Prabir Purkayastha

Prabir Purkayastha wanted to join the Indian Army, like his father, and his father before him, had done. However, after graduating in English literature from the Delhi University, he left for Thailand where he worked from 1973 until 1980 - initially for the Thompson Group, and later as a Special Reports Editor for a business publication called Returning to India. In 1982, he started his career in advertising and worked with Everest (DY&R), O&M, Clarion (Bates) and, for over ten years, with the Mudra Group as President and Executive Director.

Purkayastha, who began his career as a journalist before changing track and venturing into the world of advertising, has trekked across Southeast Asia, Europe and North America to Bangkok (Thailand), Germany, United Kingdom, Canada and Hong Kong (China). Purkayastha's work has been exhibited in New Delhi, India and in Cologne, Germany. He has participated in group shows sponsored by Fuji Films and has had his photographs published in leading daily newspapers and magazines in India. He won the Habitat Award for Best Photography Exhibition for 2002. In 2004, he held talk shows in various cities of California of his pictures of Ladakh, India.

Purkayastha frames an evocative study of Ladakh (his recent works) theatrical and somber at the same time. His images constantly invoke the politics of absence and presence. Though some landscape seems so other-worldly that they hold the tangible warmth of human presence, the people themselves often seem inseparable from the shadow and topography that frames them.

His medium, which has been considered to be documentary-like, achieves significance through his handling of camera. His photographs occupy the interstitial space between documentation and the more expressive, imaginative arts. Purkayastha manages to take the medium beyond mere function of “reality” registration. He currently lives in Gurgaon, India.