“My life is driven by the journey, not by the destination”

Manish is a photographer and adventure chaser, with one foot in the highland cold deserts of the Himalayas. One on the pedals of his bike to chase dreams. He loves the camera and travels on a bicycle into remote areas.

Guided by the words of his late friend Joel —“not a geographical location, more a place in the heart”.

He is eager to see the world and capture all its fleeting moments with his camera.

Manish is a versatile photographer with a history of creating brilliant images of culture, heritage and landscape. For several years now, he has been photographing the cultural heritage of India and across the places. Which includes the shepherds of the Himalayan highlands, native people of North-East India and Western India, in addition to the rich traditions of Kerala. He is renowned for his unique portrayal of remote cultures from across India, Central Asia, South East Asia, Nepal and counting.

His works have been regularly featured in magazines across the world, and he is attested by several experts as one of the finest travel photographers from India in recent years.

He is also known for his prowess in landscape photography, which has been achieved with his years of travelling in the high Himalayas. His portfolio is diverse and encompasses everything from star-studded skies & snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas to exotic festivals and nomadic and semi-nomadic cultures through the length and breadth of India. He was born with a love for mountains, which has carried him back to Ladakh and other highlands of the Himalayas many times over.

He has led many incredible expeditions and photography workshops in the high mountain regions, including the venerated Chadar Trek in Ladakh, having walked the frozen river more than half a dozen times. Ladakh has become a winter home for Manish for a decade and a half.

After working as a network engineer for many years. In 2013, he finally left his desk job and hit the road for almost 6 months. Cycling across India, covering 15,000 km with the simple goal of getting pretty pictures. But more than pictures, it was the vast cultural diversity and the generosity of the people of India that left him spellbound. Also reinforced the idea of chasing his dreams instead of being bound by the confines of an office. He also brought his bicycle to the Changthang region in the Himalayas, meeting the indigenous nomads and photographing them in this arid and cold high-altitude desert.

He has been mentoring photography enthusiasts for several years now and is known for his exuberant personality as much as he is known for his photography skills. When he is not travelling he is imparting his wisdom to amateurs and enthusiasts from all over the country who seek to be guided by this experience and a vast portfolio of images.

He is the go-to person for any photography guidance if you are going to the Indian Himalayas or just about any other part of the vast country for that matter. He is currently doing documentary work on the vanishing practices and clothing of remote tribes all over India, starting from his home state of Gujarat.

Here you can find his work, photos and stories, featuring the far corners of the Himalayas the colourful festivals of India’s southernmost state of Kerala and many places in between.

He can be contacted for leading photography expeditions and tours to just about any part of India or abroad.