‘Varanasi is not an ordinary place – it’s an experience’: Svetlin Yosifov’s best phone picture

“Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges, is viewed as the spiritual capital of India,” photographer Svetlin Yosifov says. “It’s also known as the city of death. While many Hindus undertake pilgrimage to see its temples and ghats, and bathe in the sacred river, some come when they feel death is near. Hindu scripture says dying and being cremated there frees a person from the cycle of rebirth and grants them salvation.”

In 2022, Yosifov, from Bulgaria, had already visited India four times, including one trip to Varanasi. This time he traversed the city on foot for hours, looking for the perfect shot. “The streets are so crowded,” he says. “Any empty space is filled instantly.”

Finding a pause in the crowds, he took this shot. “Under a bright umbrella the vendor was selling tender pears and apples, beautiful pomegranates and persimmons, oranges, lemons and pineapples. The smoke comes not from a fellow market-seller, but from a large cremation site, just out of shot.”

About 100 bodies are cremated in the city each day; afterwards, the ash is swept into the river. “One photo is not enough to reveal the secrets of this city, but I do think it shows the atmosphere on the streets,” Yosifov says. “When I look at this now, I remember the heat, the smell of smoke, the constant dust in the air. Varanasi is not an ordinary place – it’s an experience.”