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Palanikumar

@chempkumar

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Photographer at @pari.network
Founder of @peoplephotgrapherscollective
People's Archives of Rural India
Mail id: [email protected]
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Hear them speak! About their experiences, the stories they chose to capture, and the futures they imagine. Then come see what they’ve created. 📸 Whose Lives Do We See? Eight young photographers presenting their works. 1 Sept | 11 AM Samagata Foundation, Church Street, Bengaluru Entry free! Do come, see and engage! A collaborative initiative between Hasiru Dala and Peoples Photographers Collective, supported by Saamuhika Shakti. Video by @suba_photojournalist @_noor__banu_ @brijeshraghul Edit by : @brijeshraghul by @chempkumar
Whose Lives Do We See? 📷 Eight young photographers. One platform to share their stories. Through their photographs, they invite us into everyday moments of life, work, identity, relationships, resilience and hope—seen from the perspective of those who live them. Come experience their stories, their perspectives and their way of seeing the world. 📍 Samagata Foundation, Church Street, Bengaluru 📅 1 & 2 September 2026 | 11 AM–6 PM 🎟️ Free entry Empowering youth from waste picker communities to tell their own stories. The participants were mentored and exhibition is curated by @chempkumar. A collaborative initiative by Hasiru Dala and @peoplephotgrapherscollective, supported under @saamuhikashakti, with @samagataorg as the venue partner. Come see the world through their eyes. All are welcome. #WhoseLivesDoWeSee #PhotographyExhibition #YouthVoices #WastePickerCommunities #VisualStorytelling #HasiruDala #SaamuhikaShakti #PeoplesPhotographersCollective #SamagataFoundation #Bengaluru by @chempkumar
LIVES AMONG THE PALMS Lived memories seen from the lens of the communities in the palmyra belt People Photographer Collective (PPC), in collaboration with the Rural Workers Development Society @ruralworkersdevelopmentsociety , conducted a year long photography workshop for students from palm worker communities in Ramanathapuram. Initiated by PPC founder @chempkumar , the workshop encouraged these students to wield photography as a powerful tool to document their lives, labour, and the landscapes that shape their communities. What lends this exhibition its true significance is who is narrating these stories. For the first time, children from palm worker families have taken up cameras to chronicle the life around them through their lenses, building a body of work rooted entirely in lived experience. We warmly welcome you to witness the stories of palm worker through the eyes of their own children. From the intimate spaces of their homes to the vast landscapes of their workplace, this exhibition offers a rare and deeply personal portrait of a community. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to @pari.network for their generous support in funding this exhibition. Save the date; July 10 -16 Location: Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai. Production assist @nirmal_prasaath Shot by @beem__2_9 @suba_photojournalist @brijeshraghul Edited by @brijeshraghul by @chempkumar
📸 Glimpses of IHA offerings in October Indian Heritage Academy presented Lives Among the Palms, which included a photography exhibition by student photographers of the Palmyrah worker community in Sayalkudi, Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu. Their lens revealed the landscape, labour and lived realities of home. 🎞️ The programme was in collaboration with the People’s Photographers Collective (PPC), Rural Workers Development Society (RWDS) and the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI). by @chempkumar
Lives Among the Palms is a powerful visual storytelling project by seven young photographers from Ramanathapuram, collaboration with @ruralworkersdevelopmentsociety rwds nurtured nurtured through the People's Photographers Collective. Through their images, they document the lives, landscapes, labor, and culture woven around the palm trees that shape their region and identity. After a successful debut exhibition in Chennai, the journey of these photographs continues to Bengaluru, with its second and third editions presented at Azim Premji University @azimpremjiuniv and @iha_blr Indian Heritage Academy. The week-long exhibition offers audiences an intimate glimpse into the everyday realities and resilience of communities living among the palms. As part of the exhibition, renowned documentary photographer Palani Kumar delivered talks and engaged in panel discussion with Media Studies students at Azim Premji University, creating a space for dialogue on photography, documentation, representation, and community storytelling. This exhibition celebrates the voices and perspectives of these emerging photographers from the grassroots to a wider audience, carrying the landscapes of Ramanathapuram all the way to Bengaluru. by @chempkumar
