travel journal

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

India | Tuesday, September 28, 2010 | 5 photos

Yangtang is a small village west of Leh, the capital of Ladakh. In Himalayan villages there is the tradition of festivals. The festival in Yangtang is held in mid-July and the ten families there take turns organizing the event. They gather together, wearing traditional costumes, dance, listen to music, drink lots of salt tea and chang - local beer. Not much is happening, people just enjoy being together. The young generation uses the opportunity to flirt... Music shifts between traditional and disco. The party is out when chang is finished.
A tired trekker is also welcome in this very homely atmosphere and there is a warm peaceful feeling everywhere, even despite the low temperatures in the evening. A thing about Ladakh, that fascinates a visitor, is the sincere and unconditional friendliness of local people. It leaves one with longing to go back.

When traveling to distant places and noticing different ways of life, I sometimes wish I had a camera in my eye in order to catch and remember pictures that either disappear too quickly or where it would ruin the mood if someone takes out a camera. There are mainly two abilities that I would like to learn: taking pictures without interfering too much into peoples lives and being quick even in difficult conditions to capture the moment that I see. With landscape it is a bit easier - it doesn't pose or turn away but there are other challenges like the weather or constantly changing light. I'd also like to find out if being a photographer on assignment does limit one's creative freedom or the opposite - give new opportunities.
It seems to me that it is easier with pictures than with words to make people realize how similar they are, even if they look very different. Seeing a great picture should create the curiosity to know more and with knowing more, there would be less hatred.