BIO

I am photographer of Indian origin. I was born in Washington D.C. in 1967and spent my formative years in Delhi. I moved back to the United States in 1986 to continue my further education. I began my photography career in 1999 after moving to New York. I am now based in London but travel regularly to India where the majority of my projects are focused.

My work overall has focused on the lives and relationships of people in communities that face both economic and social hardships in India. I have photographed the daily lives of manual laborers, from the ship-breaking yards of Bombay to the coal mining villages of Dhanbad. I have documented the industrial belt in the Patancheru district of Andhra Pradesh and Ankleshwar, Gujarat where over 5000 chemical, pharmaceutical and dye factories pump their poisonous waste into tributaries and rivers. My most recent project looks at how mining in the forests and fertile lands of Orissa has altered the landscape and destroyed the forests that are so crucial for the survival of Adivasis, the tribal population. 

My earlier long-term project was on on HIV/AIDS in India. In 2001, I started exploring the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the living and working conditions of people in India. I began photographing patients and staff at Freedom Foundation HIV/AIDS clinics in Bangalore and Hyderabad, one of the few free private run facilities where HIV+ people can seek treatment. I have documented through photographs how the virus spreads through the inter-connected communities, including a series on high-risk groups such as truck drivers, eunuchs and male sex workers.

This effort evolved into a collaboration-The Lives in Focus Project- which documents through interviews, photographs and video the impact of India’s new patent law on the country’s HIV+ population.

website: www.srinivaskuruganti.com