My archive of more than 200,000 images, many of which are the only visual records of regional subcultures that no longer exist

PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM

On my first trip through India when I was just twenty, I realized that I was accessing many regions and subcultures that had never been recorded. Although I knew I was a competent writer, I recognized that I also needed to make a visual record of what I was seeing. I’ve always been unusually observant. My father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were accomplished amateur photographers, and yet I had never studied the craft.

I began by taking thousands of images of what I saw. When my first book, Village India, was commissioned and produced by Harry N Abrams, a fine art publisher, I realized that I needed to improve my photographic skills. In consequence, I took several master classes at the renowned Maine Photographic Workshops. After just weeks of intense study, my images were immeasurably better. Since then, I have published five more fully illustrated books, had dozens of major museum exhibitions of my photographs, and am known as a leading image-maker. More important than these, though, is my archive of more than 200,000 images, many of which are the only visual records of regional subcultures that no longer exist. I am in the process of giving all of those images to public archives in India and the United States to be digitized and freely available for posterity.

SEE INDIA THROUGH STEPHEN’S EYES