Inside The Quiet Power Of India’s New Women-Led Photo Movement

In an art landscape where women photographers remain profoundly present yet persistently unseen, Women in Photo arrives as both an escape and a quiet rebellion. Curated by Jahnavi Sharma, creative director, photographer, and recently returned London graduate, the exhibition unfolds inside a Delhi home-studio instead of a traditional white-cube gallery. The setting is intimate and rooted in the spaces where women have long created and documented themselves away from formal structures.

Featuring artists including Aastha, Ana, Anai, Disha, Aparna, Prachi, Mahija, Katie, Marika, Upasana, Molly, Eve, Douce, Hridya, Komal and Sasha, the exhibition brings together a constellation of women who explore identity, belonging, memory, and emotional visibility through their lenses. But it also serves as a cultural intervention and reframes how women’s visual labour is recognised in India.

ELLE: You’ve worked across London’s creative landscape and have now returned to Delhi to build platforms for contemporary photography. What prompted this homecoming, and how has it shaped the ethos behind “Women in Photo”?

Jahnavi Sharma (JS): My return to Delhi was very intentional. After spending years in London’s creative ecosystem studying, exhibiting, publishing my photobook Drawers, and working within communities that truly value emerging voices, I realised how much I wanted to bring that sense of openness and opportunity back home. India has extraordinary talent, especially among women photographers, but the platforms available to them remain limited.

Coming back felt like the right moment to build something that didn’t yet exist: an ecosystem of visibility, intimacy, and community-driven curation. Women in Photo is shaped by a desire to create a space where women aren’t simply included, but centred, where their stories are given the same seriousness and tenderness that I witnessed abroad.

ELLE: What was the curatorial starting point for this exhibition? Was there a moment, image, or idea that crystallised the need for a women-centred photography showcase in India?

JS: The curatorial starting point for Women in Photo wasn’t a single moment — it was years of creative experiences slowly gathering into place. Even in 2021, when I exhibited in Brick Lane, London, I was creating work that centred women in intimate, familiar spaces. Looking back, that project feels like an early seed: women, softness, closeness, and emotional truth have always been core to my visual language. While studying at Istituto Marangoni, I naturally gravitated towards women-centred narratives. My moodboards, thesis research, and visual references consistently circled women, culture, identity, and interiority, not by design, but instinct. That instinct stayed with me.

So when I returned to India, everything clicked. I immediately saw how underrepresented women photographers were, how their work existed quietly, powerfully, but without the visibility or seriousness it deserved. I wanted to build a platform that brought women together in one space without hierarchy or comparison.

The selection of artists grew from real relationships. Aparna, Molly, and many others are women whose practices I’ve admired for years. Bringing them together felt not only right but necessary. The exhibition became a way to amplify voices I deeply believe in and to honour the emotional richness and multiplicity of the female gaze in India today.

ELLE: The artists you’ve selected explore themes like identity, belonging, and emotional visibility. How did you approach curating such personal, culturally rooted work without diluting the individuality of each photographer’s voice?

JS:I approached the curation with deep respect for each artist’s internal world. My intention was never to homogenise their perspectives, but to allow their differences to exist in conversation. One deliberate choice was listing artists by first name only; it removes social markers and places everyone on an equal plane, allowing individuality to shine without external labels.

I spent time with their images, listened to their stories, and allowed the work itself to guide the structure rather than imposing a singular narrative. What emerges is a constellation of voices, distinct yet gently interconnected.

ELLE: Many of the participating artists are underrepresented in India’s visual arts ecosystem. In your view, what are the systemic gaps that prevent women photographers from gaining visibility, and how does this exhibition respond to those gaps?

JS:There are several systemic gaps: limited funding, minimal mentorship, and a persistent belief that photography becomes “serious art” only when linked to older, often male, master photographers. Visibility tends to concentrate around a handful of women, while hundreds of talented practitioners remain unseen.

Women in Photo responds by opening doors where there were none, showing work in unconventional spaces, building community, and partnering with women-led organisations like Girls in Motion and Nisaā Magazine. It demonstrates that meaningful exhibitions don’t need institutional validation to have a cultural impact.

ELLE: You often speak about building platforms for women whose visual work goes unseen. What does “visibility” truly mean to you, beyond just audience reach or digital amplification?

