The Story
OrganizerThe Indian Photo Festival (IPF) was founded in 2015 by photographer Aquin Mathews, who identified what he described as a lack of institutional platforms for photography in India, few spaces for photographers to exhibit work, receive critical engagement, or connect with international networks. Run as a not-for-profit initiative of the Light Craft Foundation and staffed largely by volunteer photographers, IPF has grown into what is widely described as India's longest-running international photography festival. Held each November into January in Hyderabad, the festival is organised in partnership with the Government of Telangana's Department of Tourism and the State Gallery of Art, and has drawn partnerships with National Geographic, Panos Pictures, Goethe-Zentrum Hyderabad, Alliance Française Hyderabad and others. It remains free and open to the public, with programming spanning exhibitions, talks, workshops, portfolio reviews and mentorships, alongside dedicated initiatives such as the Portrait Prize and Mentorship Programme reserved for photographers from India and the subcontinent. The 11th edition ran 20 November 2025 to 4 January 2026 across the State Gallery of Art, Madhapur, and venues throughout Hyderabad, including metro stations.
IPF's significance rests on the specific institutional gap its founder identified: unlike literature, theatre or classical dance, photography in India had comparatively few dedicated public platforms prior to the festival's founding, and IPF was built deliberately to fill that gap rather than to showcase an existing well-supported tradition. Its consistent focus on socially engaged photography, covering climate change, conflict, trafficking, gender and identity, positions it as using the medium explicitly as a tool for public conversation and social awareness rather than purely aesthetic display. Its free, open-access, volunteer-run, not-for-profit model, sustained through partnerships and grants rather than ticket revenue, is also structurally distinct from most large Indian arts festivals, and its reach into public infrastructure (metro stations, public parks) extends photography beyond conventional gallery spaces into the city's everyday civic life.
IPF is confirmed very much active and expanding, its 11th edition ran from November 2025 into January 2026, spanning close to a month and a half with an international programme and partnerships spanning National Geographic to L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad. For institutional and CSR audiences, IPF is a clear example of a founder-led, volunteer-driven, not-for-profit cultural institution sustained through partnership and grant funding rather than ticketing, with an explicit mission of building career infrastructure (mentorships, grants, portfolio reviews) for Indian photographers specifically, distinct from festivals that primarily showcase finished work without a parallel talent-development function.
Created grants, mentorships and a national/international platform for photography.
