Benares – the oldest living city in the world. “Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.” – Mark Twain Benares is an assault on the senses, both visually and metaphorically, a city where people come to die and achieve nirvana is more alive, vibrant and intoxicating than any other. Most famously photographically captured by Raghu Rai and Steve McCurry as well as Eli Vitale Benares lives as a series of romantic images, both real as well as surreal, with life and death, spiritual and the mundane. Very much linked with the Ganges that flows carrying life and death along with it, with the multilayered complexities co existing within the same frame as is typical in any Indian street scene. Raghu Rai has valid advice for aspiring photographers, “Close your mind and open your heart when you look for a shot.” The place to emerge purified and cleansed, and awaken into new beginnings.
Benares