LIVES AMONG THE PALMS Who tells the stories of a community best? The people who live them. Seven student photographers from the Palmyrah Belt in Ramanathapuram turn their lenses towards the lives, labour, landscapes and everyday realities of their own communities — from palm climbers and salt-pan workers to traditional crafts, water scarcity and family life. Curated by Palanikumar, Founder of the People’s Photographers Collective (PPC), this exhibition celebrates the power of young people telling their own stories, in their own frames. October 16–17 | 9 AM–7 PM 📍 Indian Heritage Academy, 6th Block, Koramangala, Bengaluru Come witness the stories that deserve to be seen. by @chempkumar
A photo captures more than a moment in time; it can open someone's mind to a different reality than they had ever imagined before. Our evaluator @chempkumar invites you to participate in #ASiAM, tell stories of disability, and win up to Rs 10 lakhs. Visit asiamapd.com and submit your story now! . #Photography #Disability #wheelchair #streetphotography by @chempkumar
Happy birthday @chempkumar by @chempkumar
People’s Photographers Collective is now in Bengaluru, Karnataka. We are expanding across states, bringing photography closer to communities whose stories are often unseen and unheard. For the past 10 months, People’s Photographers Collective, in collaboration with Hasiru Dala, has been working with students from the waste picker community, providing photography training and creating a space for them to document their own lives. As always, PPC believes in bringing voices from voiceless. These 8 young photographers are documenting their homes, families, work, dreams, struggles, and everyday lives through their own perspectives. The exhibition, “Whose Lives Do We See?”, was inaugurated with the opening of the students photobook by @sowmyareddy_official , former MLA and @chempkumar , Founder of People’s Photographers Collective and Chinmayi Director of Hasiru Dala. This exhibition is yet another reminder that photography is not just about who holds the camera, it is about who gets to tell the story. From Tamil Nadu to Karnataka, we continue to build a collective where communities tell their own stories, in their own voices, through their own lenses. 📍 Bengaluru, Karnataka @peoplephotgrapherscollective × @hasiru_dala by @chempkumar
📸 Whose Lives Do We See? What happens when young people from waste picker communities pick up a camera and tell their own stories? Join us for “Whose Lives Do We See?”, a photography exhibition featuring the work of eight young photographers from waste picker communities. Through their own lenses, they explore stories of work, family, identity, resilience and everyday life. 📅 1 & 2 September 2026 ⏰ 11 AM – 6 PM 📍 Samagata Foundation, Church Street, Bengaluru 🎟️ Free entry The exhibition is a collaborative initiative by Hasiru Dala and @peoplephotgrapherscollective, supported by @saamuhikashakti, with @samagataorg as the venue partner. As Chief Guest, Smt. Sowmya Ramalinga Reddy, Environmentalist & President, Karnataka Pradesh Mahila Congress (KPMC), will be inaugurating the exhibition on 1 September at 11 AM. Come see the world through their eyes. Everyone is welcome. #WhoseLivesDoWeSee #PhotographyExhibition #WastePickers #YoungPhotographers #VisualStorytelling #BengaluruEvents #HasiruDala #PeoplesPhotographersCollective #SaamuhikaShakti by @chempkumar
Who gets to tell a community’s story, and who gets to shape its digital future? Community, Communication and Commons brings together practitioners and scholars to unpack the challenges of representation, shared knowledge, and community-led communication. Join Dr. Fr. Geofry Paul, Vandana R. Jaikumar, M. Palani Kumar and Abhishek KR, with Dr. Padmakumar MM as moderator, for a conversation on reclaiming stories and rethinking the commons in a digital age. 📅 21 August 2026 ⏰ 10:45 AM 📍 Main Auditorium Christ University, Bengaluru #MediaMeet2026 #INDIGital #CommunityMedia #Communication #IndigenousKnowledge by @chempkumar
Last month, I wrote about an exhibition curated by photographer @chempkumar, where students from Ramanathapuram documented the lives and culture of the palm-growing region through their photographs. Senior journalist and writer @jeyarani_m encouraged me to report this story in person. The lives of oppressed communities are rarely spoken about in mainstream media without prejudice or distortion. Conversations like these need to reach people from all walks of life, every now and then. If you get a chance, let your children read this article. Ask them how they see the stories created by these children, and tell me 😌 Thank you Thozhar & Thank you pazhani and and i just love the kids they are really doing Big🫂✨🦋 by @chempkumar

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