Robi Chakrabotry art exhibtion
Join us at the Alliance on August 27 at 6pm for a reception for France en Lumière, an exhibit featuring photography by Robi Chakraborty. Admission is free, and registration is encouraged!
Please consider registering and making a $10 donation to support cultural programs like this one. Your support helps benefit our entire community. The exhibit is open to visitors during our regular hours from August 27 to September 26, 2026.
About the artist
“I was inspired to choose photography while growing up around a family friend who took photos on many of our trips together in Kenya. As a young adult, I studied photography under O.P. Sharma at Triveni Kala Sangam Photography, New Delhi, India. I then worked in commercial and press photography in New Delhi. A highlight was working with Blossom Kochhar and photographing her models in New Delhi before I moved to the US in 1985.
Having lived for many years in the US, Nepal, and Africa, and being Indian-American, I feel my citizenship is one that is more global and anthropological. I feel I can often bring a foreign lens or a new perspective to what may be culturally familiar to me. I returned to India in 1998 after 13 years abroad. It was as if I was looking at a previous life experience.India and Nepal fascinate and pull me artistically: I feel like I am looking both from the outside in and the inside out. I discover something new every time I visit my country of origin, as each state in India has distinct languages and customs. India is rapidly changing. The big cities are looking more and more like the West with new townships, highway flyovers, and new airports. I focus on India, which is less affected by these changes, and the villages that are ancient and timeless in their beauty. I also photograph parts of culture that are becoming extinct, such as the elder women of the Apatani Tribe in Arunachal Pradesh, who are the last generation to have facial tattoos. I have also spent time recently photographing the way of life of the Konyak people in Nagaland, India.
My photography has thus focused on the people and landscapes of India, Nepal, and the United States. I also had the privilege to visit many European cities. I especially enjoyed photographing in Paris. I shoot with both 35 mm and medium format black-and-white and color slide film. I had a solo exhibition on the people of India at the Minneapolis Photo Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Recent awards include: First prize from National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry for my photo, which was featured in an exhibition in Berlin. and another first-place award from National Geographic photo editor James P. Blair at Photo Place Gallery, Vermont. the Peggy and Mike Kelly Award of Excellence from the Edina Art Center for the photo By the Road, exhibited in show juried by Hend Al-Mansour and Mary Roettger, October 2009; exhibited Gypsy Girl in Portrait Exhibition juried by David Little, Curator of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, January 2010; exhibited On the Road in Landscape Unfeigned or Illusory juried by Todd Bradow, Director of FEP-Paris, at the Mpls Photo Center, May-June 2010; On the Road and the photos exhibited in Landscape Unfeigned or Illusory were published in a book with the same title; exhibited several photos in Toward the Spiritual in Art and Erotica at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Washington, DC, January-February 2004 and March 2005 respectively; Moonscape accompanied story on Canyonland Utah in the Washington Post.”