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The Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation’s hunt for impactful images with meaningful stories is now in its fourth year. The latest edition of the CPB Photo Awards saw a significant increase in entries, with over 9,700 from 300 plus cities across India. The five-member jury — including names such as Daniella Zalcman, photojournalist and founder of Women Photograph, Senthil Kumaran, photographer and Nat Geo explorer, and Dinesh Krishnan, photo editor of The Hindu — had a challenge on their hands to choose only 10 winners.
The awards were established in 2019 to recognise and celebrate excellence in photography, but also to emphasise the under-recognised work of regional talent. “While the earlier editions had a greater focus on documentary photography and reportage, photographers from other genres were not able to participate,” says Shuchi Kapoor, co-founder of CPB Foundation. “Inclusion is an important focus of ours and so the fourth edition introduced genres such as Daily Life, Culture and Street Photography, Portraiture. This has allowed photographers from different backgrounds to participate.”
The winners were announced on Thursday at an awards ceremony hosted by The Leela Palace Chennai. We present their works here.
The awards are supported by Sidhant Khanna, Emami Art, Nazar Foundation, Shared Ecologies, The Leela Palace (hospitality partner), Ashvita’s, Ashok Leyland, and The Hindu (media partner).
Thulasi Kakkat, Kochi
Category: Danish Siddiqui Award for Socially Concerned Photography – Photo of the Year
Cash prize: ₹1 lakh
Title: Untitled
In this stark black-and-white capture, Kakkat — a photojournalist with The Hindu and winner of the Kerala Media Akademi Award in 2020 — focuses on Arya and Akshaya. Among the first batch of female students of Kathakali at Kerala Kalamandalam, an institution aimed at preserving the artistic heritage of the State, the two were shot in June practising Kannusadhakam (eye exercises) during their 5 a.m. sadhakam (training) in Thrissur. Their entry in 2021 signalled the end of Kalamandalam’s 90-year-old, male-only tradition
Vishal Bhatnagar, Jaipur
Category: News and Current Affairs – Single Image
Cash prize: ₹50,000
Title: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Road Show In Jaipur
Ahead of the Rajasthan Assembly Elections last November, Bhatnagar captured the Uttar Pradesh chief minister participating in a roadshow atop a bulldozer — in support of BJP candidate Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore from the Jhotwara constituency. Yogi Adityanath may be credited as the ‘creator’ of the bulldozer as a tool for political messaging. “My main focus is editorial photography,” says the self-taught independent photojournalist, who also frames nature and current affairs. “I have a keen interest in capturing moments and understanding the stories behind the photos.”
Surender Solanki, New Delhi
Category: Climate, Environment and Conservation – Single Image
Cash prize: ₹50,000
Title: The ravaging effects of climate change
Last July, Solanki snapped this shot of Saini Nursery residents in Mayur Vihar bringing along their meagre possessions as they climb ladders onto an under construction overpass.
Many villages and farmlands were submerged after the Yamuna flooded due to heavy rainfall, and nearly 35,000 people evacuated their homes. The freelance photographer, who won the National Media Fellowship Award in 2014 for his photo documentary ‘River Yamuna and the Decay of its Culture’, is doing a systematic study on the origins of the Yamuna and its changing face — with a sharp focus on how the development along its banks impact the relationship between the people and the river. His other ongoing project is on the illegal sand mining industry on the river’s banks.
Joseph Rahul, Kochi
Category: Daily Life and Culture – Single Image
Cash prize: ₹50,000
Title: Untitled
Rahul’s practice walks the fine line between documentary and street photography. Like this slice-of-life shot from last year, at the Ochira Parabrahma temple. The independent photographer caught devotees in an unguarded moment, resting during the temple festival. A pair of twins in their finery don sunnies as they relax against their sleeping parents. It’s a short moment of silence before the chendas (drums) start again.
Akilan Thyagarajan, Chennai
Category: Portrait – Single Image
Cash prize: ₹50,000
Title: Untitled
The IT professional with a “keen interest in photographing people and pets” caught this heartwarming moment between a newly-wed Irular couple last February during the Masi Magam festival in Mahabalipuram. “I love to travel across India and meet [different] people,” says Thyagarajan.
Nitin Jain, Pune
Category: Nature and Wildlife – Single Image
Cash prize: ₹50,000
Title: Thief
Jain, who loves to “shoot action in nature”, got his Canon camera out just as a Brahminy kite attempted to snatch a frog from the beak of a Black-headed Ibis in Chilika Lake, Asia’s largest brackish water lagoon in Odisha. “I captured the dramatic moment from a nearby boat,” says the fine arts graduate, adding that the juvenile kite successfully stole the kill.ed the dramatic moment from a nearby boat,” says the fine arts graduate, adding that the juvenile kite successfully stole the kill.
“We were spellbound when the open call closed and we realised that we had received almost 10 times the entries as compared to the previous editions! It is truly heartening to see photographers apply from non-metro cities as well, with important themes and moments. While the awards are being offered to 10 applicants across different categories, our efforts are to ensure that photographers from any background have the opportunity to apply without any financial constraints, and hopefully win. ”Shuchi KapoorCo-founder of CPB Foundation
PHOTO STORIES
Anindito Mukherjee, Noida
Category: Photo Story of the Year
Cash prize: ₹1 lakh
Title: The perils of the smallholders who feed India
Agriculture employs close to half of India’s working population, yet it generates less than a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product. The agricultural system that feeds India’s 1.4 billion people still relies on ill-equipped smallholders. And ironically, farmers often lack enough food and access to financing sources to buffer against shocks. Most turn to credit to manage expenses during the sowing season, but their heavy reliance on rain for irrigation means yields are often volatile — a gamble that’s only getting riskier as the planet warms. Farming can easily become a debt trap, and successive Indian governments have struggled to stem suicides among cultivators.
Rekha Sain harvests peanut stalks from her farm in Badanpur, Jhansi
Nirmal Singh, who lost his father, sister, and elder son to suicide, in his home in Sirsiwala, in Punjab’s Mansa district
| Photo Credit:
ANINDITO
Mukherjee’s photo story captures vignettes from farmers’ lives. “I specialise in capturing compelling narratives within the realms of health, politics, economics, and development,” says the independent photojournalist and documentary photographer, who has worked with The New York Times, Getty Images, Bloomberg, and AFP. “Additionally, I undertake commissioned documentary projects that allow me to delve deep into diverse subjects.”
A farm labour burns a cluster of peanuts to make them edible, in Badanpur, Jhansi
A worker checks his mobile phone on a lean day in Mansa district, Punjab
| Photo Credit:
ANINDITO
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