INDIA on FILM – Varanasi III, the boat set
Hello after a very long time! A few more photographs from the ghats at Varanasi, India, as captured by a mechanical, manual-focus 35mm film camera with a standard 50mm fixed-focal length lens.

It’s the crack of dawn on the banks of the Ganges, but the boats are already bobbing into action along the ghats at Varanasi. As they have for thousands of years.

This one boat is taking a little time off near the massive iron railway bridge. Not really sleeping, just sort of rusting a little…

This one, on the other hand, will never snap out of the coma. After many many years of hard work, it is gradually melting back into the nothingness of time.

And this is what the wooden boats look like at their inception. Built up one piece at a time from and with nearly nothing, within weeks the completed boat will be ready to sail. (Note the bad chemical stains from the cheap lab that developed the film…)

Boat building not only provides work for several skilled craftsmen, but also gives casual onlookers a comfortable bench and young fathers an interesting playground for the kids to clamber around.

All in all, the boats at Varanasi are born and then die and decay only to be born again. Mostly, though, they work. As do the people, some of whom sleep in them. And when it’s morning, the day starts as anywhere else: with a shave, a shower and a good tooth brushing. After all, one of the better things about boats is that they all come with running water…
Photos taken early 2014 on color-negative film then scanned and converted to monochrome via software. Some of the pictures – one of which is included in this set – are ruined by bad chemical markings left from the photo lab and impossible to remove except, perhaps, by washing and drying the negatives again. Which seems a bit too much of a hassle for pictures that are not exceptional. Not exceptional, but – i hope – decent enough to display.
Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoyed.
Alessandro Ciapanna
14 Responses to “INDIA on FILM – Varanasi III, the boat set”
I love these photographs and your descriptions. Excellent blog!
Thank you, Peter. I also enjoy your photography very much…
Love these! Thank you!
Lovely of you to say so, Marianne – thank you dearly!
Very good photos. The film gives them a different quality, as something remembered. But I have never been in India, lucky you you have.
Thanks Bente. I think film can be beneficial in that it limits the amount you shoot. In India, there really is no shortage of stimuli and you can easily get carried away into shooting thousands of frames…
Oh I think the top image is exceptional. The perspective is perfect with lovely contrasting tones and excellent composition. Welcome back, my friend.
Thanks, Andrew. Wish i had more time to hang around on wordpress… All the very best!
Such a beautiful set of photos Alessandro, a dreamy timelessness to them. First and final are perfect book-ends to the set!
Thanks, Patti. Film does seem to capture things in a somewhat timeless way…
A beautiful stillness in this set. Not only are your photographs impeccable they are also presented with great thought.
Thank you, Karen. Varanasi is very much like that: extremely chaotic in some spots, the epitome of peacefulness in others. The latter spots are the ones i prefer to photograph 🙂
As a photo lover but also a boat lover I very pleased to see this post, bravo. Grazie
robert
Grazie a te, Robert. It is a great pleasure to know someone is enjoying this photography. It is what i do it for, really – to be able to share the best that life so generously offered me…