Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri

Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri is an Indian artist, film director, and photographer.

Pal-Chaudhuri has collaborated with Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, and Kanye West.

Her work was discovered by David Bowie and Iman (model) who commissioned her first album cover for "Heathen" and later Bowie launched her directorial debut, commissioning her first major music video, for his song "Valentine's Day" exploring the mind of a high school shooter, on his album The Next Day.

Pal-Chaudhuri was born in Kolkata, India, in 1983, raised in the historic palace of her traditional Zamindar family, and accompanied her British mother as a volunteer with Mother Teresa and the Ramakrishna Mission.

Both her parents were accountants, and her Rastafarian stepfather was a musician and counselor.

She witnessed "the devastating poverty that stood in stark contrast to her own childhood" in India, which motivated her to someday make a difference in the area.

In Canada she experienced racism with her family and represented her African-Canadian stepfather and her Jamaican family in court against illegal evictions and medications that caused his debilitating diabetes that he ultimately died from.

Pal-Chaudhuri began modeling and acting at age 14, to study photography and filmmaking with artists around the world.

She was featured in publications including Vogue, Glamour, Elle and in campaigns and commercials for Marie Claire, Benetton, MAC Cosmetics, VH1, Luxottica, Paul Mitchell, and Nescafe.

At 18, Pal-Chaudhuri returned to India for a 6-month solo pilgrimage, and used her modeling earnings to turn her family home into a charitable school, to give girls a better future.

She named the foundation Shakti Regeneration Institute and the school Shakti Empowerment Education Foundation, and currently supports over 300 students annually, both girls and boys, and provides women with literacy and vocational training, as well as microfinancing, and continues as the school's executive director.

After high school, Pal-Chaudhuri met Markus Klinko, a classical harpist, who became a regular collaborator and the two began working together as the photography duo Markus + Indrani.

According to Fast Company, "When Markus Klinko and Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri teamed up...both were already stars—Klinko as a classical harpist and Pal-Chaudhuri as a fashion model. Now they are famous for their iconic images."

Pal-Chaudhuri received a scholarship to Princeton University where she studied cultural anthropology while working as a photographer in NYC.

An advocate of cultural regeneration, at Princeton she campaigned and reinstated the study of Sanskrit, and led a student initiative to create a program in South Asian Studies.

She graduated with a High Honors AB in Anthropology.

Pal-Chaudhuri works as a photographer, a director, director of photography, and producer of films, music videos, and commercials.

While Pal-Chaudhuri was a student at Princeton, David Bowie and Iman discovered her photography and commissioned her first album cover for Heathen and I am Iman with Klinko.

Pal-Chaudhuri's fashion work was discovered by Isabella Blow, who commissioned cover stories for the London Sunday Times.

Around the same time, Ingrid Sischy at Interview magazine commissioned various shoots.

Pal-Chaudhuri credits Blow, Bowie, and Iman for mentoring her and encouraging her to push her creative boundaries.

Pal-Chaudhuri created album covers for Beyoncé's Dangerously in Love and Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster (Collector's Ed), Mary J. Blige's The Breakthrough and Mariah Carey's comeback Emancipation of Mimi and directed their music videos.

Pal-Chaudhuri has created the branding image for clients including Pepsi, Nike, L'Oréal, Shiseido, Lancome, Jaguar, LVMH, Hugo Boss, Anna Sui, Wolford, BNP Paribas, Elizabeth Arden, Pantene, Carol's Daughter and MAC.

An exhibition at the Pacific Design Center LA was presented by the Lucie Foundation in concert with the Month of Photography Los Angeles and the Farmani Gallery, and the Icons exhibition of her work was presented by The Angel Orensanz Foundation for Contemporary Art NY and Bravo TV to celebrate "Double Exposure" on 16 June 2010.

"The Legend of Lady White Snake" short film, with a poem by science fiction writer Neil Gaiman, "The Hidden Chamber" written and directed by Pal-Chaudhuri, is a re-imagining of an ancient Asian story, starring Daphne Guinness in costumes by GK Reid and Alexander McQueen.

"Till Human Voices Wake Us", a short film produced by Rick Schwartz, was written and directed by Pal-Chaudhuri, creative directed and executive produced by GK Reid, and stars Lindsay Lohan.

In 2013 David Bowie launched Pal-Chaudhuri's directorial career with her first major music video for his "Valentine's Day", exploring the mind of a high school mass shooter, and her work and interviews are featured in the HBO / BBC Film David Bowie: The Last Five Years. Francis Whatley in an interview about the HBO / BBC documentary with Michael Bonner in The Uncut describes Valentine's Day as "Indrani's video. It is compelling. I think she captured something about him – and the story around how she did it is quite interesting...She had to draw out of him that he was singing about a killer."

Pal-Chaudhuri's work has been published in over 30 books and shown in over 20 exhibitions, and her portrait of Beyonce is on permanent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. In 2013 the Lincoln Center presented a week-long 30-piece public art exhibition Icons, to accompany the release of the photobook, Icons: The celebrity exposures of Markus and Indrani.

Icons was described as "High-concept and hyperrealism commingle" by Kimberley Jones for The Austin Chronicle.

She made a video and stills campaign with TBWA-Chiat-Day for Keep a Child Alive against AIDS in India and Africa.

Pal-Chaudhuri directed a short documentary for PSI and the UN's Nothing But Nets featuring ambassador actress Mandy Moore.

She directed The Girl Epidemic to raise awareness of the millions of girls missing in Asia due to human trafficking, child labor and female infanticide for Project Nanhi Kali with ad agency Strawberry Frog.

Her short "Crescendo," curated by Pepsi's Beats of the Beautiful Game, uses football to empower girls in India in partnership with nonprofits Sambhali Trust, Yuwa, and SEEschool.

Her work has won the Tribeca Film Festival 2019 Disruptive Innovation Award, where she was described as "A leading director and voice for women's empowerment" the CNN Expose Best Picture Award, and two gold Cannes Lions.

Her editorial clients include Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, and Interview magazine.

Brands such as Nike, Pepsi, L'Oréal Paris, Lancôme, LVMH, Hugo Boss, Anna Sui, Skyy Vodka, and Remy Martin have hired Pal-Chaudhuri to create advertising campaigns.

Her campaign for Keep A Child Alive raised over 3.5 million dollars and over 1.5 billion impressions, to provide anti-retroviral treatment for families with HIV in Africa and India.

Described as a "rad feminist" by Julianne E. Shepherd, editor-in-chief of Jezebel, and as "an activist filmmaker tackling some of the biggest issues facing the world," Pal-Chaudhuri is a human rights, sustainability, diversity, LGBTQIA+ and women's empowerment advocate.

Recognized by the United Nations as a Women's Entrepreneurship Distinguished Fellow, a Max Mark-Cranbrook Global Peacemaker, Co-Host of the Global People's Summit at the United Nations, Organizer and Host of the Princeton University Lewis Center "Art of Anti-Racism and Social Justice " symposium.

She is also a Princeton University Visiting Lecturer on "Moving Millions with Art and Film for Human Rights and Social Justice."