Second edition of the travelling festival has opened on October 10, 2025, featuring four major exhibitions dedicated to the memory of Tarun Bhartiya
Navajivan Trust, in collaboration with Museo Camera, presents the second edition of the National Photography Festival (NPF) from October 11-27, 2025. The festival opened with a special preview on October 10 at 6:00 pm, followed by a screening of filmmaker Tarun Bhartiya’s Brief Life of Insects. The entire festival is dedicated to Bhartiya’s memory.
The exhibition brings together works from four celebrated photographers and projects, each addressing significant social and cultural themes in Indian history and contemporary life.
The Exhibitions
Nemai Ghosh: Dialogue with the Camera (Curated by Ina Puri) showcases the work of Satyajit Ray’s visual chronicler. Trained in theatre lighting, Ghosh developed a mastery of natural light that brought striking depth to his photographs. His lens captured not only Ray’s film sets but also Kolkata’s cultural life and portraits of artists across India.
Mukesh Parpiyani: Tragedy at Midnight highlights five decades of photojournalism, editorial work, and curation. Parpiani covered major events including the Bhopal gas tragedy and Gujarat riots. As curator at NCPA’s Piramal Art Gallery, he organized over 250 exhibitions and archived more than 100,000 images, establishing photography’s place as an art form in India.
Tarun Bhartiya: EM | NO | नहीं and Niam / Faith / Hynniewtrep: Unaddressed Picture Postcards from Khasi-Jaintia Hills documents thirteen years of research into faith, identity, and nation-making among the Khasi-Jaintia people of Northeast India. Bhartiya’s work examines a 2006 religious revival and draws on Welsh Calvinist Methodist Missionary Archives to explore the politics of identity-making.
Sunil Adesara: The Anand Pattern revisits the 1946 origins of India’s dairy cooperative movement. Led by Tribhuvandas Patel and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Gujarat farmers united against exploitation to form what became AMUL. The project traces how this collective model laid the foundation for the White Revolution that made India the world’s largest milk producer.
About the Organizers
Navajivan Trust was founded in 1919 by Mahatma Gandhi as a vehicle for social awakening through communication. Beginning as a weekly newspaper, it now maintains over 800 published titles and preserves an archive of Gandhian writings including Young India, Harijan, and Navajivan. The Trust initiated the National Photography Festival as a platform for artists whose work carries cultural and social meaning.
Museo Camera represents a partnership between the Government of Haryana through the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram and the India Photo Archive Foundation (IPAF). The museum provides a platform for historical and contemporary photography, supporting both emerging and established artists. As a non-profit endeavor, any earnings are reinvested to further the museum’s aims of promoting photography as an art form and medium of human expression.
The festival runs through panel discussions, workshops, portfolio reviews, and screenings alongside the exhibitions. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am to 7 pm, and closed on Mondays.
Exhibition Dates: October 11-27, 2025
Location: Museo Camera, Gurugram
All Image courtesy: Museo Camera
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