The recently concluded photography exhibition ‘Lenscape Kerala’ captures varied and fresh views of the Southern land of spices.
That Kerala is God’s own Country is perhaps one of the most used descriptions for the state. It is also one of the most photographed, after Kashmir perhaps. For a photographer to find new ways to talk about the state, is indeed a challenge. One that is ably met by ‘Lenscape Kerala’. This recent exhibition, sponsored by Kerala Tourism photography, featured 100 images by ten acclaimed photographers and was held at the Travancore Palace, New Delhi, from January 20-23, 2026. The exhibition showcased diverse landscapes, including forests, hills, backwaters, and coastal life, alongside cultural and wildlife scenes, curated by Uma Nair.
“Amongst 10 photographers, lovers of travel and tourism can gaze at the beauty of colour tones as well as black and white regalia. We can appreciate too the reality of aging beautifully within Kerala’s coastal humidity and sense street scenes and everyday idioms that emphasise sight lines as well as a preservation of architectural brilliance while encouraging pause in a world that runs amok in races within races,” says Nair.
It was inaugurated by Kerala Tourism Minister P A Mohamed Riyas online on January 20. Suman Billa, IAS, Additional Secretary and Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, was the Chief Guest at the function held on Tuesday.
Bending the rules a bit, and editing the maxim ‘see freely and frame honestly’, Natasha Kartar Hemrajani creates art-photography that plays with the colour red. “Red is the colour that denotes, passion, spice, excitement and yes it is also the CPIM colour,” said Hemrajani whose work does take on all these aspects of the colour red interwoven with images of dancers, architectural structures, CPIM works as shadowy figures on scooters and famers in their fields.
Sharing his experience of Wildlife photographer Umesh Gogna describes capturing “one of the rarest pictures” — a face-off between two endangered species the Great Hornbill and Nilgiri Langur noting that even Madhavan, after 40 years in the field, had never witnessed such a moment.
Shivang Mehta is another photographer whose use of light and dark stood out in the mix of beautiful landscapes. Working primarily in black and white, Mehta brings to the fore the synergy of nature and its birds swimming across the dark waters of a lake and tiny insects like spiders, hiding in their web under the rocks. An international award-winning wildlife photographer and the best-selling author of ‘A Decade with Tigers’ and ‘Chasing Horizons: Learnings from Africa’, Mehta has donned many hats in his long career, including that of a journalist and a PR professional.
The other photographers whose works are at the exhibition include Aishwarya Sridhar, Amit Pasricha, H Satish, Manoj Arora, Saibal Sas, and Saurabh Anand- Chatterjee. Sridhar who works with National Geographic was the other woman photographer and her aerial view captured Kerala’s verdant landscape in shades of green. Arora’s image reveals an exquisitely carved pillars, tiled roofed corridors arranged in perfect symmetry, descending with geometrical precision to reach the darkness within. Capturing the inner realms of the temples and museums in Kerala were challenging but also spiritually uplifting.
The exhibition brought to the fore that despite the short time of just five days to shoot their photographs, these talented photographers captured rare and personalized views of the land of spices bringing a new variety of artistic imagery to the fore.
Georgina is an independent critic-curator with 18 years of experience in the field of Indian art and culture. She blurs the lines of documentation, theory and praxis by involving herself in visual art projects. Besides writing on immersive art for STIRworld, she is a regular contributor for The Hindu, MASH Mag and Architectural Digest.
