A Statue Inside

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”
(Michelangelo – Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance, 1475- 1564)

Woolen throw with an aari embroidery.
(Throw style “Saawan” – Col. Ice – 150×200 – 100% Wool – 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.

Visit and join the RED HALO page on Facebook, www.facebook.com/redhalo.in

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

© 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.

Advertisement

A Revealed Paradise

“It is this admirable, this immortal, instinctive sense of beauty that leads us to look upon the spectacle of this world as a glimpse, a correspondence with heaven.
Our unquenchable thirst for all that lies beyond, and that life reveals, is the liveliest proof of our immortality.
It is both by poetry and through poetry, by music and through music, that the soul dimly descries the splendours beyond the tomb; and when an exquisite poem brings tears to our eyes, those tears are not a proof of overabundant joy: they bear witness rather to an impatient melancholy, a clamant demand by our nerves, our nature, exiled in imperfection, which would fain enter into immediate possession, while still on this earth, of a revealed paradise.”
(Charles Baudelaire – French poet, 1821-1867)

This amazing mansion gathering classical Indian and European styles stands at Rani ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
This ghat is far from the center, in a very quiet place away from the noise and the turmoil of the city.
On this side of the river many other buildings recall the splendour of the past which once made the renown of the City of Lights…

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

© 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.

From the Chaos of the World

© 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.

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

Join the photographer atwww.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

Space, Light and Order

© 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.

“Space and light and order.
Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.”
(Le Corbusier – French Architect and city planner (born in Switzerland), 1887-1965)

This is a part othe main wall of the Secretariat building in Chandigarh, the capital of the Indian state of Punjab.
It is a long horizontal concrete slab form of 254 meters long and 42 meters high which was designed by the French (born Swiss) architect and urban planner, Le Corbusier, in the 1950s.
The building is composed of six eight storeyed blocks separated by expansion joints and bears close resemblance to the Marseilles apartment block.
The façade of the building gives a sculptural appearance with exposed concrete ramps, perforated with small square windows dominating the front and rear views.
The building façade is provided with projects for sun control.

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

The Style of an Epoch

© 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.

“Our own epoch is determining, day by day, its own style.
Our eyes, unhappily, are unable yet to discern it.”
(Le Corbusier – French Architect and city planner (born in Switzerland), 1887-1965)

This was shot in Chandigarh, the capital of the Indian state of Punjab.
Commissioned by Nehru to reflect the new nation’s modern, progressive outlook, the city was designed by the French (born Swiss) architect and urban planner, Le Corbusier, in the 1950s.
It was the first planned city in India and is known internationally for its architecture and urban design.
Those geometrical structures made of brick and boulder stone masonry exposed in its rough form produce unfinished concrete surfaces which are the real style of an epoch.

This man was bringing the human touch to the wall and it was fun to play with him and those shapes.

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

The Open Hand

© 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.

“Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.”
(Le Corbusier – French Architect and city planner (born in Switzerland), 1887-1965)

This is the largest of the many Open Hand sculptures that Le Corbusier created, it is a 28 meter high version and it stands in Chandigarh, the capital of the Indian state of Punjab.
A few years after the Indenpendance, Nehru commissioned the French architect and urban planner to design the city in order to reflect the new nation’s modern, progressive outlook.
The birth of this modern, youngest and vibrant city was an act of anguish and drama that took place at the time of partition of India and Pakistan.
Lahore, the historical capital of Punjab was ceded to Pakistan and Chandigarh was conceived to be a symbol of India’s freedom.
The Open Hand (La Main Ouverte) is a recurring motif in Le Corbusier’s architecture, a sign for him of “peace and reconciliation.
It is open to give and open to receive.

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

A Human Adventure

© 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 tricky part of the human journey is to transform ourselves continually as our life directions change.”
(Donna L. Friess – American teacher & author)

“LIKE” our new Facebook page for RED HALO and join this amazing human adventure in Varanasi.
You just have to follow this link, www.facebook.com/redhalo.in
Then you will see the collections but also what happens behind the scenes and meet some members of our team…

RED HALO is a collection of household linen based in Benaras (Varanasi – India) providing work to people living with difficulties and education to children.

On this picture Jai Prakar is doing a Aari embroidery on a linen throw with our “Lodhi” design, following the design transfered with the lime plaster application.
His hands are moving according his inspiration and brings a particular touch to each piece, making it unique…

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

The Most Magnificent Cloth

© 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.

