Vivek M is an independent photographer based out of Bangalore, India. He specializes in documentary, editorial and travel photography. He studied fine-art at the Ken School of Art, Bangalore and completed his studies in medicine at Kolar, Karnataka. He worked briefly as a surgical resident at a corporate hospital before he turned a full time photographer.
In his personal work, Vivek seeks for ideas that can serve humanitarian purposes. He strives to dedicate his abilities for projects that can illustrate and inform socially relevant, ecologically urgent and humanitarian themes that can serve a greater cause. He is partial to ideas that coax a narrative, inform a deeper connection with the subject and serve to illustrate the universal condition of humanity.
He was invited to the students workshop at the Angkor Photo Festival 2007 held at Siem Reap, Cambodia which included Antoine D'Agata (MAGNUM Photos) and Renée Byer (Pulitzer Prize winner, 2007) as tutors. His photo essay on the inmates of a destitute shelter, 'Home of Hope' was also screened at the festival.
He won first places in both the WHO supported categories 'Employment Conditions' and 'Social Exclusion' at the Venice International Photo Contest, 2007.
He was a part of 'Urban Changes', a South East Asian collaborative of 7 photographers supported by the Goethe Institute in India. It was initiated by a workshop held in July 2007 in Bombay and eventually turned into a travelling exhibition. It was last hosted by the Max Mueller Bhavan in Bangalore between 18-31st July 2008. The project can also be viewed online here.
Besides spending most of his time on his personal work, Vivek regularly shoots for the Housecalls Magazine where he profiles eminent personalities from the field of medicine, well known social activists, environmentalists and artists. His pictures have also appeared in the Gulf News, Tehelka, Outlook Traveller Guides, Down to Earth among other publications.