Cultures

The term culture itself is so loaded, but I see it as the lived experience of the everyday. Culture is the art we produce and consume, the food we cook and eat, the places we visit, the relationships we sustain. The Culture Projects pick up on day-to-day life, just in places that may be unfamiliar. By relocating the everyday, I invite viewers to re-examine their own experiences. What is exotic and fantastical to one person is to another, simply ordinary.

LADAKH 2021

Ladakh offers an other-worldly experience to all gyagarpas, those not born belonging to this land of the moon, among the highest habitations in the world. Oxygen may be thinner, and your body working harder, but the love flows freely, care, friendship and trust abound. Today, we think of Ladakh as remote, a border area of India, difficult to reach and on the margins, literally - but for centuries, it was mainland India’s connection to the Silk Road, linking the subcontinent with Central Asia, China and beyond. Leh was a cosmopolitan city of trade, a melting pot of cultures, long before the redrawing of political borders relegated it to remoteness. That legacy endures, and it is a welcoming place for travellers, reflecting the same Buddhist sensibilities that animate Japan, the Himalayan culture visibilized in Bhutan, and indeed, the timelessness of harsh desert landscapes shared by Jordan. From the lowest point in the world, the Dead Sea, to the highest motorable pass, Khardung-la, the human spirit endures.

Jordan 2018-2022

A single visit of a few weeks is never enough to understand a place, specially if you stick to the tourist circuit. The visit to Jordan came at a difficult time in my life, and immersing myself in trying to capture its spirit helped me get through it. As the first new photographs after a hiatus of years, this set is special to me.

JAPAN 2012-2022

This beautiful island country was my home for two years, and it has changed my outlook on life, and who I am as a person. This Culture project is a tribute to everything Japanese - elegant and quirky, traditional and avant-garde, ethereal and gritty. The lovely nation welcomed me with open arms, and my only hope of reciprocity is to display some of its wonders to the world. 

 BHUTAN 2015

Bhutan, the mysterious Himalayan kingdom, is well-known for its Happiness Index, that measures well-being instead of GDP, but there is so much more to the nation. It feels like they've found the secret, the one we're all searching for.