Photography was introduced to India shortly after its invention in the mid-19th century. The first recorded photograph in India, a daguerreotype, was taken in 1840. During the British colonial period, photography primarily served as a tool for documenting the landscape, architecture, and people of India. Pioneers like
Samuel Bourne and John Edward Saché captured iconic images of Indian landmarks and daily life, while
Lala Deen Dayal, one of the first Indian photographers, gained acclaim for his detailed portraits and architectural photography.
As the 20th century dawned, Indian photographers began to emerge, bringing a native perspective to the art form.
Raja Deen Dayal continued to build on his earlier success, becoming a court photographer for the Nizam of Hyderabad. Meanwhile, studio photography gained popularity, with portrait studios opening in major cities, catering to the Indian elite who sought to immortalize their status and family heritage through photography. This era also saw the rise of illustrated journals and magazines that used photographs to reach a wider audience.
Post-independence, Indian photography underwent significant transformation. The newly independent nation experienced rapid social and political changes, which photographers keenly documented. Henri Cartier-Bresson's work during the independence and partition period remains iconic. Indian photojournalists like Sunil Janah and Homai Vyarawalla captured the essence of the nation's struggles and triumphs. Their work provided a visual narrative of India's journey from a British colony to a sovereign state.
The latter half of the 20th century saw Indian photographers gaining international recognition.
Raghu Rai emerged as a leading figure with his powerful photojournalism, capturing the diverse facets of Indian life. The period also marked a shift towards more artistic and experimental photography. Photographers like Raghubir Singh and
Dayanita Singh brought innovative approaches, blending traditional themes with contemporary techniques. This era laid the groundwork for a more diversified photographic practice in India.
With the advent of the 21st century and the digital revolution, photography in India became more accessible and democratized. Digital cameras and smartphones enabled a broader spectrum of people to engage with photography. Social media platforms like Instagram provided a global stage for Indian photographers to showcase their work. Contemporary photographers such as
Sohrab Hura, Bharat Sikka, and Vicky Roy are now pushing the boundaries of the medium, exploring new narratives and challenging traditional perspectives. Today, Indian photography is a dynamic and evolving field, reflecting the country's rich cultural tapestry and rapid modernization.
Mahendra Bakle
Mahendra has always been interested in photography, growing up reading different photography magazines and taking pictures of sunsets and sunrises as a child. However, it wasn't until 2001, after he had established a solid foundation with his business in Solapur, that he got into travel photography, drawing inspiration from the places he travelled to for business. Mahendra's work uses all kind of elements to tell their story, from pattern to repetition to contrast, but the most striking is his use of light. Dynamic natural lighting is a huge part of his works, which creates images that are somehow very rooted in the space they come from. He's covered many countries, especially in Southeast Asia, but his favorite of these is Myanmar, the photos of which particularly encapsulate his whole approach to photography, which is to capture the culture and personality of a space. He wants to explore the entirety of India first though, before properly shifting his view abroad, especially the stories and cultures of native Indian tribes, and this emphasis on the 'human' element of these places is a central theme that comes through in a lot of his photographs.
Mahesh Balasubramanian
Mahesh is an Independent Photographer from Chennai, India. His works are published in various international magazines like National Geographic Traveler US, BLUR, Digital Photo UK, Wanderlust UK, Dodho, etc. He has won many international awards like National Geography Traveler Photo Contest, 1x, PX3, IPA, Siena Photo Awards, Monovisions Photo Awards, etc. Adobe has also chosen one of his photos for Adobe Lightroom as a Splash Screen (startup screen).
Robi Chakraborty
Originally from India, Robi Chakraborty studied photography under the prestigious O.P. Sharma at Triveni Kala Sangam Photography in New Delhi. He began his career doing both commercial and press photography in the early 1980s, but through wanderlust and with a spirit to explore, Robi became drawn to photographing the people in the cities and villages of his native India. Taking roads less traveled, Robi sought out cultures and ways of life that were quickly becoming lost in the contemporary, more homogenized world of today.
With his knack for finding people and places where tradition survives in the face of modernity, Robi delves below the surface and succinctly and eloquently captures moments in time that wonderfully illustrate the connection forged with the peoples and cultures that he encounters on his journeys. His work tells his subjects' stories in a way that is relatable and invites the viewer directly into their worlds.
Having lived in India, Nepal, Africa and the US, Robi portrays his global view of the world through his photography by celebrating both the diversity of his subjects yet beautifully revealing the striking similarities and capturing the humanity that we can all relate to.
Joydeep Deb
Marine Engineer by Profession
Photographer by Passion.
My work life takes me across the 5 continents, travelling mostly in the seas and sometimes in land. My exposure is thus spread across plural cultures, diverse architectures and plural languages of humanity. Often my in journeys I take to the streets to focus on the sights and sounds of the place and pause to frame them.
Photography is my language, to access, to communicate, to identify and mostly to make it hear. The best part about being a photographer is that I am able to articulate the experience of the voiceless and bring their identities to the forefront which gives meaning and purpose to my own life.
