Uploaded October 2018 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
We’ve been talking about going to Varanasi, India, for over year now and last year we planned a trip, we all met in Dubai but Ryan at that time; a big job came up so we had to postpone it.
This year Ryan and Cale decided it was time to try again. We all met up in New York, in my place a couple of days earlier, so we just could sit down, discuss everything and make sure we had all our gear in order.
On a trip like this, there is always a certain matter of things that you can plan for and there is always unexpected. So, when we’re going through the schedule, when we’re going through what exactly we are going to do, we have an idea generally of what we are looking for. But it is also, it is important to leave open space and leave room for those unexpected things to happen because those actually end up making better stories, better photographs and better videos.
The purpose of this trip is to continue my photos of different religions around the world. We were time in a trip of a very important Hindu festival, where many Sadhus would be gathering in one place. A Sadhu is a type of Hindu wondering monk who’s renounced all possessions and dedicated their lives to spiritual liberation.
“Sadhus are the people who doesn’t like to live with the societies. Because I think, they want to do something for the society.
They sleep with dogs, they sleep with even rich man. They see everyone as the same.
A Sadhu’s life can fit in one bag. They don’t live in materialism. Only in ashrams or temples. I’m the protector of religion. I’m not running any cult. I’m a Sadhu for social improvement and my way of living is that of a spiritual gypsy. And they are always with the divine. They are very close to the divine. In a sense, they feel they are God. If you are God, you have to be God. God doesn’t kill anybody, he doesn’t harm anyone. So whoever comes in your way, you see, you give them light in their life. Light not in tube lights or bulbs. It’s something like giving them knowledge. Someone has fallen down, felt very unhappy or some distress in his mind. He needs some guidance. So we have to guide them, to bring them to light. That’s the work of a Sadhu.”
We are getting close to Varanasi now, after our 20-hour train ride. This train is about one hour behind schedule but we are going to be there soon. I think, it’s probably like 6:00 in the morning now. I’m very tired. I slept in the bed but after while this bed is not comfortable; you cannot sleep for so long.
We took the 19-hour train ride from New Delhi to Varanasi and we got off the train and dropped our stuff off and right away we go towards the Ganges River.
We just took the day to walk around, see the people, kind of make ourselves known in the area with the people we are going to photograph. It’s kind of important to do that, just to see how to show up a camera, microphone, big light and all that stuff. Because this kind intimidate people who aren’t too used to that stuff.
So we came across with these group of Aghoris, who were near their commission grounds and up in the ashram. We just kind of talked to them, got to know their names and tried to make fool of ourselves.
We’ve been talking about going to Varanasi, India, for over year now and last year we planned a trip, we all met in Dubai but Ryan at that time; a big job came up so we had to postpone it.
This year Ryan and Cale decided it was time to try again. We all met up in New York, in my place a couple of days earlier, so we just could sit down, discuss everything and make sure we had all our gear in order.
On a trip like this, there is always a certain matter of things that you can plan for and there is always unexpected. So, when we’re going through the schedule, when we’re going through what exactly we are going to do, we have an idea generally of what we are looking for. But it is also, it is important to leave open space and leave room for those unexpected things to happen because those actually end up making better stories, better photographs and better videos.
The purpose of this trip is to continue my photos of different religions around the world. We were time in a trip of a very important Hindu festival, where many Sadhus would be gathering in one place. A Sadhu is a type of Hindu wondering monk who’s renounced all possessions and dedicated their lives to spiritual liberation.
“Sadhus are the people who doesn’t like to live with the societies. Because I think, they want to do something for the society.
They sleep with dogs, they sleep with even rich man. They see everyone as the same.
A Sadhu’s life can fit in one bag. They don’t live in materialism. Only in ashrams or temples. I’m the protector of religion. I’m not running any cult. I’m a Sadhu for social improvement and my way of living is that of a spiritual gypsy. And they are always with the divine. They are very close to the divine. In a sense, they feel they are God. If you are God, you have to be God. God doesn’t kill anybody, he doesn’t harm anyone. So whoever comes in your way, you see, you give them light in their life. Light not in tube lights or bulbs. It’s something like giving them knowledge. Someone has fallen down, felt very unhappy or some distress in his mind. He needs some guidance. So we have to guide them, to bring them to light. That’s the work of a Sadhu.”
We are getting close to Varanasi now, after our 20-hour train ride. This train is about one hour behind schedule but we are going to be there soon. I think, it’s probably like 6:00 in the morning now. I’m very tired. I slept in the bed but after while this bed is not comfortable; you cannot sleep for so long.
We took the 19-hour train ride from New Delhi to Varanasi and we got off the train and dropped our stuff off and right away we go towards the Ganges River.
We just took the day to walk around, see the people, kind of make ourselves known in the area with the people we are going to photograph. It’s kind of important to do that, just to see how to show up a camera, microphone, big light and all that stuff. Because this kind intimidate people who aren’t too used to that stuff.
So we came across with these group of Aghoris, who were near their commission grounds and up in the ashram. We just kind of talked to them, got to know their names and tried to make fool of ourselves.
