Dinesh Khanna on Clubhouse

Bio

Dinesh Khanna in the early years of his career, sold calculators in Chawri Bazaar, quality checked garments in a Faridabad factory and cleared tables as a busboy in an Upper Eastside Bar in New York. He believes that these jobs were as good an education, if not better in some ways, than the Economics degree he got from Delhi University. This rather chequered career path was due to his teenage belief that if he followed in his photographer father’s footsteps he would be yet another victim of the Indian caste system. This rebellion further led him to a 12 year long career as a client servicing executive in Advertising where he finally achieved “burn-out” at the ripe old age of 33 years and which left him with a burning desire to become a professional photographer.
 So in 1990, he finally succumbed to what can probably be blamed on genetic coding — the desire to make images — both as a means of making a living and as a form of creative expression.
The last thirty years have seen him involved in creating images for Advertising, Editorial and Corporate clients, specifically in the area of Food, Still-life, People and Interiors.

 He has published four books of photography — Bazaar (Penguin: 2001), Living Faith (Penguin & Harper Collins: 2004), Right of the Line: The President’s
Bodyguard (Rashtrapati Bhawan, 2014), and Life in Rashtrapati Bhawan (Rashtrapati Bhawan, 2015).
Khanna is a managing trustee of Nazar Foundation, and one of the co- founders of the Delhi Photo Festival and was also a Photography Curator for the first two editions of the Serendipity Arts Festival. He is the visual consultant with Sahapedia and advises on the ‘Sahapedia Frames’ Grant for cultural photography. He teaches photography in various institutions, and is a Director of the Dhrish Academy at the Museo Camera: Centre for Photographic Arts.