Frozen in time

Braving the cold: Aditya Arya is a photgrapher and collector of old photos. He heads the Aditya Arya Archive and the India Photo Archive Foundation

There are two things that photographer Aditya Arya absolutely loves — outdoor adventure and photography — but not necessarily in that order. At 56 now, Arya has been on so many trekking trips that he can’t recall the exact number and no matter who goes along with him, his trusted camera is always a part of his trips. So it doesn’t surprise you when he tells you that during his recent trip to Leh, Ladakh — on the Chadar Trek, where the river Zanskar freezes during winter— his cameras and batteries were safely wrapped inside two of his sleeping bags while he slept.

Armed with a Canon 5D Mark II and Mark III, Arya set off on his journey. “There were two challenges during this trek,” says Arya.

While one was a technical challenge, the other one tested his perseverance. “The technical challenge was about producing images that have not been seen before. For that, Arya pushed himself to climb cliffs to see what was on the other end. “That push helped me get these photos,” he adds. The other issue with shooting photos on a trek has to do with energy. “Trekking takes up a lot of energy and one has very little energy left to carry the heavy equipment. After that, composing the photo and creating the best image becomes quite a task,” he adds.

While Arya was accompanied by a small team — cook, guide etc. — he has a word of caution for photographers who wish to photograph the trek that has been graded as “difficult”. He says,“One needs to do their research before the trek. Check for all things possible — weather conditions, camera and more. You can’t just land up there and start panicking when things don’t work out.”