Madhur Dhingra
I was born an only child to my parents, in Delhi, into a family torn apart by the aftermath of the India-Pakistan partition. Hailing from an affluent background in Pakistan my family was now struggling for survival in the walled city of Delhi totally penniless. Embedded with deep insecurities and freshly bearing the scars of partition my family started setting up trade in the walled city, dealing in fabric. It is relevant for me to mention this background for these insecurities I too inherited from my family and they remain with me till date even with the changed times and lifestyle.
Things improved financially with the trade flourishing and much because of the sheer hard work of my grandfather, father & uncles. We settled in Delhi at the start as big joint family. My father could never get over those scars of partition. I too was repeatedly made to realize that (for better or for worse), even though I was born much later in Delhi.
At the age of four I was put to school at St.Xavier’s High School, Delhi. That period was to become the most memorable part of my life. I remember enjoying school life thoroughly. I was an above average student with a lot of love for extracurricular activities. After school I went to the Delhi University and took up ‘English Honours’ as my subject. But it was nowhere in my mind to take up studies serious. Restless from the start I had always wanted to travel the world.
Animesh Ray
Animesh Ray was born in a small suburban town in West Bengal, India. He grew up by the banks of the river Hooghly, watching mud skinks slither and river dolphins whoosh. He got into street photography when 14 years old, back in the late 1960s, using a 1950's Agfa Isolette. While most of his earlier street photos are in black and white, lately he dabbles in color. Animesh loves to travel and take photographs of life as it presents itself. His beliefs are most compatible with those of the humanist ideals. In his other life, Animesh is a professor and a researcher in genetics and molecular biology in a US university. He has also published short stories and works of poetry, and is working on a novel.
Manjari Sharma
Manjari Sharma is a photographer born and raised in Mumbai, India and based in Brooklyn, New York. Rooted in the study of relationships and personal mythology, since it’s inception Manjari’s work has been recognized as walking the line of fine art and traditional portraiture. Manjari‘s work has been showcased in several group and solo exhibitions both in the US and internationally and she's been invited to speak at the School of Visual arts and the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. Manjari was chosen as an honorable mention for the Santa Fe Prize in 2012, her work selected by Review Santa Fe and featured by the Critical mass top 50. Manjari has been featured in various magazines print and online. Her works have appeared with Forbes India Magazine, Vogue India, Geo Magazine, America Online. She has been commisioned to work with advertising agencies such as JWT and Contract, India and has had features and interviews with New York Times, lens blog, Wired Raw File Nikon Asia, NPR, Time, PDN, Huffington Post, CNBC, Mumbai, The Times of India group and Leica, China. Before moving to the U.S. in 2001 Manjari worked for the national news daily of her country, The Times of India. Manjari has also worked as a staff photojournalist with the leading south asian photography magazine, Better Photography. She holds a bachelors degree in Visual Communication from S.N.D.T University, Mumbai and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Still Photography from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio.
Mona Singh
Gurgaon, (India) based street/ travel photographer. Capturing emotions is one of the key ingredients in Mona Singh’s work. She firmly believes in making photographs that she resonates with. Even though it is the emotions of her subjects that she is documenting, she finds a reflection of herself in them. Her love for the unexpected and candid moments gives her the ability to find visual order within the chaos of the world and an unparalleled creative vision.
She loves to creatively capture the weird and wonderful fleeting moments as they unfold in front of her eyes. She beautifully fuses emotions and art to tell stories through her pictures. Photography for her has been a life-transforming experience. Photography is the love of her life and traveling is like blood in her veins. She loves waking up to new horizons, making new friends and exploring the world.
Ulka Chauhan
Street and documentary photographer Ulka Chauhan grew up in Mumbai, finished high school in Switzerland, college in Boston and lived and worked in New York and South Africa before anchoring herself in Zurich and Mumbai. These varied geographies come together to inform her work and shape her visual language.
While the terrain of her photographic practice is vast, a large body of Ulka's images chronicles life across Switzerland and India. She moves with an ease between the two starkly different worlds, seeing them with 'fresh eyes' every time she visits. Ulka uses her own voice to tell stories inspired by the two diverse spaces she occupies.
Time and space are bystanders in her images as she moves literally and metaphorically between the linear structured world of Switzerland and the cyclical and chaotic world of India.
Her style morphs fluidly with her choice of subject. Using a minimalist narrative, there is an artistic reduction to her compositions as she focuses on just the essential elements to make us look at old things in new ways.
Ulka Chauhan is the sum of all her parts; being rooted on two grounds contouring her identity and compassionate world view.
Her camera is the lens through which she sees the world, and in the process, herself.
Girithar Jeevasuba
Girithar Jeevasuba is a visual storytelling photographer based in Chennai, India. He finished his photographic studies at Don Bosco College of Arts and Design. After that, he started his career as a cinematographer and used the money earned from it to make photostories by traveling across various parts of India. This empiricism drew him entirely into the ocean of photography. 6 years of experience sculpted him into a free-spirited, dedicated, and passionate photographer. He always wanted to reflect the true feelings & essence of the moment which are diffused into the atmosphere in his shots. His work has been featured in leading publications like Smart photography magazine.
According to Girithar, "Photographs not only make the moment immortal but also discloses many truth and realities that had been silently buried or neglected by the world".
