Exploring Ladakh and its untouched beauty
Self-taught landscape photographer Manolya Srivastava talks about leaving her corporate job to find her true passion
I am interested in capturing the culture and the unique aspects of the society. MANOLYA SRIVASTAVA, Landscape photographer
The sight of the first light on the mountains, a Himalayan yak or the joyous smiles of young monks — are you transported to the land unknown? A Delhi-based landscape photographer Manolya Srivastava, in her coffee table book, Ladakh: Implicit Serenity, brings to the fore a vast collection of photographs from her visit and prolonged stay between 2015 and 2020 at Ladakh. The book is set to release this month and will be available on Amazon.
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. And for Srivastava, it may be true. Calling Ladakh her “second home”, and having been there five times, her book explores monasteries such as Thiksey and Hemis, villages such as Hanle, Bharma, lake Tso Moriri and the likes, wherein she wanted to showcase the beauty “that exists beyond tourism websites”.
The 32-year-old wanted to know what it feels like to live like a local, and she succeeded. She tells us, “It’s become a second home as I am so comfortable there. I delve more into Nature and landscapes. Ladakh gives me the most serene form of vast landscape that is completely untouched. When you’re out there in Nature, one gets to know how big the world is.”
So, what piques her interest? She says, “I am interested in capturing the culture and the unique aspects of its society. When
I visited Thiksey monastery, there was a puja going on in Tibetian Buddhist traditions, where they had made a sand mandala with a pipe like instrument. After the puja finished, they destroyed the mandala.”
Working in a corporate environment for three years, photography was never the “direction” she thought her life would take. But with the turn of events, it was the course that was meant to be. “The things I have learned are from other artists — YouTube and Instagram. I finished my MBA, and was working as a freelance marketing expert. And, in between I wanted to change my job. Before hunting for the next job, I just thought let’s travel,” she says.
She headed to Leh in 2016 for her first solo trip, and there has been no looking back ever since. She adds, “I didn’t think about it much but when I started posting them (her photos), a company based in Singapore picked it up and posted it for their promotional purpose. That was the booster I needed. Since the pandemic, people have experienced setbacks. My industry got completely shut.”
Urging people to follow their passion, she says, “If you truly are interested in anything, it’s not hard to pick up the technicalities.”