There’s a good reason why Hyderabad has a special love for photography. Every year, the city hosts the Indian Photo Festival, hosting talent from across the globe not only to showcase their works but also to teach budding shutterbugs the tricks of the trade.
Meet the man behind India’s longest-running international photography festival which entered its seventh year in 2021. Aquin Mathews, the founder and director of the festival, has been making photography accessible by taking it to audiences afar. He has made the festival one of the leading photography events in South Asia, thereby putting the city on the world map.
A Hyderabad-based full-time commercial photographer shuttling between Australia and India, Aquin speaks about the photo festival which concluded last week at the State Gallery of Art, Madhapur. “The festival creates a platform for educating and engaging the young and emerging photography talent from the country through grants, workshops, portfolio reviews, talks and seminars.
This year, we did a hybrid edition which was more challenging. We were working with different formats. The festival launch and book release of renowned Indian photojournalist Prashant Panjiar saw a full house,” says Mathews.
The State Art Gallery housed physical exhibitions for an entire month, drawing students from various colleges and visitors from across the country. “Even though all the interactive sessions were virtual, we organised it just like a physical festival. For stats, we had 12 art talks, two panel discussions, two workshops, five portfolio review sessions and three screenings,” he says.
The response was such that every talk had an average of 250 attendees from different countries, including the USA, UK, Germany, France, Nepal, Russia, UAE, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, among others. “This was possible as the event was virtual and could reach a wider audience. What we missed were the physical interactions. We hope to get back to the physical form of interaction through talks, reviews and workshops in the next edition,” Aquin says.
Aquin has judged several photography competitions and has been a speaker at various art and literary festivals. He is also the director of the Hyderabad Centre for Photography, a space dedicated to contemporary photography.