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In the Indian collective consciousness, the Himalayas stand supreme as a symbol of our national identity. These lofty mountains have stirred poets, painters and musicians, and of late, nature lovers and photographers. Usha Bande on the art of mountain photography "Among the mountains, I am the Himalaya." — The Gita "Photographs may be more memorable than moving images, because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow. Each still photograph is a privileged moment, turned into a slim object that one can keep and look at again." — Susan Sontag
In the Indian collective consciousness, the Himalayas stand supreme as the symbol of our "national identity". It has played a special role in the Indian mythology, religion and spirituality. It is sublime and as the German philosopher Kant says, "the sublime is beautiful and awe-inspiring" in its deep-loneliness. The Puranas invoke the Himalayas as the loftiest mountain on the Earth and depict it as beyond words: In the spaces of a hundred ages of the Gods, I could not describe to you the glories of the Himalayas; that Himalaya where Shiva dwells and where the Ganges falls like a tendril of a lotus from the foot of Vishnu. There are no other mountains like the Himalayas, for there are found Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar. As the dew is dried up by the morning sun, so are the sins of mankind by the sight of Himalayas. As the visible manifestation of the sublime, the Supreme being, it has been the abode of the sages of various faiths and hence is sacred to the followers of five Asian faiths — Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and the tradition of Tibet. That apart, this lofty mountain has attracted the attention of poets and novelists, painters and musicians, and of late of nature lovers and photographers. In Kalidas’s Meghdoot, the cloud-messenger travels across the plains of India, from Ramtek near Nagpur to the Kinner Lok in the Himalayas. The paintings of Roerich and others display the mountain ranges in their myriad moods. In visual perceptions of colour and space, however, photography provides a natural personality to the beauty of the mountain. A critic of photography asserts, "Photography affects us like a phenomenon in nature, like a flower or a snowflake whose vegetable or earthly origins are an inseparable part of their beauty."
The Alps, in particular, came to be intricately associated with the nation and national identity. In some countries like Slovenia, mountain photography exhibitions became popular events since the late 19th century. The first exhibition was held in 1898 in Slovenia and mountain photography competitions became a regular feature since then. In 1888, the National Geographic Society was formed in the USA with the express aim of "diffusing knowledge" about the earth among the people. Simultaneously, with the advent and later improvement in the technique of photography, explorers and nature lovers started producing beautiful photographs of the mountain ranges, snowy peaks and other aspects, including the non-negotiable spaces. The Himalayas, however, remained their favourite location. Today, when tourism is spreading fast and an average tourist going to Shimla, Kulu-Manali, Darjeeling and various other mountain resorts, is well equipped with cameras, mountain photography seems to have become an all-too-easy a pastime. But, mountain photography as an art is far from just clicking for fun. It is an artistic venture that captures the mirage-like effect of mountain moods. The golden Kanchenjunga at sunrise, the silvery sheen atop Kinner Kailash in Himachal Pradesh, the purple haze of far off ranges, the blue hues of some placid lake or the countless green shades of a thickly-wooded mountain-side do not remain the "still" recording of the presence of a natural object, but they become the documentation of an identity with patriotic overtones. The photographic image has a special power because photography captures a moment in time. It is a declaration of a seamless integrity of the real. Photographing the Himalayas in its various moods proffers a cultural message; it is also an ideological representation. The photographs serve as carriers of the meaning that constitutes the national consciousness. To take an example, the photograph of the snow-clad Fujiyama proclaims Japan’s identity to the world, while Kilmanjaro’s African identity cannot be missed. Even at regional levels in our country, the Satpura, Sahyadri, Vindhya, the Aravalli and others all have their specific visibility and regional interpretations. But, it is the Himalayas that stands as a tangible reality of the nation, and photographing it is to preserve it in all its glory. — Photos by the writer |
THE
Indian Constitution contains some illustrated plates of the paintings of
Nandlal Bose ascertaining the visual identity of the nation and that one
of the paintings depicts the Himalayas, which is a manifestation of our
national, cultural and geographical identity.
Mountain landscape is
varied and from the early years of photography, mountains with their
lofty, snow clad peaks, deep ravines and gorges, beautiful flora and
fauna, the unfathomable jungles, the swift flowing rivulets and the
rolling cascades have attracted photographers. Mountain photography
gained high acclaim in some of the European countries in the late 19th
century.