For five days a week, they stare at the flickering computer screens. But come weekends and members of the Chennai Trekking Club head out to explore hidden mountain streams, sleep under the star-lit sky and get trigger happy with their cameras.
An exhibition showcasing a collection of such photographs taken during trekking expeditions was inaugurated at the Alliance Francaise, Nungambakkam, on Saturday. The theme of the exhibition is ‘Explore, discover and preserve.'
“Photography is a medium to make people understand what we have seen,” said Hari Balasundaram, an interior designer and a wildlife enthusiast.
“It is a means to tell other people our stories. There are pristine, untouched mountain ranges just 70 km from the city. Most people do not even know that such places exist.”
Pointing out that the club has more than 20,000 photographs in its collection, K. Narasimhan said: “When anyone thinks of mountains, what immediately comes to mind are the Himalayas and the Western Ghats. The locations in some of these photographs are not well known. The objective is to let more people know about them.”
He added that photographing nature was instinctive in some ways and that it was about conveying the beauty that is found all around. “The objective is to showcase the interface between humans and nature. Sometimes, one has to experience to learn.”
The exhibition will be open till April 15 between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.
