BENGALURU: In his exhibition ‘Luminous Landscapes of Leh-Ladakh’, Prathap DK, a Bengaluru-based photographer, explores Ladakh beyond its monasteries, high passes and lakes. Pointing out that there’s more to Ladakh, the photographer says, “One gets to see nature in its raw form. It’s colours, textures and play of light and shadows are amazing.”

He tries to capture the panoramic view of the vast landscapes. India, he says, is not just about culture and wildlife, but also its landscapes. “People do not appreciate the landscapes here as much as they do in the US. India also has great landscapes, though different, they are beautiful,” he says. And, Ladakh is an example.

Visiting the high altitude destination was always on his bucket list, but owing to family commitments, Prathap wasn’t able to tick it off so far. In July 2017, he visited Ladakh for the first time and returned with experiences that exceeded his expectations. “I planned a solo trip for 15 days, but didn’t book my return tickets,” he says, adding that he wouldn’t mind even if he were stranded owing to the beauty of the place. “Every Indian and tourist should visit the place. It’s not just about bikers and adventurists. It’s very pristine and colourful. You’ll get to see nature in its raw form,” he says.

Prathap travelled mainly to Tso Moriri, Pangong Lake and Nubra Valley. He took the road less travelled to capture a glimpse of the place. “I went on a bike ride for 200km. As I was travelling alone, I was scared, and hired a truck. That was the best decision I made as all the roads had blind curves and were unpredictable,” he says.

His photographs capture the white sand against the background of brown and red mountains. “There are so many variations in colours and tones. One cannot even paint them as these colours wouldn’t be available,” he says. He includes human elements in some of his frames to show the vastness of the landscape. “Only when you look at how tiny they look, you’d understand how vast the place is. That’s why I have tried to include human elements as much as possible even though you cannot spot one for a stretch of 20 to 30 km,” he says, adding that there are just some small establishments at tourists spots and owners running restaurants there stay in makeshift tents in the area. “I stayed in a makeshift tent for a night shoot. It was so cold that even thermals didn’t help. I stayed up the whole night. Those pictures didn’t make it to the exhibition as I wasn’t satisfied,” he says.

The photographs displayed at the exhibition are 4.5 feet to 7.5 feet. “These had to be of big size so that I could do some justice to the views I captured. Each photograph displayed has been created with eight to 10 pictures. I stuck them together during the post production stage and created the frame,” he says, pointing out that had he used the wide angle lens to capture these pictures, they wouldn’t have had the same impact. “They wouldn’t have given the same perspective and impact. When we print this, it would have got distorted in the corners,” he adds. That’s why he decided to click each picture separately and then collate them to one frame.

The paper on which it’s printed provides long durability. “The hahnemuhle paper from Germany can give the picture life for 100 to 200 years. The frame also had to be joined together well so that the photographs held straight. I wanted to hold the exhibition on the same standards of US and Europe,” he says.

The exhibition is on till January 29 at Sublime Galleria, UB City.