Brian Silver · Selected Work

India

A concise portfolio drawn from documentary work made in Varanasi in 2014 and 2019. These 24 photographs offer a few encounters from the wider archive.

Faces, gestures, places and colour each offer a way into the photographs. There is room to linger.

Selected work

People & Encounters

Portraits and brief encounters, each with a person and a world of their own.

An elderly woman in a patterned sari stands before vivid red doors in Varanasi, 2019 — **Portrait in the Lanes**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-073

A smiling woman wrapped in a blue patterned shawl sits beside a yellow wall in Varanasi, 2019 — **Seated Portrait**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-190

An ash-covered sadhu with matted hair and a long white beard carries a trident staff through the crowded ghats, with the Ganges behind him, Varanasi, 2019. — **Sadhu with Trident**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-399

Three sadhus in orange robes sit together on broad stone steps in Varanasi, 2019 — **Three Sadhus**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-899

A young girl in bright pink ceremonial dress and a jeweled headpiece raises one hand while holding a metal tray in Varanasi, 2019 — **Ceremonial Portrait**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-910

A seated holy man at the water’s edge in Varanasi, photographed in 2014 — **At the Water’s Edge**Varanasi · 2014V-2014-616

A meditating man seated on a platform on the ghats of Varanasi, photographed in 2014 — **Stillness on the Ghats**Varanasi · 2014V-2014-474

A woman in an orange sari stands in prayer on the stone ghats of Varanasi, photographed in 2014 — **Prayer on the Ghats**Varanasi · 2014V-2014-641

Selected work

Everyday Life & Work

A load carried, a haircut, a pause beside the river. Work and care fill part of a day; the person in each photograph has a life beyond the task.

A man transports heavy metal containers by cargo bicycle in Varanasi, photographed in 2014 — **Work on the Move**Varanasi · 2014V-2014-112

A man tends a seated woman’s hair on painted steps of the ghats in Varanasi, photographed in 2014 — **Care on the Steps**Varanasi · 2014V-2014-512

A close shaving scene on the ghats of Varanasi, photographed in 2014 — **A Shave on the Ghats**Varanasi · 2014V-2014-667

A very narrow weathered lane recedes toward a small figure beneath tangled overhead wires in Varanasi, 2019 — **Narrow Passage**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-106

A multi-storey residential courtyard rises around lines of drying laundry, with pink, green and weathered walls in Varanasi, 2019 — **Inhabited Courtyard**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-373

A young boatman rows directly toward the camera through the morning haze on the Ganges in Varanasi, 2019 — **Boatman**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-566

Turquoise wooden boats and their reflections form a layered pattern on the Ganges in Varanasi, 2019 — **Boats and Reflections**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-598

Four children bathe at the edge of the Ganges while an adult sits wrapped in white nearby, Varanasi, 2019 — **Children Bathing**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-874

Selected work

River, Faith & Place

Along the Ganges, prayer, work and passing encounters share the steps, streets and water.

A man kneels in a wooden rowboat on luminous morning water on the Ganges at Varanasi, photographed in 2014 — **Morning on the Ganges**Varanasi · 2014V-2014-654

A boatman rows a passenger boat on the Ganges with riverfront temples and moored boats behind him, Varanasi, 2019 — **Boatman and Riverfront**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-440

A crowded boat crosses the Ganges as birds fly close to the water in Varanasi, 2019 — **Boat and Birds**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-087

The broad sandstone façade of a riverfront mosque rises above a solitary figure in its courtyard in Varanasi, 2019 — **Riverfront Architecture**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-207

A badminton player reaches overhead in front of a painted Ganesha mural in Varanasi, photographed in 2014 — **Sacred and Everyday**Varanasi · 2014V-2014-620

A man prays at a shrine through a weathered blue doorway in Varanasi, photographed in 2014 — **Prayer Through a Doorway**Varanasi · 2014V-2014-122

A priest raises a multi-tiered flaming lamp during evening aarti in Varanasi, photographed in 2014 — **Evening Aarti**Varanasi · 2014V-2014-1141

A woman applies orange pigment to another woman’s forehead as the recipient looks toward the camera in Varanasi, 2019 — **Riverfront Ritual**Varanasi · 2019V-2019-1079

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Brian Silver · Selected Work

India

A concise portfolio drawn from documentary work made in Varanasi in 2014 and 2019. These 24 photographs offer a few encounters from the wider archive.

Faces, gestures, places and colour each offer a way into the photographs. There is room to linger.

Selected work

People & Encounters

Portraits and brief encounters, each with a person and a world of their own.

Selected work

Everyday Life & Work

A load carried, a haircut, a pause beside the river. Work and care fill part of a day; the person in each photograph has a life beyond the task.

Selected work

River, Faith & Place

Along the Ganges, prayer, work and passing encounters share the steps, streets and water.

Continue

More lives, places and encounters.

Everyday Lives contains broader stories, themed collections, contextual research and an expanding documentary record.

About Brian Silver →Journey Through Varanasi →Everyday Lives Journal →

People & Encounters

Everyday Life & Work

River, Faith & Place

More lives, places and encounters.

Receive a new Everyday Lives encounter or photo essay twice a month.

People & Encounters

Everyday Life & Work

River, Faith & Place

More lives, places and encounters.