How Far

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Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).
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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

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

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A Lightning Instant

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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 creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.”
(Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographe, 1908–2004)

Lucknow, the mythical city of Nawabs, allows to travel in time.
I always enjoy to spend time in the Bara Imambara (or Asafi Imambara) complex for a sensory memory journey…

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Surfaces, Lines and Values

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“This recognition, in real life, of a rhythm of surfaces, lines, and values is for me the essence of photography; composition should be a constant of preoccupation, being a simultaneous coalition – an organic coordination of visual elements. “
(Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographe, 1908–2004)

This is the entrance of the Bara Imambara (also called the Asafi Imambara) complex in Lucknow, the mythical city of Nawabs.
It was shot from a window in the corridor which is on the level of the ceiling of the domed chamber leading to the Bhulbhulaiya, a three-dimensional labyrinth with passages interconnecting with each other through 489 identical doorways…

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That Overwhelming Existence

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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.

“Who if I cried out, would hear me among the angel’s hierarchies?
and even if one of them pressed me suddenly against his heart:
I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence.
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are still just able to endure.
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
Every angel is terrifying.”
(From “Duino Elegies” by Rainer Maria Rilke – Austro-German lyric poet, 1875-1926)

This was shot from the main room leading to the Tomb of the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great (1555–1605) which is in Sikandra, a suburb of Agra, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Whenever my brother Manish and I drive from Delhi to Benaras we often stop there or at the Taj Mahal for a break.
The fun is to try to take pictures of those places with a new angle.
That day the heat was almost unbearable, I went inside the mausoleum hoping to find some freshness, Manish sat at the door surounded by jali screens and I took this picture…

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From the Chaos of the World

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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.

“Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul.”
(William Somerset Maugham – English Writer, 1874-1965)

Anand is wrapped in a 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 many 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…
Anand, our icon 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

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

Come What May

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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 must continue to follow the path I take now.
If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost.
That is how I look at it — keep going, keep going come what may.
But what is your final goal, you may ask.
That goal will become clearer, will emerge slowly but surely, much as the rough draught turns into a sketch, and the sketch into a painting through the serious work done on it, through the elaboration of the original vague idea and through the consolidation of the first fleeting and passing thought.”
(From “Letter to Theo” (July 1880) by Vincent van Gogh)

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

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

One Eternal Sigh

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The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

“Kingly power is like a cruel bolt of thunder,
Let that fade away like the blood-red sky at dusk,
Let just one eternal sigh remain like sadness in the sky
Wasn’t that all you’d ever asked for?
The glittering jewels cast their spell like an eternal magical mystery.
But even if that does vanish,
Let just one tear drop roll down the cheeks of Time;
The pure light of Taj Mahal.”
(Rabindranath Tagore – Indian Poet, Playwright and Essayist. Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, 1861–1941)

Endless passion, everlasting love, eternal sigh…the Taj Mahal should remain forever the essence of perfection…
However there is a threat over this image of Heaven as it could collapse within four years because wooden foundations are rotting.
( Read more at www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045183/Taj-Mahal-collap… )
Nowadays it is almost impossible to take this picture anymore as the army doesn’t allow to go to this side of the Yamuna river.

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A New Sun

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“Today a new sun rises for me; everything lives, everything is animated, everything seems to speak to me of my passion, everything invites me to cherish it”.
(Ninon de Lenclos – French courtesan, 1620-1705)

This picture was shot on the upper terrace which is on the top of our office in Varanasi (Benaras).
Those fashion photographies are not as simple as they pretend to be, each is dwelling with a real social work.

Among the many people involved there, Anand who is modeling for our catalogue since the begining of the company is escaping for a while his tough condition of boatman on the ganges and, using his dark colour skin complexion breaks a social taboo in India.
The fabric of this item involves handloom weavers, fabric dyers and embroiderers of Varanasi struggling with their workshops or with their lives.
Other items of the collection supply shelter and independance to a few ladies who are manufacturing them.
It is a happy chain reaction gathering people from several cultures, religions and social backgrounds and showing that we all share the same values of brotherhood.

(Throw style “Surya” – 100% wool – Collection RED HALO)
“Surya” means “sun” in Hindi.
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

This season during the shows our teams will have the pleasure to present our new collections by appointment only.

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

Singing Colors

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“Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing?
Can one really explain this?
No.
Just as one can never learn how to paint.”
(Pablo Picasso – Spanish painter and sculptor, 1881-1973)

 

No one can explain why colors sing nor why Varanasi (Benaras) like the rest of the country is an amazing auditorium to listen to those blissful symphonies…
This picture was shot in a workshop nearby Sarnath where magicians display colors on sarees using the art of block printing.
This place which gives birth to unlimited shades is a treat for the senses…

 

 

 

 

Recovering a Stolen Childhood

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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.

“In school whatever you’re taught about being Mother Teresa isn’t true.
In real life you get castigated.”
(Ajeet Singh – Founder and director of Guria)

 

Last night Indian TV was showing a documentary (CNN-IBN & CNBC) concerning Ajeet Singh and Guria.
Please take the time to watch this video which is a part of it

and to read the interview at www.siasat.com/english/news/ajeet-fights-against-female-t…

Guria is a Human Rights organisation settle in Varanasi (Benaras) and fighting against the sexual exploitation of women and children, particularly those forced into prostitution and trafficking.
Manju and her husband Ajeet Singh are running this non-profit organisation at great personal risk, providing shelter and hope to many children.They are modern heroes and they give a meaning to all the things I do as I support their action through my work.
Talking about them gives a recognition and provides security to the children and to everyone involved there.
Share the word in order that they keep the protection necessary to continue their lawful human rights work in safety and free from intimidation and harassment.

 

This is a portrait of a little girl who stays at Guria.
Each time I go to this place I take several pictures of the children and recently I realized that on the last pictures they look younger than last year, as if they got their stolen childhood back…

More pictures of GURIA at https://designldg.wordpress.com/category/6-human-rights-activism/guria-children-of-hope/