Andrew Trousdale is a photographer and social scientist from New York. He works exclusively in black and white with a 50mm lens. Working around these limitations, he notes, is an important part of his process as it encourages him to capture details and interactions that are easily missed. Andrew’s interests centre around growth, impermanence and decay through the processes of change. As change transforms familiar states to foreign, ambivalence is inherent to this process. He therefore tries to create images that are permeated with this ambivalence, residing between moments of change rather than within them.

Andrew on Land of High Passes:

These interests inspired me to travel to Ladakh to take photographs. From New York, Ladakh is a far place to go. It is in the Himalayas, where India borders China and Pakistan. It’s an interesting place. It possesses this dramatic, remote beauty. But it is also a place of enormous spiritual importance. Finally, it is the site of an ongoing geopolitical conflict between China and Pakistan. Ladakh means Land of High Passes in Bhoti. The Kashmiri, Pakistani and Chinese call it theirs. That is the reason for the military occupation. It is also a land of contradictions. On one hand it is austere. Survival involves the constant rearranging of rocks. On the other, it is spiritual. The unforgivingness of the place is answered to with equanimity. They say 'the land is so barren and the passes so high that only our fiercest enemies or our best friends would come.'

All of these qualities drew me to Ladakh. They give it an unmistakable and unique character. Ladakh is simultaneously unforgiving, enlightening and unnerving. It is restless and industrious and it is also severely calm. My hope is that these images convey Ladakh’s intense and beautiful idiosyncrasies.

Andrew’s website

Andrew on IG