JS:Visibility, for me, goes far beyond numbers or algorithms. It’s about creating an ecosystem where women photographers are taken seriously, nurtured, and supported in a way that honours both their craft and their emotional labour. It means giving their workspace to breathe, to be engaged with, rather than consumed. Visibility also means a safe environment where women aren’t judged through a patriarchal lens or expected to conform to narrow visual expectations. Respect is foundational. I want this exhibition to translate into tangible outcomes, commissions, collaborations, mentorships, and industry recognition.

On a deeper level, visibility is about community and confidence. It’s creating a space where women no longer second-guess themselves or feel the pressure of standards shaped by the male gaze. A space where exploration and experimentation feel possible. For audiences, visibility is an invitation to slow down and look, to give women’s photographic labour the sensitivity and seriousness it deserves.

ELLE: Since this exhibition takes place in a home-studio space, how does the domestic setting influence the viewing experience, especially for themes of womanhood, interiority, and safe spaces?

JS:The domestic setting shifts everything. Womanhood, interiority, and intimacy live within the home, and showing the work in a lived space adds emotional texture. It feels safe, personal, and honest, echoing the themes of the exhibition. Visitors enter not as spectators in a white cube, but as guests within a world shaped by women.

It also mirrors reality: many emerging practitioners create within their bedrooms, kitchens, and makeshift studios long before institutions take notice. Bringing the work into a home environment honours that truth.

ELLE: Photographers often use the lens as a tool for reclamation, of memory or of gaze. What did you notice about the way these women frame themselves and the worlds around them?

JS:Their images reclaim softness, vulnerability, memory, and desire without apology. They frame themselves and the world with an honesty that resists spectacle. What struck me most is how many of the works hold strength and fragility simultaneously. The lens becomes a site of self-definition, not how women are looked at, but how they choose to look.

ELLE: As a curator and creative director, how do you balance creative intuition with responsibility, especially when handling deeply personal work from emerging women artists?

JS:For me, creative intuition and responsibility are inseparable. My intuition comes from emotional sensitivity, from listening to what each image is trying to say. Responsibility comes from recognising that these photographs aren’t just artworks; they’re extensions of the artists’ inner worlds, their vulnerabilities, their memories. Many women in this exhibition are not only participants but friends. Some are exhibiting for the first time, which adds a deeper layer of trust. With that trust comes transparency about the process, the logistics, the selection, the narrative choices.

Curating deeply personal work requires balancing instinct with empathy. I need to shape the narrative cohesively, but also ensure that each artist feels supported and safeguarded. When a work feels intimate or fragile, it becomes my responsibility to display it in a way that protects its emotional integrity. Curation, in many ways, becomes an act of care, holding space for these women and ensuring their work shines authentically.

ELLE: What does success look like for this exhibition? Is it about sparking conversations, expanding access, building community, or something more internal and long-lasting?

JS: Success, for me, is rooted in care. It’s not measured by scale or numbers, but by whether the women in this exhibition feel seen, supported, and valued. If even one artist leaves feeling more confident or more connected, that’s meaningful. This exhibition is entirely pro bono, funded from my personal savings, from printing to installation. I chose this because I believe deeply in creating intentional spaces for women photographers. I also hope this visibility leads to future grants, funding, and institutional support so the show can travel and grow.

Success also looks like artists gaining commercial opportunities, commissions, publications, collaborations that allow them to practise sustainably. Many are emerging voices; I want this to be the beginning, not an isolated moment. Beyond that, success means building a long-term community: a network of women who uplift each other, share resources, expand conversations, and create together. Ultimately, I want Women in Photo to grow into a sustainable, travelling platform that honours women’s ways of seeing.

ELLE: Lastly, what cultural or creative shifts do you hope “Women in Photo” inspires for the next generation of women photographers in India?

JS:I hope Women in Photo reminds women that they no longer need to wait for permission, validation, or institutional approval to define their worth. The next generation deserves to enter the field with confidence in their emotional language and interior worlds, both powerful forms of cultural expression.

I’m inspired by the rise of young curators in India who are challenging traditional norms, rethinking visibility, experimenting with non-gallery spaces, and working collaboratively. I want this exhibition to add momentum to that shift. I also hope it encourages women to embrace alternative modes of practice: peer networks, shared resources, collective models, and interdisciplinary work. Their creativity deserves room to expand. And beyond the creative sphere, I hope it sparks institutional change, where women’s photography is taken seriously not as a thematic novelty, but as a vital part of India’s contemporary visual language.

If this exhibition sparks even one opportunity, one collective, or one young woman feeling seen, that is meaningful. I hope that this becomes the beginning of a longer, growing movement.