View from the edge of the world

In the blistering summer heat of Delhi, experience the soothing cool of Iceland. All thanks to a photo exhibition.

Dr Navin Sakhuja, a City-based ophthalmologist, who travelled to Iceland has captured its unique landscape. Titled ‘Illusions’, his photographs are on display at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre.

Sakhuja had framed the beauty of Arizona, Myanmar and Cambodia earlier. “I took up photography as a hobby 25 years ago. My favourite hunting grounds were family functions; then I moved outdoors. Delhi’s various monuments enthralled me.

I discovered a special love for landscapes. I began travelling with friends. That is how Myanmar and Cambodia happened. Sometime ago, one of my patients told me about Iceland – its pristine beauty, its snow fields, its ice mountains, its turbulent sea and its massive icebergs. That is when I decided that Iceland would be my next stop.”
He visited Iceland last November and stayed for six days. Of the 32 images he captured during that time, 29 are on display at ‘Illusions.’

“It wasn’t easy. The biting cold, the icy winds and the layers of clothes were a constant problem, but Iceland rewards its patient photographers suitably,” he smiles.

To him, there is no other place on earth like Iceland. “It is the youngest part of the planet — only 18 million years old. It looks like what the Earth would have been at the very beginning with active volcanoes, smoking geysers, bubbling mud, only tundra grass and lots of moss and lichens. The youngest island in Iceland is only 20 years old,” he says.

For now, Sakhuja is focusing on the icebergs — humongous slabs of ice that rest on a bed of solid black lava. “The ocean roars with anger, tossing the icebergs from side to side. Blinding white blizzards have rendered some of my shots ghostly. Sometimes, the icebergs were the size of small cars, so one had to be very careful.”
To those who exclaim in awe at his photographs, he says: “Everyone must visit Iceland at least once in their lifetime. It is incomparable.”