Over the last decade, Lancashire-born, London-based Christine Rodgers has trekked in Bhutan, Nepal and the Indian states and regions of Uttarakhand, Ladakh and Sikkim. \u201cI\u2019ve developed something of a passion for the Himalayas,\u201d she says. \u201cI love being in the mountains; not climbing, but walking and camping at altitude, in sight of the wonderful range of peaks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodgers used to rely on her Olympus camera to take photographs on her trips, but has since switched predominantly to using her phone. \u201cI love the immediacy,\u201d she notes. \u201cI did miss having a\u00a0viewfinder at first, but I now feel completely at home with the screen.\u201d<\/p>\n
This photograph was taken in 2024 in Melli, a town on the West Bengal-Sikkim border in northern India. It was after midnight when she arrived; her guide had stopped at the police station to collect passes for the area they would be trekking through.<\/p>\n
\u201cMelli was mostly dark and deserted, apart from the police station and this bank branch. I was drawn initially by the light, and the blocks of colours of paint, then by the stillness of the man at the counter. There seems to be some kind of tension in the air, caused by a customer waiting there alone at this hour of night.\u201d<\/p>\n