This is my first photo essay. It's about Manikarnika Ghat and about the lives of people of that ghat. It's also about those people who come there for the cremation of lifeless bodies. I've tried to cover it all.
My fascination for Banaras comes from Neeraj Ghaywan's Masaan. But I never thought of shooting it until I saw the work of Stephen Dupont. So in January, I went to Banaras with the idea of making a travel film. But it couldn't happen. I just ended up shooting photographs. It was there when I realized that I have clicked one of my best photographs till now. It was a kid returning to his work after collecting shrouds. I still remember when I talked to him he said he wants more people to die so he can sell more shrouds.
When I reached Manikarnika Ghats, I couldn't even take a single photograph in the first 2 days. I had never been to any cremation site before this and shooting this was a very different kind of experience. I was experiencing death from such a close vantage point for the first time.
I have seen death in my family but not like this- the chaos, the loss of a family member, the burning dead body, and in contrast the people who work there, whose bread and butter depends on others' death. It was a mix of emotions, I have tried to give those emotions to my photographs by having different visual themes. All these photographs are wholesome and lone at the same time.
My fascination for Banaras comes from Neeraj Ghaywan's Masaan. But I never thought of shooting it until I saw the work of Stephen Dupont. So in January, I went to Banaras with the idea of making a travel film. But it couldn't happen. I just ended up shooting photographs. It was there when I realized that I have clicked one of my best photographs till now. It was a kid returning to his work after collecting shrouds. I still remember when I talked to him he said he wants more people to die so he can sell more shrouds.
When I reached Manikarnika Ghats, I couldn't even take a single photograph in the first 2 days. I had never been to any cremation site before this and shooting this was a very different kind of experience. I was experiencing death from such a close vantage point for the first time.
I have seen death in my family but not like this- the chaos, the loss of a family member, the burning dead body, and in contrast the people who work there, whose bread and butter depends on others' death. It was a mix of emotions, I have tried to give those emotions to my photographs by having different visual themes. All these photographs are wholesome and lone at the same time.
