I am a professionally trained photographer, and I finished my B.A. Honours in Photography from University College Falmouth, England in June 2007. I have studied economics from St. Xavier’s College Kolkata and I run my own archival quality printing & scanning company named “Old gravity”.
However, this does not say anything about my work or who I am.
Since childhood whilst many of my classmates pondered over results and academics (which is a worthy goal) I pondered over other things. Like most children I dreamed but the world with its vastness, and its intricacies fascinated me. I loved to understand things, but this understanding had to be intuitive when it all seemed “Yes! That is it.”
My search led to me to study theoretical physics, history, and finally many books on spirituality by many saints, and as I read further I became more engrossed in the cosmic wonder that surrounds us. This is where my work comes from: The wonder and the intuitive feeling of whatever I can understand of the world.
This though defines my themes, however, does not describe why I took up photography.
Since childhood my father and I used to take pictures together, the art interested me; the light, the shadows, the colours of the world (I believe “the observer” that is a photographer also suited my nature and it developed into a keen interest of mine).
Art has been in my home since childhood. My father, an eminent painter himself instilled in all of us a sense for the hyper real. A sense of what can be seen where only the mundane is visible. This sense and the “painterly” form are always present in my work.
Personally I am a family man. The inward adventures interest me far more than outward ones. The world is a beautiful place, but I do not wish to conquer anything nor critique.
The world is a moving object. I have my family, my photographs, my business but all are in constant transit. I can never capture any of them. A frame of a picture translated in time changes it meaning thus I never bother with capturing “the moment”. However, the vastness is still, it is in motion but still, and this is where I wish to draw on my work, like the misty remnants of a breath on some cosmic mirror.
Date of Birth: 08-05-1981
Place of Birth: Kolkata, India
Education:
2007: Honours Graduate in B.A. (Hons) Photography 3 Year Programme from University College Falmouth, UK
2003: Graduate in B.Sc. Economics from St.Xavier’s College, Kolkata
1988 - 2000: Finished schooling with science from St.Xavier’s Collegiate School, Kolkata.
Awards:
2017: Winner of Creative Image Gionee Selfiestan Contest 2017
2017: Life Framer – Civilisation – Top 20 Finalists.
2017: Bronze Winner in Non-Professional Book at Prix De La Photographique, Paris
2017: Life Framer – Open Call – Top 20 Finalists.
2016: Tokyo International Foto Awards, Honourable Mention in Portrait Category.
2016: ND Awards 2016, Honourable Mention in multiple categories
2016: 3rd Annual Emami Chisel Art award for Photography, Kolkata, India
2016: Top 100 Finalist of Urban Photo Awards 2016: Nature Category.
2016: Life Framer – Humans of the World – Top 20 Finalists.
2016: International Photography Awards – Honourable Mention in Portrait and Culture Categories.
Exhibitions:
2017: Group Show: Emami Chisel Art 4th Annual Show, Kolkata, India
2017: Group Show: Birla Academy of Art & Culture 50th Annual Show, Kolkata, India
2017: Group Show: Academy of Fine Arts Annual Show, Kolkata, India
2016: Group Show: Kolkata Art Trust 10th Annual Show, Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata, India
2016: Group Show: Holding Hands – Theme Peace, Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata, India
2016: Urban Photo Awards 2016 European Travelling Show.
2016: Group Show: Emami Chisel Art 3rd Annual Show, Kolkata, India
2015: Group Show: Emami Chisel Art 2nd Annual Show, Kolkata, India
2015: Group Show: Birla Academy of Art & Culture 48th Annual Show, Kolkata, India
2014: Group Show: Emami Chisel Art 1st Annual Show, Kolkata, India
2014: Group Show: Birla Academy of Art & Culture 47th Annual Show, Kolkata, India
2013: United Art Fair 2013, Orlando Florida & Sante Fe, USA
2013: United Art Fair 2013, New Delhi
2013: Art Bengaluru 2013, Bengaluru
2013: Three Person Show: The Secret Flow of Silence, Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata
2013: Group Show: Birla Academy of Art & Culture 46th Annual Show, Kolkata, India
2011: Group Show: Creartivity IV, Lalit Kala Akademi, Bhubaneshwar, India
2011: Group Show: Birla Academy of Art & Culture 44th Annual Show, Kolkata, India
2010: Group Show: Friends of Fine Art, Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata, India
2010: Group Show: META 4, Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, India
2009: Two person show: “going home…”, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, India
2008: Solo Exhibition: Leaving Behind my House, Gallery Sanskriti, Kolkata, India
2007: Group Show: Untitled #62, London, U.K.
Work Experience:
2014: “Partner Heroes” photo-shoot; AKVO in collaboration with Water for People and SSDC
2010: Worked for NGO, “Water for People” to photo document children accessing safe drinking water.
2008: Started professional archival printing & scanning company named “Old gravity”.
2006: Was assigned to take location shots of lanes of North Kolkata for the book Bikash Bhattacharjee: Close to Events
2006: Workshop on Still Life Photography with Ray Massey
2005: Built a studio based set in a group of 5 in 2 days in which we had to light and shoot the studio based scenario and then dismantle the set by the end of the 3rd day.
2005: Personally worked with Street Children on Park Street, Kolkata for six months.