Abul Kalam Azad

Abul Kalam Azad (born 24 September 1964) is a noted contemporary Indian photographer.

Abul's photographic works are predominantly autobiographical and expose the areas of politics, culture, contemporary history, gender and eroticism.

His works attempts a re-reading of contemporary Indian history – the history in which ordinary people are absent and mainly provided by beautiful images and icons.

Abul's works makes an active intervention in the common illustrative discourse of this history.

Using the same tool, photography, that chisels history out of a block of ‘real’ human experiences, Abul makes a parody of it.

'Overall, the corpus of Azad's work can be seen to have a thrust towards an archive of local micro-history at the level of personal memory and in that sense, his works add up to a kind of social anthropology of his land and its people, though not necessarily in the line of tradition of the objective documentary'.

Abul Kalam Azad is the visionary behind EtP Ekalokam Trust for Photography, a Trust dedicated to preserving and promoting contemporary Photography.

He is also the Director of Project 365, a public photo art project that collectively creates and preserves photographic visuals of the fast changing culture and lifestyle of ancient Tamilakam.

He is the Editor-in-Chief of Photo Mail online magazine.

Abul was born in Kerala (24 September 1964) to a migrant family from Tamil Nadu and was brought up in Mattancherry, the historical heart of Kochi.

Abul's talents as a photographer was evident from childhood and he joined as an apprentice in a hometown studio to develop his skills.

During the 1980s he set up 'Zen studio' at Mattancherry and started working with many prominent news agencies, newspapers, and in periodicals in India and Abroad.

He moved to Delhi in the year 1990 and worked as a photo-journalist with Press Trust of India (1990–1996), New Delhi Bureau.

During this time he traveled for further studies to Europe.

He was supported by various scholarships, one of which was granted to him by the French Government.

Azad started experimenting different sorts of painted photographs starting early 1990s.

His first exhibition 'Frontier People' was held at Kerala Kaladeepam in the year 1994.

He also received a Charles Wallace Award (fellowship 1995), UK.

He left the promising photo-journalist career to follow his passion 'art photography'.

1995 Charles Wallace Award for Masters in the UK 1994 French Government Scholarship for higher studies in photography

Using the medium of Analog photography, Azad documents his personal and social life.

His works could largely be associated with the place he lives, the social-political dynamics of the period, the technological advancement etc., and very much pertains to the local culture and historical context.

Abul worked as Photo-journalist and editor in several magazines and news papers which is reflected in the works done during this period.

He traveled for higher studies to Europe and London which has greatly influenced his works.

Painted photography also referred to as Hand-colouring of photographs refers to manually adding colour to a black-and-white photograph print, generally either to heighten the realism of the photograph or for artistic purposes.

His first National level exhibition 'Violence Undone' was held in Max Muller Bhavan, New Delhi in the year 1996.

Since then, Abul's work has been exhibited widely in India and Abroad.

Coming back to his native Mattancherry in the year 2000, he set up Mattancherry's his studio 'Mayalokam' in the inspiring labyrinth of the ancient warehouses, between the Bazaar Road and the Harbour front.

Soon, Mayalokam studio became a cultural hub for locals, national and international artists / enthusiasts from various discipline.

Eventually, Mayalokam became Mayalokam Art Collective to include other artists – Emma Burke-gaffney, Gayatri Gamuz and Anand Felix Scaria.

The collective space comprised Mayalokam studio, Lila gallery, Masala company design store and Badal, an alternate shop.

Art Exhibitions and Free music (interactive music concert between locals and professional musicians) took place on a regular basis.

In the year 2001, 'Encounter', Kochi's first contemporary art festival, sort of precursor to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale was initiated by Mayalokam Art Collective and Kashi Art Cafe.

The festival took place at Mayalokam Art collective and Kashi art cafe.

Prominent artists and academicians like Ajayan Namboothri, Jose Manuel Val, Bawa Chelladurai, Suresh Jayaram, Vivek Vilasini, Dr. Rajan Gurukal took part in the fortnight long art festival which included film screenings, book reading sessions, plays, art exhibitions and seminars.

Mayalokam Art collective was officially dissolved in the year 2005 and Abul's Mayalokam studio continued in the same building till 2010.

Abul Kalam Azad moved to Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu in the year 2010.

2012 – 2014 Senior Fellowship, Ministry of Culture, Government of India

Here Abul Kalam Azad initiated the formation of Ekalokam Trust for Photography which was registered as a non-profit foundation in the year 2013, co-founded by Kulanthivel and Tulsi Swarna Lakshmi.

2017 & 2018 India Foundation for the Arts Grantee