Celebrating 10 Years of Mumbai Street Photography
October 2025 marks an important milestone in my life as a photographer. It has been ten years since I began photographing the streets of Mumbai professionally. The city has been my classroom, my inspiration, and my constant challenge. Looking back to 2015, I can still recall the excitement of stepping into its chaos with the intention of turning that energy into photographs. By November of that same year, I landed my first major publication. One of my images was chosen for the cover of the German edition of Le Monde Diplomatique. That moment gave me the confidence to move forward and showed me that my work had the potential to connect with audiences far beyond the streets I walked. I remain deeply grateful to Le Monde Diplomatique for that early recognition, which helped propel me into a professional path I still follow today.
From 2015 to 2025, this journey has been both unpredictable and rewarding. Mumbai never stands still. The city transforms daily and every walk brings something new. I have spent countless hours exploring neighborhoods, train platforms, alleys, markets, and waterfronts. I have photographed under the blistering sun, in the torrential downpours of the monsoon, and in the quiet glow of evening light. Even with ten years of work behind me, I feel as though I have barely touched the surface. There are places I have yet to explore, streets I have yet to walk, and moments waiting to unfold in ways I cannot predict. That sense of endless possibility is part of what keeps me returning with my camera, always eager to see what new scenes or faces the city will reveal.
To mark this anniversary, I created a video. It is not a slideshow of still photographs but a visual diary of moving moments gathered over the past decade. It captures what I experience behind the lens on an ordinary day, without assistants, without elaborate setups, just the raw atmosphere of Mumbai as it unfolds around me. These are the living, breathing rhythms of a city that never allows you to stand still.
Remembering Firoze Shakir
Among the images and clips in the video are moments spent with my late friend and fellow photographer, Firoze Shakir. Firoze passed away in December 2024, leaving behind not just a body of work but also a spirit of generosity that touched countless people. His presence in my early years in Mumbai was invaluable. Firoze was one of the first to welcome me into the city’s photography community. He did not simply say hello and walk away. He opened doors. He invited me into worlds that I would never have discovered on my own. He introduced me to people whose stories enriched my understanding of the city. He guided me through neighborhoods that would later become part of my ongoing projects.
Firoze had a way of combining poetry with photography. His images often carried the weight of myth and legend, yet they were rooted in the people and places of Mumbai. Spending time with him was always an education. He showed me that photography was not just about capturing what is visible but about sensing the layers of meaning that lie beneath the surface. He reminded me to look not only with my eyes but with patience and respect for the people whose lives we entered, even briefly, with our cameras.
When I think about the early days of my journey in Mumbai, his face is always there. We walked together, shared conversations, and often laughed at the unpredictability of the streets. His friendship gave me both confidence and perspective. Including him in the anniversary video felt essential. It was not a matter of nostalgia but of acknowledgment. His influence is still present in my work. Each time I step out with a camera, I feel his presence. It is in the way I approach people, in the way I search for atmosphere, in the way I try to remain open to what the street wants to give me.
Firoze’s passing left a gap in the community, but his spirit continues to inspire. For me personally, he remains a reminder that photography is not a solitary pursuit. It is a dialogue with the city, with its people, and with those who walk alongside us, sharing the same passion. I am honored to have known him and to carry forward even a small piece of what he embodied.
Looking Ahead
Ten years of photographing Mumbai’s streets have shaped me in ways I could not have imagined when I first arrived with a camera in hand. The city has been my foundation, my testing ground, and my muse. It gave me a way to understand not only photography but also myself. I learned to embrace chaos, to anticipate unpredictability, and to see beauty in fleeting encounters. Now, as I step into the next chapter, my focus is beginning to shift.
Street photography will always remain part of who I am. I will continue to walk the streets and photograph people, but my work is no longer centered solely on those spontaneous moments. The next phase of my journey will take me more deeply into fine art. I find myself less concerned with the rapid pace of sharing images online and more drawn toward creating work that demands time, attention, and physical presence.
This does not mean the street disappears from my practice. The photographs I make in Mumbai will still live on through my website, my blog, and my galleries. They remain the foundation of everything I do. But going forward, my priority will be to transform those lessons from the street into works designed for print and other tangible forms. A print on the wall invites a different kind of engagement. It slows the experience, allows for reflection, and turns a passing moment into something lasting.
I want to explore life as a photographer who has gradually turned into an artist. The distinction is not about leaving one behind but about evolving into a broader vision. I want to take what I have learned from Mumbai, its pace, its complexity, its humanity, and apply those lessons to an entirely different way of seeing the world. This means working not just with the immediacy of the street but also with ideas that grow slowly, that develop into series and bodies of work meant to be lived with, not just scrolled past.
After a decade of chasing moments in a city that never stops moving, I am ready to enter a stage where patience, craftsmanship, and permanence become my guiding principles. It feels like a natural progression, the next step in a journey that began with the streets of Mumbai but now stretches outward toward a different horizon.
