Photographers

Arko Datto (born 1986, India) is an Indian photographer and visual artist whose work investigates the role and meaning of images in the digital age. His practice blends documentary, conceptual, and experimental strategies to examine urgent contemporary issues, including forced migration, techno‑fascism, digital surveillance, ecological collapse, disappearing islands, nocturnal environments, and the psychological stress of captivity in animals. Datto approaches each project with a distinct visual language, creating bodies of work that—although diverse—form interconnected inquiries into the cultural and existential dilemmas of the present.

Before turning to photography, Datto trained as a scientist, studying theoretical physics and mathematics in France before abandoning a PhD path to pursue visual storytelling. He later studied photojournalism at the Danish School of Journalism. His long‑term projects and essays have been widely published in TIME, National Geographic, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Newsweek, GEO, Courrier International, BBC, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Financial Times Magazine, and many others. He has received major grants and fellowships, including support from the Prince Claus Fund, the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, and the IDFA Bertha Fund.

Datto is the author of several significant photobooks, including *PIK‑NIK* (2018), *Mannequin* (2018), and *Snakefire* (2021). His exhibitions have been shown internationally at Photo London, Unseen Amsterdam, Hamburger Bahnhof, Fotomuseum Den Haag, Imago Lisboa, Lagos Photo Festival, Chobimela, and Les Rencontres d’Arles. Known also for his curatorial work, he has collaborated with Kochi Biennale, Obscura Festival, and the Chennai Photo Biennale. Through his layered, multi‑chapter visual investigations—often organized as trilogies—Datto continues to expand the boundaries of contemporary photography in both still and moving image forms.