I have been a student of Fine Arts (Painting). But over the years starting from college, my interests have moved into photography and the mediums around photography such as film, documentation, archiving, etc. I grew up in a small village in rural India close to the ancient city of Banaras. Thus my early life kept me away from the 'modern' world so to say. My move to the city of Mumbai and extensive travels across the country in the last many years, made me aware of the myriad changes sweeping across the country.
This constant flux, and the consequent ecological damages taking place everywhere, also sensitised me to the many many traditions, rituals, local sports, crafts etc. that were lost forever. The onslaught of Modernism and modernisation was not only spoiling our earth but our age old way of life through which we were deeply connected to the earth, to ecology, to the very mud we lived on. To me this has been a tremendous loss and i feel we are losing these things for ever. This primeval connection once gone, will alienate us for ever.
I came across the ancient form of wrestling in India - known as Kushti - of which records show the practice to be over a thousand years old. This ancient form of sport was not just a sport but a whole way of life, integrating into its almost monastic lifestyle, ritual, society, ways of living, acknowledgement of one's past, and mostly a connection with the earth (the soil) on which it was practiced. Thus I have used this not fast disappearing sport as a metaphor of all that is being lost - man's disconnection with the earth, which was once valued and worshipped and which sustained us all.
Awards –
2017 Next Generation Award, Nikon International Photography, Tokyo, Japan
2018 Gold Medal Award, Eye Win International Photography, Delhi, India
2021 Portrait Award, Indian Photo Festival, Hyderabad, India
Exhibitions –
2016 Solo Show, Jahangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, India
2016 The Exposure Award Exhibition, SeeMe Photography Community, Louvre Museum Photo Gallery, France
2022 Indian Photo Festival Portrait Prize, Exhibition at the Auckland Festival of Photography, New Zealand
