The Homegrown Festival 2025 Will Bring India’s Boldest Photographers To The Fore

Photographers are the storytellers of our time, capturing the essence of moments and places, and weaving them into the visual commentary of our culture. Through their lenses, they immortalise the emotions, struggles, and triumphs of individuals and communities, offering us a window into diverse experiences. Their work shapes our understanding of the world, reflecting the myriad voices that make up our society. This year, The Homegrown Festival celebrates this artistry, by bringing together photographers, who through their art, amplify voices, challenge perceptions, and enrich our collective visual culture.

Imdad Barbhuyan has a knack for finding poetry in the everyday. He is known for his powerful image-making within themes of melancholia, memory, intimacy, and desire. Through a practice of mapping narratives off of visual cues, perfected over the years, he has created his own lens of looking at the different aspects of human experience and exploration. His recent project, 'I Watched My Mother Cry,' intertwines feminine grief with planetary crises, reflecting shared experiences of fragility and resilience. In 'Poetry of My Land,' Barbhuyan invites us into the intimate embrace of Assam, his homeland, capturing its essence with a poet’s sensitivity. Another notable work, 'Benu: A Full Circle,' delves into sisterhood, documenting his mother and her friend revisiting the landscapes of their youth, clad in golden memories.

Kirti Narain is a Mumbai-based photographer and filmmaker specializing in mixed media storytelling. Blending documentary-style narratives with bold, artistic experimentation, her work spans from fashion to music. She skillfully balances brand work for the likes of National Geographic India, Gucci, and Coke Studio Global, with social impact projects like 'Women: Idol to Ideal.' Her ongoing photo series focuses on creating a space to imagine a gender-neutral world in the twenty-first century, delving into the irony of having a woman be both a goddess and a victim, challenging viewers to rethink ingrained perceptions. Narain's visual style is characterized by a vibrant interplay of colors and textures, often incorporating elements of surrealism to challenge societal norms and provoke thought.

Indrajit Khambe is a documentary photographer dedicated to capturing human narratives and documenting his family. Since beginning his photographic journey in 2012, he has immersed himself in diverse subjects, including the Dashavatar Theater, the wrestlers of Kolhapur, and local fishing communities. His work exudes a reverence for authenticity and interconnectedness, allowing his subjects to 'be' in their natural environments. In his video series, 'Hampi: The Land Beyond Landscape,' Khambe moves beyond the storied ruins to capture the unfiltered rhythm of rural life, documenting local farmers, children, and villagers in their daily activities. His visual style is marked by an unpretentious earnestness, with a focus on the natural world as his biggest source of inspiration.

Join us at The Homegrown Festival, where these photographers invite us into their worlds; each image a doorway to stories waiting to be told.

Brand Labs - Our partners and collaborators will be hosting a series of brand labs and activations over the course of the Homegrown Festival 2025. You can expect to see a whole host of exciting pop-ups from Black & White, Adidas Vibes, Tata Motors, Royal Enfield Royal Enfiled, Stone X, New Era, Fila, Heineken, and AIX.

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