Varanasi is the India of your imagination. One of the most colourful,  fascinating and downright “out of this world” places on earth with photographing opportunities around every corner. This is one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities, and one of the holiest in Hinduism.

Pilgrims come to the ghats lining the Ganges (the steps from the city towards the river) to wash away their sins in the sacred waters or to cremate their loved ones. It’s a particularly auspicious place to die, since expiring here offers moksha (liberation from the cycle of rebirth).

Most photographers agree Varanasi (also known as Benares) is magical – but not for the faint-hearted. Intimate rituals of life and death take place in public, and the sights, sounds and smells on the ghats, can be intense. Still, the so-called City of Light may turn out to be your favourite spot in India. Walking the ghats and small and crowded alleyways, having a lassi in the “Blue Lassi” shop, watching sunrise over the Ganges or the daily Puja ceremony at the Dasaswamedh Ghat from a boat will be all unforgettable experiences.

This photography adventure is suitable for the amateur photographer, but also for the experienced one. We will photograph the sunrise over the river, hire boats to photograph the city and the ghats, walk the markets and the busy main streets, observe the cremations happening at the Manikarnika Ghat and the daily live of the locals.

More information and dates are coming soon. Please enjoy a small selection of photos from my last travel there.