I’ve often mentioned this brilliant, brilliant photographer (and writer), Sridhar Sankar. He works at the same company I do, but his heart and soul seems to be permanently in Ladakh. In fact, he shoots off there at the slightest opportunity and comes back (rather reluctantly) with stunning photographs, each of which looks like a painting. That’s the most common response I get when I show his photographs to someone: Is this a painting? Or, has this photograph been edited in some way?

The truth is these are untouched photographs of an untouched land. Only in recent years has humankind begun to pluck at it with its insistent and destructive tentacles. For now, the beauty of the land holds. And it’s almost unreal.

The amazing thing is that Hasselblad Masters, the most coveted photography award among creative and professional photographers, has announced the list of 2009 finalists. Among the top ten in the UP and COMING category is Sankar Sridhar!

For the first time this year, Hasselblad has opened the final judging to the public. So the final winner will be chosen as much by the panel of judges as by general visitors to the site. To view his entries, visit http://www.hasselblad.com/mastersPublicJury and vote for him. If he wins, he would be the first Indian photographer to do so!

Photographs like that need to be seen by the world – a world which needs to wake up and understand that this beautiful land needs to be protected.