SNAPSHOTS: Photo Series August Issue.

1. ” From the Train’s Window”- Andrzej Biłuński in conversation with Ipsita Deb.
2. Photos By Brian Michael Barbeito
3. The Isle of Skye, Revisited–Harsha S. Reddy
4. Photographs by Neli Mukherjee.
5. Photographs by Soma Dey Sarkar

The Isle of Skye, Revisited–Harsha S. Reddy

Scotland’s Western Isles are, at first glance, a paradise untouched by time – verdant vales, billion-year old volcanic bedrock plunging into the ocean, and perpetual rain evoke a primal past. Tourists seeking to get away from the cramped hustle of urban life find in the openness of the bucolic heather-sprinkled landscape an embodiment of a simpler era and harmony with nature. But looking closely suggests the Highland idyll, like all Paradise, is also created. Even before the industrial revolution and cultural displacement remade life here, people altered the unforgiving landscape, connecting the past and future. So we see Neolithic quernstones unearthed during the building of a Gaelic school that now houses Jurassic fossils. We read that almost all of Scotland’s virgin forests have been felled and wonder if a treeless moor reflects native acidic soil, deforestation, or unchecked red deer whose predators – wolves and bears – were hunted to extinction centuries ago.

The islands, despite their imposing physicality and remote location, have also been shaped by interactions with the larger world. Norse names survive from the Vikings’ presence in the 9^th century. Caledonian pines built the ships that brought riches from India to Edinburgh. The beatific sheep on the hillsides today were introduced during the Highland clearances, forced evictions by the English monarchy that destroyed traditional Scottish clan culture. In turn, these spectral presences change the landscape by altering the vegetation. Today, tourism continues the dialogue with the outside world, preserving, changing, and creating a vision of the Highlands.

In these images, the soft gray light, filtered by varying densities of cloud and rain, mutes contrast and creates a sleepy heaviness that matches the apparent timelessness of the land. Yet the same light illuminates scenes evenly, allowing us to see details that might have been lost in sunny shadows. These photographs, taken on the Isle of Skye in July 2023, explore the tension between man-made and natural, between a disruption and continuity of histories.

Harsha is a surgeon and Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai in New York City. He is also founder of Lokana, a nonprofit organization that works with local NGOs to deliver eyecare to adivasi populations in south India. As an aspiring storyteller, he is passionate about human connection and understanding across time and geography.

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