Picture on Wheels

When biking enthusiast Sundeep Gajjar set out on his Kawasaki Concours super bike for a road trip across the Australian outback in 2007,he didn’t have a clue about photography. But struck by the devastating natural beauty he saw all around,he started documenting his travels. “The places I passed were too stunning to forget easily,” says 28-year-old Gajjar,who is holding his first photography exhibition,Journeys in Light,at the Capital.The exhibition finds images ranging from the arid landscapes of the great Null Arbor plains in Western Australia to the setting sun on the coast of Kanyakumari,to scenic views of the Great Barrier Reef. “I wanted to capture the beautiful scenery of these places,” says Gajjar,pointing to a series of photographs from a 170-year old haveli,a few kilometres away from Kolkata,which he shot while passing through West Bengal. “This place is forbidden for visitors. But with some help I was able to enter the dilapidated haveli,” he smiles.

The collection of roughly 100 pictures don’t have an enduring theme,however,shot from a fresh,uncluttered perspective,they convey a sense of nostalgia. For instance,a picture of the Taj Mahal taken this March,shows the white marble structure in glowing orange against the setting sun. “Taking pictures was not the main motive of these road trips but perhaps the best way of describing my journey through these lands,” adds Gajjar,who is also the founder of a popular biking community Xbhp.com.