Geo histoire N°6

 

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“The Truth of Your Own Nature” is a close-up of the huge statue of Maitreya Buddha which is in a temple inside Thiksey Monastery in front of the Himalayan hills of Ladakh.

This picture was published page 58 & 59 in GEO HISTOIRE N°6
Le bouddhisme : de la naissance de Siddharta à l’exil du Dalaï-Lama.
DECEMBRE 2012 – JANVIER 2013

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Ticket To Success

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“Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.”
(Audrey Hepburn – British actress and humanitarian, 1929–1993)

This is a recent portrait of my childhood friend and “soul sister” Valerie in order to celebrate her
birthday.
It is funny that she is sharing this day with my brother Manish, maybe those things don’t come by chance…
During all our lives we kept on supporting each other with pride and no judgment like brother and sister do.
Time goes by and nothing changes between us.
Valérie is an author, director and filmaker based in Hollywood.

(This year is YOUR year where you’ll be enjoying a well-deserved success…Joyeux Anniversaire…Love you…!!!)

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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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The Colour of Soul

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“Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error.
It is these mingled opposites which people our life, which make it pungent, intoxicating.
We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash.”
(Louis Aragon – French poet and novelist, 1897-1982)

This is funny that this was my first real black and white picture to be uploaded in my photostream as it is an image about colour.
Maybe unconsciously the fact that there is no colour here allows to feel its presence in a better way…

This image was shot in In the workshop where we give our color range for the yarn dyeing process.
It is always an happy moment as it is the beginning of the collection and we all feel hungry…of colors and new shades, as colors start our work.

Those young men are working manually, like their father and grandfathers did, and it might have been like this since the beginning of times.
They carry on this long tradition, they belong to the same family and their workshop is in a muslim area of Varanasi (Benaras) where anyone’s soul would travel through ages and places…

There is some “jaaduu” (which means “magic” in Hindi) in this place, we are mixing so many influences, Indian tradition with European taste, all together we try to figure out what will be the perfect shade, we speak Hindi, Urdu, English and French in order to define a colour, to find the right word which would mean something to all of us.

In this little workshop stands a real Indo-western fusion while we are trying to find the colour of Soul.

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Subject and Form

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“You are asking me what makes a good picture.
For me, it is the harmony between subject and form that leads each one of those elements to its maximum of expression and vigor.”
(Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographer, 1908–2004)

In 1948 Henri Cartier-Bresson took several pictures of the old observatory in the city palace of Jaipur where shades of grey and captivating combinations of geometric forms blend in an amazing rhythm.
This picture is a tip of the hat to the Master, it was shot at sunrise at the Jantar Mantar overlooking Dashashwamedh Ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
This observatory was built by Jai Singh, the Maharaja of Jaipur in the year 1737 who was a great admirer of science and technology.
This place was built to measure the local time, the Sun’s declination, altitude, the declination of stars, planets and to determine eclipses, it has several masonry instruments to record the motion, speed and properties starts and planets and study astronomy that are accurate and can still be used efficiently today.
This Jantar Mantar in Varanasi was built in line with Delhi, Mathura, Ujjain and Jaipur observatories.

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A Minute Part Of Reality

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“The photograph itself doesn’t interest me.
I want only to capture a minute part of reality.”
(Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographer, 1908–2004)

This is a view of Mansrowar Ghat in Varanasi (Benaras) shot from “The Lotus Lounge” where I enjoy to have breakfast after sunrise whenever I come along the Ganges early in the morning…

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Crystal Ships of Benaras

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“Before you slip into unconsciousness
I’d like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss
Another kiss, another kiss

Oh tell me where your freedom lies
The streets are fields that never die
Deliver me from reasons why
You’d rather cry, I’d rather fly

The days are bright and filled with pain
Enclose me in your gentle rain
The time you ran was too insane
We’ll meet again, we’ll meet again

The crystal ship is being filled
A thousand girls, a thousand thrills
A million ways to spend your time
When we get back, I’ll drop a line”
(“Crystal ship” by The Doors)

This is a view of Bhonsala ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) where the words of Jim Morrison echo through the ages…

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In Your Light

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“In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest
Where no one sees you,
but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art.”
(Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi – Poet and Sufi mystic, 1207-1273)

This red sari was drying under the sun along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).

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In God’s Hands

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“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess”
(Martin Luther – German Priest and Scholar whose questioning led to the Protestant Reformation, 1483-1546)

Three ladies were performing a puja at Gay ghat at the feet of the big statue of Nandi which stands in front of several Shiva ligams.
We were alone and they smiled at me, the day was rising up among a heavy mist.
I didn’t want to disturb that moment but they insisted that I took some pictures, they seemed to be happy.

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