About the Photographer

Photography has been a part of my life since childhood when I picked up my first cheap film camera. In the following years my efforts have taken me into the portrait studio, across the globe as a travel photographer, and finally back to the American west to examine the ordinary spaces that I call home.

Bi-racial, tri-ethnic, and part of a minority religious group since birth, I have observed life on the boundaries of many group identities that I have only partially been accepted into. This experience has given me a profound sense of outsider-ness that I have utilized as an expressive tool throughout my career. Far from being detached and objective, my vision is as much an exploration of my tenuous place within the social landscape as it is of the landscape itself. Thus, everything I photograph is an exploration of the complex matrix of who I am.

My ongoing project, Bodies in the Bayou, examines a peculiarity I have felt since moving to Houston, Texas in 2018. Despite being prosperous and culturally diverse the city contains deep undercurrents of poverty and contains communities isolated from one another based on race and class. These contradictions have fostered a sense of both unease and economic possibility that I explore in this body of work. Other projects include examinations of middle-class suburban life, the Hindu diaspora in the U.S. and abroad, abstract conceptual works, and the landscape of the American west.

Most of my work is done the old-fashioned way with film and entirely mechanical cameras. No built in light meters, no exposure preview, no electronic viewfinder. If I get it wrong the picture is ruined. If I get it right then something wonderfully analogue emerges. This process, with all the organic grain and messiness that comes with it, is well suited to my exploration of the sometimes gritty and messy social world of the American west.

I am presently located in Houston, Texas, with my wife, son, and two dogs. A second generation Vaishnava Hindu, I am active in my local Hindu community. In addition to my fine art photography I am an event and portrait photographer in the greater Houston area.