeing process of the famous silk Banarsi sarees.
In this timeless and magical place, there is an amazing and contagious happiness among everyone and I always leave this opened workshop with a real feeling of contentment.
Maybe this happens because of the colours, colours are everything to me and working all day with colours seems to be the most beautiful job.
People there became my friends, they are in a different world, away from a kind of modernity and they show an absence of artificiality.
They bear a real kindness in everything they do and say which is naturaly the true nature of innocence.
I come there and take pictures at regular times almost every season and I always give them some prints that they enjoy.
The night before I took this picture we met by chance along the Ganges and they invited me for dinner at their place.
They don’t speak English so I have to attempt to speak Urdu and each time it allows me to nelieve that I have been progressing a little.
That day was one of the hotest of the year and after his work this young man wanted to take a shower in order to look clean with a fresh shirt and a nice hair style for a kind of official portrait that he asked me to make.
I started a few shots before, trying to catch that happiness and innocence.
He gave me more as usual with this generous smile like he did last December on another portrait.
www.flickr.com/photos/designldg/3081144494/in/set-7215761…

Fasting on Sankashti Chaturthi

© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved. 
Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).
The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

The fourth day after new moon and fourth day after full moon in the Hindu calendar is observed as Chaturthi and is dedicated to Lord Ganesha.
Today it is Sankashta Chaturthi Vrata and Ganesha devotees observe a fast (fasting – upvaas) which will end on the day after moonrise.
The benefits of fasting include material progress, happiness and fulfillment of desires.
The importance of Chaturthi vrat was explained by Lord Krishna to Yudhishtira, the eldest of the Pandavas.
It is also mentioned in the Narasimha Purana and Bhavishaya Purana.

The person who does Sankashti Chaturthi ( fasting till the moon-rise and then eat the food) will collect lot of virtues.
After the death that person goes to Swanand-loka and the rebirth of that person stops.
There is a belief in Hinduism that a person takes seven births before gets ‘Moksha’. (becomes free, there is no rebirth afterwards).

Each year Ma-ji, my Indian mother, is fasting that day for my brother Manish and I.
In Benaras, the city of Lord Shiva, it is a common thing that mothers fast for their sons that day as Lord Ganesh is the son of Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva.
I want to dedicate this picture to all those Banarsi mothers.

This lady was bathing in the holy waters of the ganges at Prayag ghat in the Eternal city.
I took many pictures of her and she found it funny.

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“Rendez-Vous” with Erik

 

This is a portait of my friend Erik Truffaz that I did a few days ago backstage after a concert.
I find difficult to take pictures of someone you know, it has to be faithful to the expressions, physical features and the soul that you have in mind and like most of the musicians Erik is always in motion, he doesn’t have any peculiar expression that I wanted to catch.
Among several shots I selected this one where he looks happy and peaceful like he oftenly is.
The treatment in chiaroscuro reminds Dutch portraits of the 18° and contrasts with the creativity of this jazz trumpeter who infuses so many elements of contemporary music into his compositions.

Erik travels a lot around the world where he gives many concerts and he comes often to Varanasi (Benaras).
His “love story” with the oldest living city in the world produced an album, “Benares” in 2008, my friend Gopal is proudly showing it in his little music store along the Ganges.

These are the links to Erik’s official websites:
http://www.eriktruffaz.com
And http://www.myspace.com/truffaz 
and to the cover of “Rendez-vous”:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/designldg/2964880289/in/set-72157608560615483

The Total Mother

Indian mothers see excess as a sin…but only in others !
You’ve never met a more “Jewish mother” than an Indian mother. 
All they want to do is feed you, mother you and take care of you.
The Indian mother is the total mother.

This lady in the picture leaves in excess, she is extra-loving, she is extra-caring for others, she has extra-happiness, she is an extra-dreamer, she is an extra-fighter for any cause, she has an extra-young spirit, she has extra-energy, she is extra-creative and she is an extra-Bollywood-drama-queen among many other extra-extravagant things…

Once upon a time she decided to become my Indian mother and ever since she takes me as her elder son and I respect her as such.