Varanasi, holy city for photographers (Part 3)

‘  I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.
  I am the original fragrance of the earth, and I am the heat in fire. I am the life of all that lives, and I am the penances of all ascetics.’
Bagabat Gita, 7 8-9

Life and death meet in the waters of the Ganges in Varanasi. There are around 100 ghats (series of steps leading down to the water) and from dawn to night they are bustling with activity. The holy river is the center of everything: morning prayers to the rising sun, purification baths, floating donations and immersed ashes. Beautiful, mystical, frightening, polluted, the Ganges is the perfect representation of our fascination for India and Varanasi. The following 2 series of photographs illustrations of its contractions. 

James Hervey   

The images of James Hervey (an English photographer and traveler who lives in Paris) perfectly reflect the quiet and impenetrable beauty of the river. For him his images are an invitation to the country rather than a way to describe it. However I feel that they describe the atmosphere, the fervor, the relationship between the pilgrims and water with precision. They are moody, soft and peaceful but also intense, enigmatic and spiritual. James Hervey takes part in the local traditions with empathy and respect and offers a wonderful immersion in Varanasi while creating true poetry.

More on James Hervey:

His website: www.hervey.co.uk

His flickr gallery: www.flickr.com/photos/jameshervey/

A video in Le Monde (French only): medias.lemonde.fr/

Giulio Di Sturco

Giulio Di Sturco is a 30 year old Italian photographer working for the VII photo agency. As a photojournalist his approach to India and of course Varanasi is very different than an artistic vision of the place. As mentioned in the introduction to his series “the great mother’, ‘the recent report of a U.S. agency forecasts, by 2030, the death of Indian sacred river because of global warming, water pollution and construction of dams along the river. Ganges death not only will ravage the economy of that area but, moreover, it will affect deeply the local people’s spiritual life, with its ancient rituals and traditions.’ His striking images take us back to a sad reality. While we can still feel the spirituality of the place, we start to notice details of pollution and to understand the tragedy taking place behind the religious fervor. Here we discover the other face of Varanasi devastated by the negligence and tradition of its country and its people. Accumulation of garbage and landscapes of desolation leave us with a taste of bitterness and a real fear for this place that we believed timeless and eternal.

  More on Giulio Di Sturco:www.giuliodisturco.it

Varanasi, holy city for photographers (Part 2)

Unique, impossible to imitate, Varanasi is timeless. Out of the world, the city seems to have stopped at another age. Many photographers have managed to capture its universality.

Michael Ackerman

One of the best photographic interpretations of Varanasi has to be ‘End time city’ the book by Michael Ackerman (American photographer member of the Vu agency). In this fantastic book Michael Ackerman gives a deeply personal vision of Varanasi. His extreme black and white images depict a ghost city at the limit of reality. Very contrasted, blurred, intriguing, uncomfortable and oppressing, his photographs are the perfect representation of emotions one can feel when walking through the narrow streets and the dirty overwhelming ghats. His unique style also questions the principles of photography and its capacity to show or to transcend reality. Far from conventional images Ackermann plays with lights, movement shapes and formats to offer an emotionally strong testimony. He knows how to challenge our blasé vision of the world and play with our feelings and imagination.

 More on Michael Ackerman: www.agencevu.com

François Fontaine

“The moon and the sun are your eyes,
I see you as such, the face shining with fire,
Your brightness illuminates the world”
(Bhagavas Gîtâ, verse 11.19)

The holy hour is a series of photographs taken in 2010 by the French photographer Francois Fontaine (represented by Vu agency). Again no one could say if these images were taken yesterday or 50 years ago. Their universality and timelessness shake our representation of Hinduism as we follow the pilgrims through their quest for God or for eternity. While with Michael Ackerman we felt lost in a dark threatening place, here we immerse in a soft poetic dream. Taken between dawn and twilight, Francois Fontaine’s photographs focus on gestures and attitudes, depicting fervent believers as shadows inhabiting the place. Nothing is clear, every one is depersonalized, everything is suggested, leaving it to our own imagination to recreate the story. With touches of color and lights each photograph seems like an impressionist or abstract painting where the souls of the person or ‘the divine breath’ illuminate the mystical night.

 More on Francois Fontaine: www.agencevu.com

Varanasi, holy city for photographers (Part 1)

Varanasi, also called Benares, Banaras or Kashi, is the holiest city in the world for Hindus and Jains. It’s also the place where Buddhism was founded. Every year countless pilgrims visit the city by the Ganges to remit their sins or to die and release their souls for eternity.

City of Shiva, City of lights, City of temples. Varanasi with its labyrinth streets, its ghats on the river shores, its poetic fog, and its mystical spirit is also the destination of pilgrimage for many photographers visiting India. And of course every person who has crossed this place once in their life can understand. There is something magic about Varanasi. Not just something that you see but something that you feel. And that’s where the real challenge for photographers is.

In a way it’s easy to take good pictures there, there is so much going on, the place is so extraordinary that everyone can capture incredible moments and unbelievable scenes. But how do you describe its strange beauty and celestial energy? How do you give a new vision of a place that has been photographed so many times that it became its own stereotype? How do you show its soul?

Many photographers have tried; here are a few who succeeded in creating their own story about the city of thousands histories and faces.

The Magnum Photographers and Benares

Marc Riboud, 1956. After bathing in the Ganges.

Over the years many Magnum photographers have given their own interpretation of Benares. From Italian photographer Ferdinando Scienna with his contrasted black and white or subtle color images to Steve McCurry with his vibrant vision of the world, they have contributed in building the universal image of the city. This couldn't be done in one visit only. They had to come back several times to start understanding the essence of this Indian world. Steve McCurry has been to India 75 times and he admits to have only scratched the surface. Benares feels like the place where all "Indianity" comes together. It feels like a theater where every subject - pilgrims, children, dogs, cows, gods and death - are on stage. Year after year Magnum photographers have managed to make their way back stage to tell the true story of the holy city. 

Bruce Gilden. Varanasi. 1998. Dog on Banaras street curb.

Steve McCurry. Varanasi. 1996. Floating offerings.

Steve McCurry. 1996. Astrologer.

Steve McCurry. 1996. Boatman on the Ganges River.

Steve McCurry. Varanasi. 2010.

Ferdinando Scianna 1972. beggars

Ferdinando Scienna 1972

Ferdinando Scienna 1972. Dog on the ghat.

Ferdinando Scienna 1997

Ferdinando Scienna 1997

Ferdinando Scienna 1997. Cremation on the ghat

 

In 1985, 86 and 87, photographer Carl De Keyser has also traveled India to give his own interpretation of this incredible country. He chose to travel during the Monsoon with the objective of producing ‘artistically responsible images’. The images he brought back from these trips revealed him before he joined Magnum agency. Of course he spent some time in Varanasi, and his pictures give a new perspective of the place where movement and lights create an intangible environment between dream and reality. He reveals images of a complex society, of a profound belief between optimism, resignation and mysticism. Carl De Keyser ‘wants to question the images that are in our memory. There is always a double level in [his] work; what [we] see is true and at the same time not true.’

Carl de Keyser - 1986

Carl de Keyser - 1985

Carl de Keyser - 1985

Carl de Keyser - 1985

Carl de Keyser - 1986

 Check Magnum website for further details on these photographers: magnumphotos.com