About

My name is Arvind Premanand, and I’ve been taking photographs professionally since 2019. What started as a hobby on my travels became a conscious effort to document the good around us, from the work non-profits do for people and animals to the resilient wildlife that shares our cities. Along the way, I’ve done a bit of everything.

I also photograph to learn. It makes me slow down, look and observe. Whether I’m staring at the night sky for hours during a meteor shower or walking among flowering plants looking for butterflies, I find immense beauty in what the world shows me when I give it time. In a dog-eat-dog world, slowing down has rewired my mind. It has changed my perspective, and in time, my decisions about where I want to be.

Photography began as a way to record what I saw. Somewhere along the way, I realised the camera had become my way of seeing the world.

Achievements

2026
Secure Nature Love of Mother Wildlife Photography Competition
Honourable Mention · Flamingos from Pink City
2024
Festival del Ciclo Mestruale, Milan
Featured Photographer · A festival in Italy celebrating the menstrual cycle

My Journey

Arvind crouched at a tide pool on Mumbai’s shore, photographing marine life with the city skyline behind

My Journey

The Ambulance

I didn’t set out to be a photographer. I was unemployed, my mind was in turmoil, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do or where I would end up. What I had was a seat on an animal ambulance with MyPALClub Foundation. Those rides became my release, the thing I looked forward to. They took me into the streets, alleys and chawls of Thane, the city I’d grown up in but had never really seen, and I saw it through the eyes of the kind people who called our ambulance to help animals, especially dogs and cats. I documented it all with whatever I had: my phone, a GoPro and a borrowed camera. Among the dogs at the centre then was Ginger. Years later, I would meet her again at her adopted home in Oman, after a lost-and-found story that still feels like a miracle.

Two girls in a doorway in Thane, one cradling a cat who gazes up at her

The side of the MyPALClub Foundation ambulance at night, painted with the names of rescued animals, city lights streaking past

Strangers on the Internet

While I mostly photographed animals on my ambulance rides, I also started capturing street scenes like this one, which got quite the response on Reddit. “Directed by M. Night Shyamalan,” read one comment. “Accidental Wes Anderson,” said another. It meant a lot. For the first time in a while, I thought: this is something I can do. This is something I enjoy.

A row of small shops at night: a snack stall, a barber at work and a flower stall hung with marigold garlands

My Own Camera

When I finally got a camera of my own, I took it to the streets. Street photography became my school of observation. It trained me to read light, to notice the small things happening around me, and to wait for a moment to unfold. Every walk added something, and that habit still shapes how I see today.

An elderly man reading a newspaper outside an antique shop, beside a large ship’s searchlight and hanging lamps

Trust Behind the Lens

I had volunteered at OSCAR Foundation, photographing their events with the organisation’s camera. Then, just before the pandemic, they hired me as their communications manager. The children brought an incredible energy and happiness to my work. We shared a real connection, and it showed: their smiles were genuine, often laughter they were only just holding back. When partners like Manchester City began using my images in their own publishing, it was the validation I didn’t know I needed. Those years showed me that great photographs come from understanding what’s in front of you. The technicalities matter far less than the bond.

Six children in OSCAR Foundation football kits jumping in the air with arms raised, a ball at their feet

Confidence, Then Curiosity

Over time, I felt I could apply what I’d learnt and truly execute as a photographer. That confidence didn’t arrive from one place or in any neat order. It came from many things happening at once, and with it came curiosity. Soon I found myself poring over night sky apps and constellation maps, then standing in pitch darkness, slowly turning the focus ring towards the patch of sky where I felt a meteor might land. When a green fireball streaked into the centre of my frame, I could barely believe my calculations had worked. Nights spent chasing meteor showers and the Milky Way taught me patience.

A green meteor streaking across a starry night sky above a dark, forested ridge

Learning to See Differently

The same curiosity took me to shorelines teeming with life; to urban hotspots alive with birds tending their nests, snakes, butterflies and millipedes; to the Western Ghats, where giant squirrels swung gracefully between branches; to remote forests where fireflies glowed mystically; and to the deep sea, where dolphins breached. The world is marvellous, and I was enchanted and in awe.

A Malabar giant squirrel stretched along a lichen-covered branch

A fantail feeding its open-beaked chicks in a nest

Why I Tell Stories

This journey has empowered me and given me so much. I have connected with people and with nature, reflected, learnt, and photographed it all, from an ant to the vast expanse of the universe, and everything in between. A story can be small. It can be a cat who is the darling of his street, cared for by a kind lady who feeds him every day. A photograph of him is a story too, and a memory she will treasure for the rest of her life.

I’ve come to believe the work has to be purposeful, with meaning and connection behind every story. Clicking the picture and sitting down to edit it are only part of the process. What makes it all worth it is the story those pictures tell, and seeing how people react when they see the result.

When I look back, I think, wow, not because of what has been done, but because of what is still left. If only I could go back in time and tell that anxious boy at the back of an animal ambulance, “Everything is going to be alright.”

A tabby street cat mid-yawn, whiskers fanned out

The same tabby asleep on folded bedding in a Mumbai courtyard