India Unexplored (2012 - ongoing)
The world is changing, with rising sea levels, dying animals, worsening air and water quality, and burning forests. It is clear that business as usual is not good enough. We’re in the midst of a global climate emergency, and we have no one else but ourselves to blame for it!
India is a federal union composed of 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 entities. It is a big country, but very little is known about its deep-rooted rural culture and relationship with nature, which holds true not just for foreigners but also for many of us Indians.
Over the years, I have covered 32 entities using my own budget and network to understand our complicated relationship with nature—how we are destroying and protecting our planet at the same time.
This series portrays incredible Indian culture and the varying ways Indians impact nature and nature impacts Indians—for better or worse, from the world’s highest village in the Spiti Valley, to the Indigenous Tribes of Northeast India, to an African community living in the Western Ghats for more than 500 years.
Selected Recognitions...
Awards, exhibitions, and features:
- 2021 Nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award
- 2021 Focus on the Story Portrait Awards (Honorable Mentions)
- 2019 Asia-Pacific Youth Storytelling Excellence Award2018 IPF Portrait Prize (1st Prize)
- 2014 India Unexplored by Lonely Planet India
- 2022 15th »horizons zingst« Environmental Photo Festival, Zingst, Germany (Group)
- 2021 India Unexplored at Oberfett, Hamburg (Solo)2019 India Art Fair, Delhi (Group Exhibition 'My Kolkata in Kolkata')
- 2019 UNESCO International Day of Light at ICTP, Trieste, Italy (Solo)
- 2019 Auckland Festival of Photography, New Zealand (Group)
- 2019 Kolkata International Photography Festival at The Indian Council for Cultural Relations, India (Group)
- 2019 My Kolkata in Kolkata Exhibition at Kolkata Centre for Creativity, India (Group)
- 2018 Indian Photo Festival at State Art Gallery, Hyderabad, India (Group)