Interview with Aquin Mathews: How Indian Photo Festival is shaping India's visual narrative

The Indian Photo Festival comes every year like spring. The two-month colourful event not only brings soul-filling art and narratives to the city but also instils new ideas in the minds of young photographers. Though running a photography festival is no easy task, Aquin Mathews, an Australia-based Indian photographer, made it look effortless. In his interview with THE WEEK, Mathews has shared important insights into the festival of colours and storytelling.

1) You have an interesting background. A Malayali by birth,  settled as a photographer in Australia, and chose Hyderabad to conduct this fantastic festival.

Yeah, that’s true. (He smiles.) I was born and raised in Kerala,  studied tech and worked in the IT sector for about seven years in Hyderabad. Because of my passion for photography, I started working as a full-time photographer in Australia—mainly commercial fashion photography. But even while doing fashion for a living, I did all kinds of photography. Being a photographer, you tend to capture everything interesting — wildlife, street, portraiture. That's what makes you an artist.

2. How did the idea for a photo festival in India come about?

There's a culture of photo festivals, especially outside India. These festivals are a big melting pot and meeting point for photographers, not just from that country but from around the world. Each photographer has a story, and listening to the iconic ones who made an impact with their images is fascinating. I kept attending these festivals, and when I was part of one in Sydney, it took me back to my early years in India while I was picking up photography. I thought I'd love something similar in my own country — highly beneficial for photographers already practising as well as those wanting to get into it.

India was late to the scene — a country like Bangladesh had a photo festival since 2000, and India didn't even have one when we were starting. A couple of festivals came up around that time, like Delhi Photo Festival and Goa Photo Festival, but they couldn't continue for long. I started this one in Hyderabad in 2015. The government was very supportive at that time, which is one of the main reasons we've stuck around in Hyderabad. We've been doing this for the past 12 years now.

3. How did you come to Hyderabad?

I moved to Hyderabad in 2005 as part of my work, and I've been living here since. Hyderabad is my base in India — my parents live in the US, so I don't have immediate relatives elsewhere in India. Now, I live in Hyderabad for about three to four months.

4. What role does the festival play beyond just showcasing photography?

A photo festival matters as a cultural event and as a platform for photographers in India. A festival exposes you to different kinds of work from around the world, and that exposure is important — both for photographers and for the people. We try to use the festival to talk about various topical social issues from different parts of the world. There are a lot of common issues. Human trafficking is there in India; it’s there in Brazil; deforestation or conservation covered by a photographer from South Africa applies just as much in India. So, people connect across these issues through the medium of photography, and we create awareness. It also helps photographers see new work from different parts of the world and gives Indian photographers a platform to show their work to a wider audience — a great opportunity for their career as well as their craft.

5. Tell me a little about the IPF partnership with National Geographic.

National Geographic gives grants to photographers to pursue projects — conservation and similar work. Every year, Nat Geo sends an editor or photographer to Hyderabad to run a free workshop for photographers here. We have been doing this for seven years now. As a result, around 15 photographers who attended these workshops or portfolio reviews have gone on to receive grants worth up to 2 crores in total.

6. You've also given grants directly to photographers for two years, in 2019 and 2020.

Yes. Festival budgets are always a challenge in a country like India — we get very little sponsorship. But whenever we have money, we give grants to photographers, because it's very difficult for a photographer to survive here otherwise. You get very little money unless you're doing wedding photography, fashion or similar commercial work. The core of photography is telling a story that creates awareness or impact in society—anyone can take a pretty picture, but what your image means to viewers is different. We try to encourage photographers to pick up topics that are impactful to society.

7. How has the festival grown since its start?

We never started small; we have been big from the very beginning. Having been to various festivals myself, I knew we had to match the standards of international photo festivals, and we never compromised on quality—especially the photographers we bring and the work we exhibit. That's why organisations like National Geographic came on board as partners; they saw something worth supporting. We've consistently kept that standard up.

