‘I am on a journey to find new methods of photographing’

After the elusive light: photographing ladakh is a series of  Portraits and landscapes by Isaac Tsetan Gergan going on at The Annexe, India International Centre, New Delhi.

Isaac Tsetan Gergan is an artist, photographer and designer from Leh, Ladakh. He has grown up in a different part of the world and diversity propels his work and life. The camera, to him is one such tool, which allows endless experimentation and play, like an artist with a paintbrush or a writer with a pen. It is a tool that with constant use allows for steady growth and surprise. He has been fascinated with the idea of capturing images, making the large, immensely fascinating world his own from as long as he can remember. From experimenting with countless point and shoots, early mobile phone cameras and manual film cameras, he has come to understand capturing his experiences as second nature. 

Along with his passion of image making, his sense of photography evolved and diversified at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia. The photograph and the act of making it has advanced since then to become in a way, that extension of his philosophy, allowing him to bridge his many interests.

After The Elusive Light: Photographing Ladakh is a collection of photos from the past five years of Gergan’s travelling in Ladakh and its surrounding regions. The travels include walking, horse back, motorable transport, and flights. According to the photographer photographing Ladakh has been one of the most rewarding experiences yet. Be it taking the camera on a walk, a trek or on a drive, the ever-changing Himalayan light is constantly communicable to the eye and memory. In such a landscape, I still struggle to know that one special image. While on long journeys through mountains in cars, the world passes by very quickly. However every now and then there is something you see in a split moment that gets etched to memory. I think such moments and at other times, we remember what we see in stills rather than in motion. I think our brains like to freeze moments.”

Isaac Tsetan Gergan is an artist, photographer and designer from Leh, Ladakh. He has grown up in a different part of the world and diversity propels his work and life. The camera, to him, is one such tool, which allows endless experimentation.

He is quite comfortable in clicking images in Ladakh. He says, “It is easy to take a good photo in Ladakh, and while the camera, eye, hand and brain all need to be in sync to take a photograph, I do believe that an investment of time be it in travelling to, listening, researching or learning about what we are photographing gives photographs an extended life and weight. With such considerations and leanings I am on a constant journey of to define a style and find new methods of photographing my experiences, mundane or extraordinary.”

The show is on view till from 5 to 11 July at Delhi’s India International Centre