India, June 17 -- Please take me through your journey into photography. Was it informed more by the aesthetic aspect, or an urge to express your ideas and thoughts?

For me, it was catharsis. Immediately after my schooling, my mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1999, and I started taking photographs in college after my father gave me a Nikon FM10 camera. I realized that it kind of got me through a tough time. My studies had gotten affected because of the situation at home and photography made me feel like I existed. So that was my relationship with photography. I think in many ways, that's also kind of helped form the relationship even today.

During my university days studying economics, I assisted a very kind photographer on his...