Photography: Aashish Chandratreya
Artist Statement:
These images are an invitation to rethink our place in the world. In them, the Shanti Stupa stands as both a symbol of human effort and a reminder of how small we truly are. It rises, sometimes towering, sometimes humble, always in dialogue with the land that holds it.
The first whispers of grandeur are quickly silenced by the second—where mountains stretch beyond the eye, where time and nature conspire to remind us that what we build is fleeting.
Perspective is a lesson, not just in how we see but in how we exist. We measure ourselves by what we create, yet nature, in its quiet immensity, remains indifferent, timeless.
This is a meditation on humility. On the delicate balance between human ambition and the forces of the earth. It asks us to see beyond ourselves, to embrace both the beauty and the insignificance of our place in the vastness around us.
Nature doesn’t need us. But perhaps, we need it—if only to understand how small, and how powerful, we really are.
AASHISH CHANDRATREYA
Aashish Chandratreya was that kid in the family who always had a camera on him. Every occasion, celebration, festival and vacation to him, meant an opportunity to capture those memories forever. His first stint with professional photography was at the age of 15 when his grandfather gifted him a DSLR camera. He began freelancing as a photographer soon after, teaching himself everything he possibly could at the time. He acquired a Diploma in Photography from the well known FX school, India. Before he knew it, his work had garnered a massive following of hundreds of thousands of people on Instagram. In 2019, he moved to New York to do a Conservatory Program on Photography from the New York Film Academy. It was then that Aashish’s love for short roll clips and time lapses gave birth to his Youtube channel Vlogging was his effort as documenting his journey as a foreign student in the United States of America, he hoped it would help many more aspiring students like himself. Three months and few videos in, he received his Silver Play button along with a hundred thousand subscribers to his channel. Since then, there’s been no looking back for him. His ability to adapt to different environments, growth, consistently innovative art and willingness to learn brought him multiple collaborations with huge brands like Samsung India and Apollo tyres. His photographs depicting the impact of COVID-19 on New York city were published in National Geographic Travel. It’s his obsession with travel that led to his love for cars and bikes. These obsessions are what keep him motivated and are the source of his innovations. Aashish branched out and photographs all kinds of subjects now but travel and automotive photography remain the closest to his heart and his forte.
https://www.instagram.com/aashishchandratreya/