8. Can you name some of the well-known photographers IPF brought here?

The whole idea of the festival is to bring in iconic photographers who've changed how the world sees things through their images. Nick Ut, who shot the "Napalm Girl" photograph from the Vietnam War — once that photograph came out, people questioned the US, and the war effectively came to an end- gave a talk and held an exhibition here. Stuart Franklin, who took the "Tank Man" photograph in Tiananmen Square, was also here. Ron Haviv, whose image was used in the International Court of Justice to help convict war criminals in Bosnia, attended an edition. Raghu Rai, who has documented India extensively, has been here several times for talks and workshops. Carol Guzy, the only photographer or journalist in the world with four Pulitzer Prizes, has also worked with us. Every year we bring someone who's done something distinctive in the craft.

9. What kind of workshops do you run, and how do they benefit photographers?

There's a difference between taking a photograph and making one. A photograph is connected not just to the head but to the heart — without feeling, an image stays just an image and doesn't create a connection. When a photographer brings emotion and personal vision, the photograph becomes more powerful and creates a connection with the viewer. All our workshops are built around that idea.

One masterclass we run every year helps photographers develop a vision for a project — how to start it, how to end it and how to properly edit and sequence the images so they tell a story, much like a film has an opening shot, connecting images, key images and a closing shot. We teach them to fine-tune that vision and execute the project so it can connect with a wide audience, whether through a magazine or an exhibition.

Then there's the Nat Geo workshop, where their editors — who choose to work for the magazine — teach what kind of photograph works and what doesn't, and help photographers fine-tune their approach, including how to write a grant application. We also run street photography workshops and workshops for amateurs who just want to take good pictures without pursuing photography professionally. Alongside these, we run a series of artist talks with photojournalists, portrait photographers and wildlife photographers, which are themselves a kind of masterclass — hearing their stories and seeing their images is very inspiring for photographers here.

10. The festival exhibits work at public spaces such as KBR National Park — is that following any international model?

It's not about following an international standard—it's about democratising photography. Photography is already democratised in the sense that everyone has a camera now, in the form of a mobile phone. Earlier it was accessible mainly to professionals, given the cost and skill involved; now everyone has a camera. So the idea is to take the work to the public. We do public exhibitions not just at KBR Park but at Durgam Cheruvu, sometimes at metro stations, airports, colleges and other public spaces.

We even had a project with TSRTC that ran for about three years—we converted a TSRTC bus into a full-fledged photo gallery, with white walls and gallery-style photographs inside. Not everyone comes to a gallery exhibition, so we want to take the art to the public — someone passing through a metro station gets a piece of the festival, and some of them get interested enough to see the rest of the work at the gallery.

11. What kind of numbers are we talking about — speakers, students, visitors, the overall footfall?

Every year we have at least 15 to 20 speakers, from India and other parts of the world. On footfall — we have an opening week, the first four days, where most of the programming happens, since a lot of people travel to Hyderabad from across India for the festival. During that week, we get around 15,000 people at the art gallery. The festival then runs for almost two months in total, and across that period the overall visitor count is around 50,000–52,000. We want to grow that number further through more marketing — a lot of people still don't know about the festival.

12. Do you plan to do anything with MOOCs or reach out to journalism colleges?

We are not a full-time organisation. This is mostly a voluntary setup with no full-time employees. During the festival, photographers from different parts of the world come together to run it; afterwards, the team disbands, and everyone goes back to their respective lives until the next year. So, we can't run things the way a standing organisation could. Online classes are good, but the festival is about physical, one-on-one, face-to-face interaction, which is especially important when it comes to art. You have to see and feel the work. An image like the Nick Ut Vietnam photograph has little impact on a six-inch phone screen or a 15-inch laptop screen, but seen as a large print in a gallery, it has real impact. We'd rather meet and interact with people in the traditional way than add another online offering.

13. What's the deadline for this year's IPF submissions, and how do people apply?

The deadline is August 30th. They can log into the website: www.indianphotofest.com . They can fill out and submit an online form.