Photographs by Vikas Vasudev

"This is a story of people from a land where a lot is seen, but little is known. This is a story about people who are displaced from within and without, who are strangers in their own environment.

This is a story of The Outsiders."

All images in this series were photographed in August 2010 in Leh and Ladakh. It was right in the middle of the unfortunate flash floods, while being stranded at the mercy of nature's fury. Engulfed in an atmosphere of fear and anxiety that had gripped the entire region at the time, serendipitous conversations with people unknown to me eventually amounted to inhibitions being lost. There was a free exchange of thought, stories and eventually emotions. The monks spoke about vanity, the dim sum maker announced his love for Hip Hop, and an old man with the prayer wheel who hadn't left the region in over 40 years, declared his love for travelling outside. These images are the result of such conversations, some of which I remember, but most I have forgotten. What has stayed with me is the collective feeling of displacement and alienation that I sensed from each and every one of them, physically or spiritually.

All images were shot digitally and prints are available in a hand sized limited edition of 10+1 artists' proof.