Swapan Parekh, son of the legendary photojournalist Kishor Parekh is one of the seminal visionaries of Contemporary Indian Photography who has introduced the documentary aesthetic to Indian advertising photography. His work conveys spontaneity; even in controlled environments; opening new avenues to contemporary photography which he describes as "celebration of the ordinary".

Besides being the recipient of the World Press Photo Award in 1994, he has also been on their jury thrice (2004, 2005, & 2008). He was awarded ‘The Advertising Photographer of the Year’ from the Commercial Artists’ Guild in the year 2000.

Swapan studied photojournalism and documentary photography at the International Center of Photography, New York in the 1980s. After early years of practicing documentary photography, over the last two decades he has been pursuing his own personal ambitions, both in Colour and Black & White.

His photographs have been exhibited internationally in leading museums like the FOAM, Tate Modern and Aperture. His work has been featured in magazines like, Time, Life, American Photo, The London Independent, Der Speigel and El Pais.

Workshop at Chobi Mela: Shaping A Vision

Swapan will conduct a three day workshop starting January 25 to January 27, 2015 which will emphasize the process of "looking" at the work intimately to think beyond the "predetermined" projects.

For the participants, it would be important to confront the parameter of any school of thought, where everything should be about a 'body of work'. As the workshop goes along, Swapan will also share his own journey as a photographer to discuss how an individual vision needs to shape up. And in addition, how to print one's work respectfully and what a good print should look like in parameters of both Colour and Black & White.