Mahesh Shantaram
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Photo editors around the world trust me to deliver the drama of India in all its pumping, thumping glory while also offering a critical eye. As far as my personal projects go, I use subjective documentary photography to study societies and institutions with reference to modern India.
Everything that's great about India and everything that's wrong with it can be summarised in a single wedding. 'Matrimania', six years in the making, is my fictional photo series about Indian society seen through the prism of its wedding culture. Matrimania has been seen at photo festivals around the world, such as the Photoquai 2011, PhotoPhnomPenh 2012, Delhi Photo Festival 2013, Addis Photo Festival 2014, Chobi Mela 2015, and Angkor Photo Festival 2015.
I'm often seen rubbing shoulders with politicians. This is necessitated by the project 'Last Days of Manmohan' that was born during the tumultuous days leading into India's hotly contested general elections of 2014. (Mis)using the tools of news photojournalism to document political culture in India, I offer a window into the theatre of Indian-style politics and its state actors.
After obtaining a degree in Computer Electronics, I went on to offset the error with a diploma in photography from Paris. In 2006, I moved back to Bangalore and have been an independent photographer ever since. I've flown a plane and driven a bus. Next year, I might (or might not) learn to drive a car.
2015 - British Journal of Photography, 2011 - Sony World Photography Awards
- Architecture
- Conflict
- Editorial
- Events
- Landscape
- Portrait
