Mukul Bhatia’s tryst with photography and documenting his experiences began at an early age. Coming from a family of academicians, exhaustive reading came as a practice which fuelled his curiosity to explore the world. Studying photojournalism at the prestigious Jamia Milia Islamia seemed to be an obvious choice for him. But the floodgates of imagination opened when he took a 7-month sabbatical after his college and travelled all over India, decoding the socio-cultural milieu of our country. While he lived with the old hippies of Goa, worked with transgender sex workers in Pune, Banjara nomads of Rajasthan and Nagas of Maha Kumbh, he developed a strong visual language.

Today his photographs stand out as an anthropological account of his travels and global experiences. Characterised by a fine assembly of documentary and fine art, his work narrates diverse visual stories about gender, the longest spinning war in Kashmir, sustainability in fashion and travel.

Mukul as a photographer,  has been to over 200 cities expresses his love for travel and says “For me, travelling is now a way of life– it’s my pleasure, pain, career, and spiritual growth. It provides me urgency in life, to ‘do’, to act in the now, and to do with all my heart.” It was his passion for travelling that led to the conception of his project – ‘Nomadic Origins’ which was awarded the MATTER PRINTS AWARD GRANT. Having worked with over 3500 sustainable artisans across India for a plethora of clients across the globe, while learning from some of the oldest tribes across the world, Mukul is always on a continuous journey. We talk in detail about his extraordinary creative path and share some of his unreleased works.

Tell us a little about your beginnings? How did the creative bug get in, and how did you choose photography and design as your calling?

Mukul: I come from a very safe and overprotected childhood, with all my siblings in very academic fields. I was always the shy kid who’d read a lot and dreamed of faraway things, ideas, stories, and people. This is when the romantic in me was born, and thus the seed of this curiosity grew. I was a bit of a punk while growing old, and after my post graduation in Photojournalism, I took a 7-month sabbatical to create an unusual travel across the country to find my visual language. I lived with the old hippies of Goa, worked with transgender sex workers in Pune, Banjara nomads of Rajasthan, Nagas of Maha Kumbh, and eventually worked in a war orphanage in Kashmir. This slow travel of living with communities far from my safe reality taught me so many lessons, and I documented this surprising newness to put my emotions in perspective. It was then that I knew I was interested in humans and their stories and thus the voice and interest in kept growing as I worked more on these projects. 

I think what makes you one of a kind, is your ability to see beyond the tangible traits of a particular culture and how humans place their experiences in this dynamic algorithm. Documenting it is surely not an easy job. Tell us a little about your process?

Mukul: The hardest challenge in documenting human stories is that the experience of the current moment is that of subject, not photographer. Most photographers end up giving the same narratives of war, or poverty in India, or fashion, simply because it’s expected reality and western gatekeepers reward those narratives. That 7-month of sabbatical taught me to unlearn my education as a photographer and what’s expected of me while learning a whole new lesson in humanity, empathy, compassion, and expression. 

Photographic documentation requires you to find an epistemological study of your subject, their beliefs, pleasures, and pains. I thus spend time in a space and know my subjects before photographing them. It allows me to really tell their honest, intimate story instead of fitting the expected narrative and fitting my subjects to it. 

For a travel aficionado, your Instagram feed is nothing less than a go-to global reference point. You’re constantly on the move, and shoot yourself in these amazing spaces across the world, how did that move happen?

Mukul: (LAUGHS) It’s funny you ask that because I was just having a meeting with a designer who was interested in my work and after reviewing my Instagram she was like ‘damn you’re a self-loving man’ and I can’t agree more. It all changed after working in the war-torn valley of Kashmir for over three years – the young idealist in me took a bit too much of the inherent grief in that space, and there came a point when I almost forgot my self, my face, and somewhere there, I longed for lightness and personal healing. It was then that I discovered the therapeutic process of making self-portraits. I remember how hard and frightening it was to set the tripod, sit in front of it and press the shutter. It was as if I was finally able to accept my vulnerabilities, and it was simply beautiful! 

They soon became my means of reclamation – of my own self, and seeing myself in the world I was photographing. Soon, one of my associates recommended me to share those on Instagram, and to be honest, even the idea of it was frightening. But as I said, I love going out of my comfort zone, and I tried and it was taken really well. I thus try to use Instagram to share myself with others, not just my travels but some of my most intimate thoughts and fears, like a journal – and even though they say the internet is a scary place, the journey has been very rewarding so far. 

Tell us a bit more about your photo series ‘Kashmir: Between Grace and Grief’. How did it come about? Tell us a little about your experiences. 

Mukul: After that 7-month sabbatical, I created work in Kashmir that an international journalism agency was interested in. I was thus commissioned to work further in the valley, and the next two years I was moving between Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla, and Sopore. It was an intense experience, but I ended up making some very close friends and started seeing the world through their eyes. They have this dreamy perception of life, that provides the narrative for my work, something you’d never see in mainstream news. That’s why I call the work ‘Between Grace and Grief’, it’s an exploration of that intimate spot in between that I developed with my friendships, the way they view with the inmates of the longest running war in the century. 

Why travel, what is your chemistry with modern nomadism?

Mukul: Travelling, I think is the best present you could give to yourself, it truly is my first love, and I had to find ways to integrate my work with travelling, which is when Nomadic Origins was born. For me, travelling is now a way of life– it’s my pleasure, pain, career, and spiritual growth. It provides me urgency in life, to ‘do’, to act in the now, and to do with all my heart.

It may be a bit hard to be productive while being on the road 10 months a year but I think it’s worth the challenge, and I recommend every freelancer, to move out and explore as you work along. There is a whole world out there, with its magical stories, waiting for you to be explored.  

Tell us about a few fashion designers, artists, and photographers who inspire you. 

Mukul: Yayoi Kusama and Yohji Yamamoto. 

What’s ahead for this year? 

Mukul: So many things! Am creating a whole new magazine that focuses on gender, travel, and sustainability in luxury – it’s something am working on for years now and it’s finally coming to reality. Having worked with a variety of labels across the globe, am shifting my focus on Indian labels, and magazines to create works that truly narrate contemporary Indian diaspora, and hopefully take it forward to international channels. Further, slower travels and more time in mountains co-create with other creative folks, and being kind to myself and everyone around in the process. 

Follow his project Nomadic Origins & Instagram