Wabi-Sabi
in North Sikkim

Eight rolls of film. Thin air. A landscape that refused perfection.

Watch the film Get the zine

Photographed by Sourish Mukherjee · Shot on IMAX film

The imperfect frame

A field journal above the clouds

Nothing here was meant to be flawless.

Wabi-sabi finds beauty in what is weathered, incomplete and alive. North Sikkim gave the idea physical form: snow turned to water, light disappeared without warning and every frame carried the evidence of altitude.

With only eight rolls of film, each exposure became a decision. Grain, muted colour, imperfect focus and unrepeatable gestures were not corrected out of the story. They became the story.

Sourish Mukherjee photographing the Wabi-Sabi project in North Sikkim snow — Project 侘寂 · North Sikkim · a study in transience

8rolls of film

120 + 35millimetre formats

15,000+feet above sea level

−12°Cat the coldest frames

The project film

Movement, breath, weather

Watch the still photographs find their rhythm.

The film places the finished work beside the conditions that shaped it: a remote interior, exposed slopes, changing visibility and the slow discipline of an analogue camera.

Behind-the-scenes contact strip of an analogue portrait made at a cabin window — Inside / outside
The camera, the window and the frame being made.

The analogue method

Limited frames, deliberate looking

Two cameras.
One uncertain landscape.

The Yashica Mat 124G slowed the process to a square, waist-level ritual. The Canon EOS 5 moved faster in 35mm, but still demanded an economy of attention. There was no instant confirmation—only meter readings, instinct and trust.

Yashica Mat 124G: Medium-format 120 film · square negatives
Canon EOS 5: 35mm film · fluid field sequences
Conditions: Cold batteries · wind · changing exposure

Sourish Mukherjee composing a photograph with a Yashica Mat 124G — Yashica Mat 124G · waist-level focus

Behind the scenes of Sourish Mukherjee photographing two models in North Sikkim snow — Making the frame at altitude

FOI Zine · Edition 01

A physical home for the grain.

The first FOI zine gathers the North Sikkim work into a sequenced object: photographs, field notes and the material evidence of film. It is designed to be held slowly, away from the speed of a feed.

Edition 01By Sourish MukherjeeWabi-Sabi

View on Amazon

Selected frames

Film, weather and memory