Working with Atmosphere

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“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.

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The Beauty of the Morning

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“Earth hath not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!”
(“Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802″ by William Wordsworth, 1770-1850)

This view of Gwalior was shot from a window of the Karna Mahal, the palace next to Man Singh Palace, which stands on an isolated rock overlooking the city in Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

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Imperfect Beauty

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“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)

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The Lost Kingdom

“But sometimes illumination comes to our rescue at the very moment when all seems lost; we have knocked at every door and they open on nothing until, at last, we stumble unconsciously against the only one through which we can enter the kingdom we have sought in vain a hundred years – and it opens.”
(from ” In Search of Lost Time” by Marcel Proust – French novelist, 1871-1922)

Walking along the Ganges in the Eternal city of Varanasi (Benaras) allows one’s own “Search of Lost Time”.
Every corner opens another drawer of the soul and shows several fragments of a “Remembrance of Things Past”.
Behind this door there is a long staircase which leads to several corridors and to a temple which is at the last floor.
During daytime there are bat echolocation calls providing a mysterious atmosphere of lost kingdom to this palace…

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Throwing a Dream

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“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.”
“Jeter vos rêves dans l’espace comme un cerf-volant, et vous ne savez pas ce qu’il rapportera, une nouvelle vie, un nouvel ami, un nouvel amour, un nouveau pays.”
(Anaïs Nin – French-Cuban author, 1903-1977)

This palace built by the Maharaja of Benaras in 1830 stands at Ganga Mahal Ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
This is the place to throw dreams and to keep them alive, some may even be able to touch them…Join the photographer at https://www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

Merit and Wisdom

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“In order for us to progress smoothly and swiftly on our spiritual path, we need the help of two things – merit and wisdom – they are like the 2 wings of a bird, lacking one will cripple our progress.
We need to accumulate merit and wisdom with joyful effort and enthusiasm.
Merit without wisdom or wisdom without merit will not help.”
(His Holiness Jigme Pema Wangchen, the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa)

This is the main door of the ancient palace in Leh, the capital of Ladakh in the Himalayan hills.
It was shot at sunset.
This palace was modelled on the Potala Palace in Lhasa (Tibet) and is the highest building in the world of his own times.
Leh has for centuries been an important stopover on trade routes along the Indus Valley between Tibet to the east, Kashmir to the west and also between India and China.
The main goods carried were salt, grain, pashm or cashmere wool, charas (cannabis resin) from the Tarim Basin, indigo, silk yarn and Banaras brocades.

One’s Own Deeds

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“Az mast ke bar mast chon digari nist “
{What ever happens to you (good or bad) is a result of your own actions (comes from within you)}
(Nāsir Khusraw – Persian poet, philosopher, Isma’ili scholar and traveler, 1004 – 1088)

Everything that we face in life is the result of our own actions not others.
This quote comes from a famous Farsi poem about an eagle hunted by an arrow which has eagle’s feathers so it can go as fast as the bird; it is used by the character of Akbar in the movie “Jodhaa Akbar”.
A part of the movie was shot in Fatehpur Sikri which is located in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and built by Mughal emperor Akbar in 1570, in honour of Sufi saint Shaikh Salim Chisti.
This is a picture taken from a room of this royal palace.

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Between Zero and Infinity

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“God is the tangential point between zero and infinity”
(Alfred Jarry – French writer, 1873-1907)

This is a view of the back of Man Singh Palace in Gwalior, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
Gwalior Fort was built in the 8th century and stands on an isolated rock overlooking the city.
It is said that the Mughal Emperor Babur (1483–1531) described it as, “The pearl in the necklace of the forts of Hind”.

Gwalior Fort also occupies a unique place in the human civilization as the place which has the first recorded use of zero ever.
Also referred as ‘Shunya’ in sanskrit, this site is of mathematical interest because of what is written on a tablet recording the establishment of a small 9th century Hindu temple on the eastern side of the plateau (marked by the ’0′ on the nineteenth century map at the left).
By accident, it records the oldest “0″ in India for which one can assign a definite date.

Gwalior occupies a strategic location in the Gird region of India, and the city and its fortress have served as the center of several of historic northern Indian kingdoms.
The Gwalior Fort has changed hands many times, from the Tomaras in the 8th century it passed on to the Mughals, then the Marathas under the Scindia’s (1754), followed briefly by Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi, Tatiya Tope and the British.

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Endless Time

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“Time is endless in thy hands, my lord.
There is none to count thy minutes.

Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers.
Thou knowest how to wait.

Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower.

We have no time to lose,
and having no time we must scramble for a chance.
We are too poor to be late.

And thus it is that time goes by
while I give it to every querulous man who claims it,
and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last.

At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut;
but I find that yet there is time. “
(“Endless Time” by Rabindranath Tagore- Indian Poet, Playwright and Essayist, Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, 1861–1941)

This is a window of the Jahangiri Mahal in Orchha which is located in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

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Today’s Dream

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“The timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness; and knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.”
(Kahlil Gibran – Lebanese born American philosophical Essayist, Novelist and Poet. 1883-1931)

“The City has been known by various names thoughout its long history, but the oldest and most common of these are still Varanasi and Kashi.
In the remote past, it was generally held that Kashi and Varanasi had different connotations.
While Kashi was the name of the kingdom, Varanasi was its capital, as we find during the age of Shodasha Mahajanapada.
In the present day the names Kashi and Varanasi are interchangeable.

According to one school, the name Varanasi originated from its location between Varuna and Nashi, which was later called Asi.
Another suggests that the City took its name from the Varuna River, which was formerly called Varunasi or Varanasi.
While the Chinese corruptions of Varanasi are Pho-lo-nai and Po-lo-nisse, as set by Fa Hien and Hiuen Tsang respectively, the Muslim name from the time of their occupation of the City was Banaras, which continues today.
Benares is the British variation that has been handed down to the present generation and is still frequently used by many.

According to some, Kashi comes from Kasha, the name of an ancient Hindu King who ruled the City.
Others believe that the name simply comes from a kind of tall grass, kaska, whic once grew abundantly along the riverbank.
Then again, according to the Kashi Khandam, the name has been derived from the Sanskrit root “kash”, meaning “to shine”, “to look brilliant” or “beautiful”.
Hence Kashi, or what is sometimes called Kashika, is a place where the light, signifying Shiva himself, shines.
This City of Light then is essentially “the city of enlightenment which libarates souls”.

Varanasi has also been called by various other names in the Hindu scriptures, e.g., Avimukta (the never-forsaken), the Anandavana (the forest of bliss), Rudravasa (the city of Shiva), Mahashmashana (the great cremation ground) and Jitwari (a place where business is highly profitable).

The Jatakas also record various names for the City including Surundhana, Sudarshana, Brahmavardhana,, Pushpavati, Rammanagar, Molini and others.
The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb changed the name to Muhammadabad and also set up a mint from which coins were issued with the intent to disgrace both Hinduism and this centre of Hinduism.
This new name remained confined to government documents, however, and this too only for a short time-till the demise of Aurangzeb…”

This picture was shot at dawn from Anand’s boat on the Ganges nearby Tulsi ghat.