Working with Atmosphere

© 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.

“Technique undoubtedly helps make photography magical, but I prefer to work with atmosphere.
I think that the obsession with technique is a male thing.
Boy’s toys.
They love playing… but once you’ve perfected something you have to start searching for a new toy.
I would rather search for a new model or location.”
(Ellen von Unwerth – German photographer and director, b.1954)

This is a view of a side of Man Singh Palace, one of the most beautiful structures in the Gwalior Fort.
The fortress stands on an isolated rock, overlooking the Gwalior town, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Within its rich history Gwalior Fort occupies a unique place in the human civilization as the place which has the first ever recorded use of zero.

Join the photographer at www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

Imperfect Beauty

© 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.

“There is desire in the perfect, beauty in the imperfect.
Thus I lust over the flawless,
and fall amorously forceless to the flawed.”
(From “Reminiscence of the Present: Spiritual Encounters of the Analytically Insane” by Ilyas Kassam)

North to Man Singh Palace, the magnificent and main palace in Gwalior Fort, lie a few ruined Mughal palaces.
This picture was shot inside the Karna Mahal which was the palace of the maternal uncle of the most famous Tomar Rajput kings of Gwalior State (today in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh).
The Karna Mahal was built in pure Hindu style during the 15th century.
It is a long two-storeyed building (200′x200′) with a large assembly hall and a bathing arrangement for women (hammam).

This is the fascinating kingdom of a world in decay where flows a unique beauty curiously flawed by time…
(With special regards to Ilyas Kassam for allowing me to use his poetry with my images)

Join the photographer at www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

Good Morning

© 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.

“Good morning,” said the little prince.
“Good morning,” said the merchant.
This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented to quench thirst. You need only swallow one pill a week, and you would feel no need of anything to drink.
“Why are you selling those?” asked the little prince.
“Because they save a tremendous amount of time,” said the merchant. “Computations have been made by experts. With these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week.”
“And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?”
“Anything you like…”
“As for me,” said the little prince to himself, “if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.”
(From “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – French writer and aviator, 1900-1944)

This happy little boy asked me to take a picture, he was standing at Lal Ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
He could be a perfect “Little Prince” if there was an Indian version of Saint-Exupéry’s most famous novella…

Join the photographer at www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

Why Not ?

© 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.

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why ?’
But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not ?’”
(George Bernard Shaw – Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)

It was early in the morning and my camera was most probably still dreaming when it took this picture of two goats having a conversation along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
Anything is possible in this city for anyone who allows his imagination to be free…

Join the photographer at www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

Mad Chess Players

© 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.

“Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do.
Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom.
I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination.”
(Gilbert Keith Chesterton – English writer, 1874 – 1936)

This was just a dream which happened over the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
Mirza Sajjad Ali and Mir Roshan Ali, two chess-obsessed men, used to meet everyday to indulge in their passion of the game, then little by little they became totally indifferent to the turmoil that surrounds them.
One day the Rumi Darwaza, also known as the Turkish Gate in Lucknow, tore from the ground and flew in the air.
It became a spectacular vessel which started a long journey over the Kingdom of Avadh.
Dreams are not meant to be real, with no doubt this one must have been inspired by “Shatranj Ke Khiladi” (The Chess Players) by Satyajit Ray…

Join the photographer at www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

Echoing the Sun

© All rights reserved.

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 marigold, whose courtier’s face
Echoes the sun, and doth unlace
Her at his rise, at his full stop
Packs and shuts up her gaudy shop”.
(John Cleveland – English poet, 1613–1658)

In my daydreams the ghats take the appearance of staves ready for musical notation and this young man is a clef indicating the pitch of written notes on this poetic music paper.
Then the marigold becomes a dotted note on the line.
With a little of imagination anything is possible along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).

 

Having New Eyes

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
(Marcel Proust – French Novelist and Author, 1871-1922)

Phileas Fogg’s balloon was now reaching the top of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
Everyone was happy up there knowing that the real voyage was only starting, they didn’t know yet which amazing landscapes they would see nor who would join them onboard.
So far Phileas Fogg and Passepartout invited Jules Verne, Marcel Proust, Tulsidas and the great Kabir to join them among the ship of dreams and this was of great promise…

Imagination at the Wind’s Will

“Imagination is like a lofty building reared to meet the sky – fancy is a balloon that soars at the wind’s will”
(Frank Gelett Burgess – American artist, poet and author, 1866 – 1951)

This is the 500 years old Durga Temple (मुगलसराय सिटी), located in Ramnagar on the opposite bank to Varanasi (Benaras).
We came by boat, it was a long trip then and we had to find a rickshaw in order to reach that place which was far away.
At the gate a pandit refused to let us go in because it was time for him to have a nap.
Hopefully Phileas Fogg offered to join him in his balloon in order to see that amazing temple from the sky above the clouds.

Infinity Made Imaginable

“The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.”
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge – English lyrical Poet, Critic and Philosopher, 1772-1834)

This is a picture of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University which is an institution of higher learning in Sanskrit and other languages located in Varanasi (Benaras).
It is a quiet place nearby the house where I am living and I like to come there in order to daydream among this amazing Gothic style architecture which is quite unexepected in this city.

The Land of Mowgli

© 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.

“As the moon came up behind the hill it shone through the openwork, casting shadows on the ground like black-velvet embroidery.”
- Rudyard Kipling, “The Jungle Book” (Kaa’s Hunting).

As far as I can remember The Jungle Book must certainly be one of the first book I ever heard about.
It never left me, it’s always in a corner of my mind ready to overpower my dreams.
I took this picture during monsoon in the temple complex of Khajuraho in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
It is surrounded by a dense jungle which inspired Rudyard Kipling and it is not too far from the village where the real Mowgli leaved.
Don’t get amazed when you read this little piece of information, it is even possible to visit his house near Katni where he died when he was very old.

This is indeed the land of Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo and of course the harrowing Sher Khan.

Join the photographer at www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography