I went to North Sikkim’s Lachen, Lachung, Yumthang Valley, and Gurudongmar Lake with family in the second week of April 2017. Our North Sikkim trip was a complete package of 3 days and 2 nights including food, hotel, and Mahindra Bolero car; it was tight, hectic and not at all effective for shooting, particularly for landscape photographs as I was not getting time in early mornings. Another reason is military outposts where Indian Army checks travel documents, authenticate citizenship and in the early morning they might not allow us to travel, so our car driver was not keen to take us in the very early morning. I liked the Lachung area for its systematical, highrise mountains, fantastic views, curvy roads, and the overall characteristics of the place. To me it was a rough and wild; there was a kind of dry feelings everywhere and at the same time it was so serene.
While going to Lachen from Gangtok, it was heavily raining for an hour or so. It was thrilling as our car was passing through the curvy mountain roads, and the view from the car’s window was mystical.
I think I will like North Sikkim and its wilderness in the winter, it would be tough from the logistics point of view, but I can sense that views would be breathtaking and spiritually enchanting.
About Sudarshan Mondal
Sudarshan Mondal is passionate about image making and its creative process. His selection of subjects and approach varies based on the work and project theme he is up to and in this pursuit he works on people on streets, landscapes, nature, travel, also with abstract, equally both in color and black & white, in his personalized form. He is now more focused on short and long term non-journalistic project works, mostly personal in nature. Through his photographic endeavor, he tries to establish a sense of time, search for social theories, look outside world in a different perspective, and sometimes, very personal in nature reflecting his own state of mind.
From his early days of learning basics camera technicalities, color theories and management, processing raw files in Photoshop or Lightroom, to a trip photographing fashion in Miami, tracing fall colors in New Hampshire, driving in the mountain roads of Smoky or Yellowstone, shooting bikini babes in Puerto Rico or streets in New York City, his quest for new experience compelled him to continually evolve his thought process, while reminding him the importance of carrying a camera with humor, compassion and curiosity.
He was born and grew up in a village of West Bengal, and then he graduated in electrical engineering, and now works as a senior business analyst in a multinational software firm. And at the same time, he is fortunate enough to spend a good extent of time on his personal photo projects, traveling, and collaborating with fellow photographers. He has been privileged to work and live in cities like Kolkata, London, Dallas, and New York City, and acquainted with many people of different cultures and nationalities. He currently lives in Kolkata with family.
You can find Sudarshan Mondal on the web:
Copyrights:
All the pictures in this post are copyrighted Sudarshan Mondal. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.
