On The Path To Moksha

 

“The longing for Paradise is man’s longing not to be man.”
(From “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera)

This picture was shot at Manikarnika Ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) where Hindus are cremated hoping to receive moksha, freedom from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth.
Moksha allows one to see the truth and reality behind the fog of ignorance and reach a state of knowledge, peace and bliss…

Join the photographer at
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.

Style Is Eternal

“Fashions fade, style is eternal.”
(Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer, 1936-2008)

The iconic Nicaise is wrapped in a woolen scarf with an Aari embroidery.
(Scarf style “Jaisalmer” – Col. Black/Scarlet – 200×70 – 100% Wool – Collection RED HALO)

French actress and model Nicaise Jean-Louis has kindly accepted to pose for Red Halo in order to support our social work.
During the 70’s Nicaise became one of the first top models with dark skin complexion to work for High Fashion companies, ever since she never stopped working for the most prestigious fashion names, she also performed on stage and played is several well known movies such as “Moonraker” (a Bond girl) or the French movie “Le gendarme et les gendarmettes” (Yo Macumba).
For the anecdote Nicaise was born in the French Caribbean island Guadeloupe and she has Indian ancestors as her grandmother was from Pondicherry.
You may join Nicaise’s page atwww.facebook.com/nicaise.lemoine

RED HALO is a collection of household linen based in Benaras (Varanasi – India) providing work to people 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

© 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.

An Evening Star

“May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be when darkness falls
Your heart will be true…”
(From “May It Be” by Ryan & Rachel O’Donnell)

Nicaise is wrapped in a woolen scarf with a red Aari embroidery.
(Scarf style “Jaisalmer” – Col. Chocolate/Crimson – 200×70 – 100% Wool – Collection RED HALO)

The iconic French actress and model Nicaise Jean-Louis has kindly accepted to pose for Red Halo in order to support our social work.
During the 70’s Nicaise became one of the first top models with dark skin complexion to work for High Fashion companies, ever since she never stopped working for the most prestigious fashion names, she also performed on stage and played is several iconic movies such as “Moonraker” (a Bond girl) or the well known French movie “Le gendarme et les gendarmettes” (Yo Macumba).
For the anecdote Nicaise was born in the French Caribbean island Guadeloupe and she has Indian ancestors as her grandmother was from Pondicherry.
You may join Nicaise’s page at www.facebook.com/nicaise.lemoine

RED HALO is a collection of household linen based in Benaras (Varanasi – India) providing work to people 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

© 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 Iconic Nicaise

“First there was the dream, now there is reality.
Here, in the untainted cradle of the heavens, will be created a new super race, a race of perfect physical specimens.
You have been selected as its progenitors; like Gods, your offspring will return to Earth and shape it in their image.
You have all served in public capacities in my terrestrial empire.
Your seed, like yourselves, will pay deference to the ultimate dynasty which I alone have created.
From their first day on Earth they will be able to look up and know that there is law and order in the heavens.”
(Hugo Drax / Michael Lonsdale in Moonraker ,1979)

This is a portrait of my friend Nicaise.
Nicaise Jean-Louis is a French actress and model, known for being a Bond girl in the movie “Moonraker” and for being Yo Macumba in the iconic French movie “Le gendarme et les gendarmettes”.
During the 70’s she became one of the first top models with dark skin complexion to work for High Fashion companies.
It was after Madame Carven met her in Guadeloupe, the French Caribbean island, and gave her a chance to come to Paris.
Since that time Nicaise never stopped working for the most prestigious fashion companies, she also played is several iconic movies and performed on stage.
Nicaise was the first model I worked with, it was at Carven during the 80’s, I was a young designer and beginner then.
Ever since I asked her to model for all collections I did in each companies I was, I even made her strut down the catwalk with her daughter for Burberry’s…
For the anecdote my Indian friends will be happy to know that Nicaise has Indian ancestors as her grandmother was from Pondicherry.

Last week-end the industry celebrated the 35th anniversary of “Moonraker” and Nicaise is going on a long world tour to meet her fans.
It was an opportunity to make this portrait and to ask her to pose for Red Halo.

You may join Nicaise’s page at www.facebook.com/nicaise.lemoine

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.

Head of Hair

“O fleecy hair, falling in curls to the shoulders!
O black locks! O perfume laden with nonchalance!
Ecstasy! To people the dark alcove tonight
With memories sleeping in that thick head of hair.
I would like to shake it in the air like a scarf!

