Ishan Tankha

From A Peal of Spring Thunder – Photograph © Ishan Tankha

Ishan Tankha (b. 1980) is a Delhi-based independent photographer whose work has been featured in a number of publications including Le Monde, The Guardian, SCMP, NZZ, The Financial Times, The Caravan, Tehelka, and Open Magazine, among others. His work covers a range of subjects from national politics to social life and environment in central India; stories on the lives of former child soldiers in post-war Sri Lanka to the Indian cricket team’s tour of Pakistan.

Tankha is a founding member of Goa Photo, a public art photography festival in Goa since 2016. He was the consultant photo editor for the book Witness: Kashmir 1986-2016: Nine Photographers, which was listed as one of the top ten photo books in 2017 by the New York Times. Tankha was a staff photographer at India Today and Open Magazine from 2005-2012, and was photo editor at Tehelka from 2012-13.

Honors & Exhibitions

Tankha has shown work as part of exhibitions and collaborations at the Archives Nationales, Paris, the Berlinale 2019, FotoFest 2018 Houston, Photo Kathmandu, The Grosvenor Vadhera London, as well as the Japan Foundation, Lalit Kala Academy, and Max Mueller Bhavan in New Delhi.

Tankha’s project A Peal of Spring Thunder, on social life and environment in Chhattisgarh, in the backdrop of a violent conflict between the state and armed guerillas, received the FIND grant for project assistance in 2013 and was a finalist in the Alkazi Foundation Grant 2016, Cosmos and Kassel Photo Book Dummy Awards 2017, and the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation Grant 2019, among others.

This bio was provided by the artist. A more comprehensive profile will be forthcoming.