Aesthetics

Saptarshi Chakraborty is an autodidact and multidisciplinary creative whose practice is anchored in the visual arts. While his artistic vocabulary spans drawing, painting, music, literature, sculpture, graphic design, and theatre, he does not claim performance mastery in all; rather, he synthesizes these influences, with photography emerging as his primary mode of expression.

For over two decades, Saptarshi has utilized the lens to dissect the human condition. His work operates on two distinct levels: narratively, it investigates lifestyles and the friction between human existence and socio-economic realities; formally, it interrogates the mysterious interplay between the visual subject and its deeper, often unspoken connotations. He views his body of work not just as imagery, but as an experiment in visual semantics.

Driven by the conviction that true artistry requires stewardship of the medium itself, Saptarshi looks beyond individual accolades. He believes an artist bears a fundamental responsibility to foster the ecosystem and uplift peers to ensure the art form’s continuous evolution. To manifest this ethos, he founded Rishi On Ride in 2018, an altruistic initiative functioning as an incubator for visual thinkers. More than an organization, it is a movement designed to democratize artistic growth. The initiative offers a complete lifecycle of support entirely for free: providing rigorous education to sharpen visual literacy, curatorial platforms for exhibitions, avenues for art publication, and a steady system for print sales to foster economic sustainability. Rishi On Ride stands as a contemporary ecosystem where emotion and analytics converge to nurture the next generation of visual artists.

Academics & Profession

Saptarshi’s academic trajectory was rooted in English language and literature, a discipline that undoubtedly informs the narrative depth of his visual work. However, his relationship with formal education was marked by critical defiance; despite completing the curriculum for his Master’s degree, he consciously abstained from the final examinations as a poignant act of protest against the rigidity of mainstream pedagogical systems.

Professionally, he entered the workforce during the nascence of the IT industry, initially as a data entry associate, before pivoting to Human Resources. He approached this role not merely as a corporate function, but as a domain allied with his aesthetic journey—a decade-long study of human dynamics that paralleled his artistic inquiries. By 2018, recognizing that this chapter had reached its natural conclusion, he severed ties with the corporate world to commit himself fully to the labor and discipline of photography.

His dedication to the medium, however, long predated this professional shift. For a decade, Saptarshi served as an official mentor for industry leaders Canon India and Tamron India. In this capacity, he acted as a catalyst for photographic literacy, facilitating over 100 workshops across West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha, shaping the perspectives of countless emerging practitioners.

Exhibition and Publication

Saptarshi maintains a distinct spatial philosophy regarding the display of art, often engaging in a critical departure from the conventional ‘proscenium’ gallery model. Finding the traditional, detached atmosphere of indoor halls restrictive to genuine connection, he has become a vocal proponent of the ‘Intimate Exhibition’—a format he is rigorously investigating and redefining through his ongoing Nazrana project. While his primary focus lies in these alternative, dialogue-driven spaces, his body of work has commanded attention on established platforms when invited, notably at the Delhi Photography Festival (2013) and the ‘Masters’ exhibition by Canon India in Kolkata (2023).

However, Saptarshi places equal, if not greater, value on the democratization of viewership. Beyond the curated walls of elite institutions, his imagery has traveled extensively across West Bengal, showcased in exhibitions organized by grassroots collectives. These are groups often overlooked by the high-art establishment and lacking the ‘elite stamp’ typically required for digital canonization, yet Saptarshi considers these unbranded, community-centric displays vital to the medium’s pulse. To truly understand his radical approach to audience engagement and display, one is encouraged to explore the Nazrana project.

Photography Worker

Saptarshi’s immersion into the serious study of photography began around 2005, marking the commencement of a decade dedicated entirely to the internalization of the craft. He characterizes this foundational era as a period of Riyaz—a concept borrowed from classical tradition signifying rigorous, spiritual practice—where the objective was not merely production, but a profound mastery of the medium’s core grammar. While this disciplined rehearsal remains a perpetual undercurrent of his daily existence, his external focus expanded in 2015 when he began to channel his accumulated insights into mentoring, bridging the gap between practitioner and pedagogue.

This shift precipitated a total professional transformation; within three years, he shed his corporate identity to fully embrace the vocation of a ‘photography worker’—a deliberate designation that prioritizes humble labor and service over the ego of the ‘artist.’ Since this pivotal transition in 2018, Saptarshi has dedicated himself to a holistic synthesis of the themes defining his career: constructing a sustainable financial infrastructure for independent practitioners, deepening the scope of photography learning, and reimagining the sanctity of viewer engagement. Today, he stands at the convergence of these endeavors, working tirelessly to harmonize the solitary act of seeing with the collective responsibility of building a resilient artistic community.