Sweltering Africa and languorous Asia,
A whole far-away world, absent, almost defunct,
Dwells in your depths, aromatic forest!
While other spirits glide on the wings of music,
Mine, O my love! floats upon your perfume…”

These words are the beginning of “La Chevelure” a poem by French poet Charles Baudelaire from “Les Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil)” published in 1851.
This is a link to the original poem in French with several translations in English,
fleursdumal.org/poem/203

This picture was shot along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
After taking a bath in the holy waters, this lady was styling her long white hair under the sun.
She was old, beautiful, graceful and bearing the quintessence of femininity.
This is why Baudelaire’s words came to me quite naturally as he was the base of my educational journey when I was a teenager…

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.

Everlasting Beauty

“It`s not how old you are, it`s how you are old.”
(Jules Renard – French author, 1864–1910)

This lady came from South India in order to worship the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
After taking a bath in the holy waters, she was styling her long white hair under the sun.
The quintessence of femininity was visible through her graceful gestures…she was beautiful…

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.

The Good Life

“There is a special spirit among people who call themselves Banarsis, whether they are rickshaw-pullers, merchants in the market, or the old aristocracy.
It is an art of living, both passionate and carefree.
They call it masti (“joie de vivre”), mauj (“delight, festivity”), and phakkarpan (“carefreeness”).
It is the exhilaration and drunkenness of Holi, the extravagance and culture of Burhwa Mangal, and the glitter of Divali.
It is enjoyment of life without ostentation…”
(From “Banaras, City of Light” by Dianan L. Eck)

These ladies were bargaining religious accessories sold in front of the Swami Narayan Mandir (temple) in Varanasi (Benaras).

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.

Bette Davis Eyes

“…She’ll expose you, when she snows you
Off your feet with the crumbs she throws you
She’s ferocious and she knows just
What it takes to make a crow blush
All the boys think she’s a spy
She’s got Bette Davis eyes…”
(From “Bette Davis Eyes” by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon)

Those people bargaining religious accessories in front of the Swami Narayan Mandir (temple) in Varanasi (Benaras) caught my attention and especially the lady wearing the yellow sari who had a few expressions reminding me of Bette Davis…

This is a link to an amazing version of this song by Karen Souza, youtu.be/ydTzfPBw_tY

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.

Becoming A Sati

“Let these women, whose husbands are worthy and are living, enter the house with ghee (applied) as corrylium ( to their eyes).
Let these wives first step into the pyre, tearless without any affliction and well adorned.”
(Rig Veda X.18.7 )

This is a picture of a Sati stone sculpture shot near Raj ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
This statue shows a married couple and it is marking the site where a woman died on the funeral pyre of her husband.
Nowadays many of these stones are worshipped as images of Shiva and Parvati.
The practice is banned since 1829.

The term is derived from the original name of the goddess Sati, who self-immolated because she was unable to bear her father Daksha’s humiliation of her (living) husband Shiva.
It may also be used to refer to the widow.
A sati is now sometimes interpreted as “chaste woman”.
Sati appears in both Hindi and Sanskrit texts, where it is synonymous with “good wife”; the term suttee was commonly used by Anglo-Indian English writers.

(Being the son of a contemporary sati, I carry ambivalent thoughts for those ladies even though I have a deep respect for their courage)

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.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Her drama was a drama not of heaviness but of lightness.
What fell to her lot was not the burden but the unbearable lightness of being.”
(From “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera)

This is one of my favourite sentences by Milan Kundera which I kept in mind since his book was published.
Challenging Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence (the idea that the universe and its events have already occurred and will recur ad infinitum), the story’s thematic meditations posit the alternative; that each person has only one life to live, and that which occurs in life occurs only once and never again — thus the “lightness” of being.
In contrast, the concept of eternal recurrence imposes a “heaviness” on our lives and on the decisions we make (to borrow from Nietzsche’s metaphor, it gives them “weight”.)
Nietzsche believed this heaviness could be either a tremendous burden or great benefit depending on the individual’s perspective…

I met this lady at a gas pump on the road between Delhi and Varanasi.
Her expression, her saree and the way she wrapped it reminded of some Renaissance Italian paintings showing the Madonna.
Maybe the concept of eternal recurrence happens…maybe in another life this lady inspired a Master of the XVI°…”khabi khabie”…

Join the photographer at
https://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.