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In 1998, I traveled from my home in Athens, Georgia to South Asia. I was heading on an adventure to find myself through travel and meditation-- hoping to refine my photographic skills along the way.  For three months I traveled with friends from home, as well as new friends I'd made traveling, but by the time I reached Northern India and the holy city of Benares-- also known as Varanasi-- I was on my own.

My first five days in Benares were humbling. Aside from the obvious barriers, linguistic and cultural, I never felt more alone and isolated in my life. In this ancient city on the River Ganges, I saw all the collisions of society-- rich and poor, modern and ancient, fast and slow, peaceful and violent. I was lost on the streets of Varanasi with my camera as my only companion.

The girl pictured in this photograph was the first stranger to approach me when I arrived in Benares. Over the next few weeks, she became my friend, as did her family, and many of the people who lived and worked near this corner.  The Barber Shop to the right was the meeting place for the neighborhood. It was located around the corner from the famous burning ghats. Benares is the last city on the planet where bodies are still ritually burned on a floating funeral pyre after a person dies. It is believed that when a person passes on, from the city of Benares, his or her soul will be released directly to Nirvana. This image of the young girl Rahael was the first print I made in my darkroom when I returned home to Athens. I donated the print to the Human Rights Foundation's charity art auction that fall.

A stranger bought the photograph of Rahael at the charity auction. This stranger would become my wife within a year of hanging the framed print in her home. It was only later that I remembered what the young girl in the photograph had told me when we first met on that street corner in Benares: "My Name is Rahael. I will be your guide."  In the moment, I thought Rahael meant that she would lead me through the city-- a tour guide of sorts-- into the maze of hallway-like alleys and narrow pathways to the banks of the mighty Ganges River.  What I later discovered is that Rahael, through my photograph, led me to the place where I am today-- an artist, a photographer, a husband and a father of my own two girls, at home in Athens, Georgia with amazing memories of this sacred place, Benares, India.

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