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Himalayan Winter by Nandakumar Narasimhan

Himalayan Winter by Nandakumar Narasimhan

Design Ideas
March 17, 2016
2 Comments

Nandakumar Narasimhan's "Himalayan Winter: Frigid Frames from a Frozen Land" first visited the Himalayas in India during the summer of 2008. It was a very pleasant climate and he enjoyed the short trip (3-4 days) very much, however, it kindled a little curiosity as to what this place might be like in winter. Most guide books only say “Don’t visit the Himalayas in winter!” so that only fueled his curiosity further.

Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

The following year I went to the remote Spiti Valley in the middle of winter. I had a tough time managing the cold since the coldest I had been till then was around +5 degrees Celsius and I was now in -20 thereabouts which was a rather drastic jump. But the landscapes and the lack of tourists more than made up for the bitter winter and I loved every moment of it. I have not stopped since then. So this project finally came about when I traveled the Spiti Valley and Ladakh in the winters of 2014 and 2015. I shot around 30-40 rolls of film focusing entirely on the landscape and people I met and stayed with. It came together in a small exhibition here in Singapore after which I put it up on Behance.
-Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

Inspiration behind the project - the cold and the lack of tourists, to put it succinctly. I was fed up of going to places where photographers outnumbered the locals. This combined with a strange affinity for the cold resulted in me getting inspired after the first winter visit to the mountains.
-Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

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I am a rather slow photographer. I often spend hours with the people I meet before I point the camera at them, And the fact that I shoot on film often means I have to really think and visualise what my final image before pressing the shutter on the camera. I am also a bit of a light fanatic and I only shoot outdoors when the sun is close to the horizon. When the sun is too harsh I shift my subjects indoors or in the shade to take their pictures.
-Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

Sabastiao Salgado, Irving Penn, Marc Riboud and Steve McCurry inspire me. Though they each have their own unique styles I am amazed at how they have shot the world around them.
-Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

Don’t look for the best equipment, look for the best light. Because there is no such thing as the best camera. As I like to do travel photography, I think communication is possibly just as important as camera craft and composition. Quite a few portraits I did on this trip involved speaking with people who didn’t speak the languages I knew (English, Hindi, and Tamil) and I relied on a guide to help me translate their thoughts. This brought me closer to them and also to their families thus making my photography easier and portraits a bit more intimate in my opinion. Although I could have done a lot better, I was amazed at what a translator/guide could achieve photography wise.
-Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

So exploring a foreign land and documenting it with your camera involves having someone who can connect you with the heartbeat of the place ie. its people or knowing the language with which to enter these people’s lives. I also learnt a bit of Russian when I visited the nomads in Northern Russia. I am planning to learn even more so I can make my next trip more fruitful.
-Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan

For this project, I shot almost all the pictures on three mechanical film cameras because I was a bit paranoid about batteries dying out on me. Especially because I was staying in tents for almost a week there was no electricity to charge anything. So the cameras I used the most were the Mamiya RB67, Rolleicord Vb and a Yashica 22. All were medium format film cameras that were older than me. My RB was used mainly for the portraits and landscapes that I could have time to setup and shoot. While on the move I shot with the Rolleicord and a Yashica 22. The last photo was shot on an electronic film camera called the Nikon F100. Since I was back in a city I tried shooting with a battery operated camera on the last day. All in all I shot around 40 rolls of films for this trip I think.
-Nandakumar Narasimhan

About Nandakumar Narasimhan

Nandakumar Narasimhan is a 33 year old photographer working in Singapore. He runs a small photography school called Phocus where he teach hobbyists some basic and intermediate level photography. He has been doing photography for around 12 years and have traveled a fair bit as a result of this art form. See more of his works on Behance or his website.

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