‎”…They declared that they could make the most magnificent cloth that one could imagine; cloth of most beautiful colours and elaborate patterns.
Not only was the material so beautiful, but the clothes made from it had the special power of being invisible to everyone who was stupid or not fit for his post.
“What a splendid idea,” thought the Emperor.
“What useful clothes to have.
If I had such a suit of clothes I could know at once which of my people is stupid or unfit for his post.”
So the Emperor gave the swindlers large sums of money and the two weavers set up their looms in the palace…”
(From “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Anderson)

This was shot in a little workshop located near the chowk in Varanasi (Benaras) where traditional embroideries have been handed down from father to son since the time of the Mughals when that kind of work flourished.
Nowadays men wear that kind of sherwani mostly for weddings and engagement ceremonies.
Entering in such a workshop is like releasing a voluptuous fragrance from the past from an old bottle of perfume, it is like opening a door to a dream of magnificence, the splendor of the Great Mughals….
______________________________​__________________

“…Un jour, arrivèrent deux escrocs qui affirmèrent être tisserands et être capables de pouvoir tisser la plus belle étoffe que l’on pût imaginer.
Non seulement les couleurs et le motif seraint exceptionnellement beaux, mais les vêtements qui en seraient confectionnés posséderaient l’étonnante propriété d’être invisibles aux yeux de ceux qui ne convenaient pas à leurs fonctions ou qui étaient simplement idiots.
“Ce serait des vêtements précieux”, se dit l’empereur. “Si j’en avais de pareils, je pourrais découvrir qui, de mes sujets, ne sied pas à ses fonctions et départager les intelligents des imbéciles !
Je dois sur le champ me faire tisser cette étoffe!”
Il donna aux deux escrocs une avance sur leur travail et ceux-ci se mirent à l’ouvrage…”
(“Les Habits neufs de l’Empereur” de Hans Christian Andersen)

Cette photo a été prise dans un petit atelier se situant dans le chowk de Varanasi (Benares) où les broderies traditionnelles se sont transmises de père en fils depuis l’époque des Moghols lorsque cet artisanat prospérait.
De nos jours les hommes portent ces sherwani essentiellement pour les cérémonies de mariage et de fiançailles.
Entrer dans un atelier comme celui-ci revient à libérer une fragrance voluptueuse venant du passé d’une vieille bouteille de parfum, c’est comme ouvrir la porte à un rêve d’opulence, la splendeur des grands Monghols….

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

The Emperor’s New Clothes

© 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.

“MANY, many years ago lived an emperor, who thought so much of new clothes that he spent all his money in order to obtain them; his only ambition was to be always well dressed.
He did not care for his soldiers, and the theatre did not amuse him; the only thing, in fact, he thought anything of was to drive out and show a new suit of clothes.
He had a coat for every hour of the day; and as one would say of a king “He is in his cabinet,” so one could say of him, “The emperor is in his dressing-room…”
(From “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Anderson)

Those rich fabrics with heavy embroideries are men’s traditional garments in North India used for ceremonies and parties.
This picture was shot at my tailor in Varanasi (Benaras).

________________________________________​________

“Les Habits Neufs de l’Empereur”

“Il y a de longues années vivait un empereur qui aimait par-dessus tout les beaux habits neufs ; il dépensait tout son argent pour être bien habillé.
Il ne s’intéressait nullement à ses soldats, ni à la comédie, ni à ses promenades en voiture dans les bois, si ce n’était pour faire parade de ses habits neufs.
Il en avait un pour chaque heure du jour et, comme on dit d’un roi : “Il est au conseil”, on disait de lui : “L’empereur est dans sa garde-robe…”
(“Les Habits neufs de l’Empereur” de Hans Christian Andersen)

Ces tissus opulents richement brodés sont des vêtements masculins portés lors de soirées et cérémonies dans le nord de l’Inde.
Cette photo a été prise à Varanasi (Benares) chez mon tailleur.

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

A New Extraordinary Suit

© 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.

“…Besides being invisible, your Highness, this cloth will be woven in colors and patterns created especially for you.”
The emperor gave the two men a bag of gold coins in exchange for their promise to begin working on the fabric immediately.
“Just tell us what you need to get started and we’ll give it to you.”
The two scoundrels asked for a loom, silk, gold thread and then pretended to begin working.
The Emperor thought he had spent his money quite well: in addition to getting a new extraordinary suit, he would discover which of his subjects were ignorant and incompetent…”
(From “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Anderson)

This is a picture of the Badshah of Benaras (in other words my brother Manish) trying a new sherwani at our tailor in Varanasi…;))
This fascinating place allows to dream with eyes wide opened.
The fabric is a traditional brocade with a Jamawar pattern made of silk and wool from one of our workshops in the city.
__________________________​______________________

“…Non seulement les couleurs et le motif seraint exceptionnellement beaux, mais les vêtements qui en seraient confectionnés posséderaient l’étonnante propriété d’être invisibles aux yeux de ceux qui ne convenaient pas à leurs fonctions ou qui étaient simplement idiots.
“Ce serait des vêtements précieux”, se dit l’empereur. “Si j’en avais de pareils, je pourrais découvrir qui, de mes sujets, ne sied pas à ses fonctions et départager les intelligents des imbéciles !
Je dois sur le champ me faire tisser cette étoffe!…”
(“Les Habits neufs de l’Empereur” de Hans Christian Andersen)

Voici une photo du Prince de Benares (c’est ainsi que l’on appelle mon frère Manish avec une pointe d’ironie) essayant une nouvelle sherwani dans les salons de notre tailleur à Varanasi.
cet endroit fascinant permet de rêver les yeux grands ouverts.
Le tissus est un brocard traditionnel avec un motif Jamawar en laine et soie provenant de l’un de nos ateliers de la ville.

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