For Marc Baptista, this body of work represents both a photographic journey and a personal return. Born in Bombay (now Mumbai), Marc spent much of his adult life living and working overseas. Yet some of his earliest and most enduring memories were formed travelling through India alongside his father, a documentary filmmaker whose curiosity and powers of observation instilled in him a lifelong appreciation for the richness, complexity and wonder of the country.
Of all the places he encountered, Varanasi left the deepest impression.
Returning almost fifty years later, Marc found a city that seemed simultaneously transformed and unchanged. Ancient yet immediate, chaotic yet contemplative, Varanasi revealed itself as a place where past and present exist side by side. Here, the sacred and the everyday, the eternal and the fleeting are woven into the fabric of daily life.
The photographs in this exhibition are not intended as documentary records, but as personal observations. They reflect Marc's own exploration of the city, shaped by curiosity, memory and a desire to understand. At every turn he encountered acts of devotion, ritual and spirituality. Yet he was equally drawn to quieter moments: a gesture, a glance, a pause in conversation, or the simple rhythms of everyday life.
Working primarily in black and white, Marc sought to move beyond the distractions of colour and focus attention on form, light, texture and emotion. He deliberately avoided familiar visual clichés and instead approached Varanasi with a spirit of observation. The resulting images seek to capture not only the city's physical beauty, but also its character and spirit, the pulse of life, the weight of history, and the resilience of the human spirit.
Each image became a reflection on devotion, mortality, renewal and the passage of time. Together they form a personal chronicle of return and rediscovery, where the city itself becomes a metaphor for memory, identity and belonging.
For Marc, Varanasi is more than a place. It is a city that connects memory, identity and discovery. These photographs are an invitation to pause, look closely and share in that journey.
