Mahesh Shantaram is an independent photographer based in Bangalore. He uses personal and subjective documentary photography to study complex systems and institutions in contemporary Indian society.
Everything that's great about India and everything that's wrong with it can be summarised in a single wedding. In 'Matrimania', Shantaram constructs a fictional photo series on Indian society seen through the prism of its wedding culture. 'Matrimania' was published as a photobook by Hatje Cantz in 2018.
In Last Days of Manmohan born during the tumultuous days leading into India's hotly contested general elections of 2014, (mis)using the tools of news photojournalism to document political culture in India, Shantaram offered a window into the theatre of Indian-style politics and its state actors. The BJP (the one in London, not Delhi) put him on their Ones to Watch list in 2015.
In The African Portraits, Shantaram looks at the difficult subject of racism in India through anecdotes and stories of Black expats and students. This project marked his foray into photographic portraiture and activism, and won the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts photobook award in 2018.
Shantaram obtained a degree in Computer Electronics from St. Joseph’s College (Bangalore) in 1998 and went on to offset the error by earning a diploma in photography from Speos (Paris) in 2005. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Photography at the Belfast School of Art (Ulster University).
