Vikram Bawa is an Indian fashion, advertising and landscape photographer based in Mumbai. He was the first Indian photographer to promote and showcase 3D photography in the late 1990s.
Life and work
Bawa was born in Delhi. He moved with his parents to Mumbai at an early age. He went to Green Lawns High School, Mumbai. After which he graduated in maths from Elphinstone College, Mumbai. He started work as the managing director of a chemical firm at age 18. In 1996, he started photography professionally. Bawa started photography as a hobby when he was 16 years old. His mother and father were avid hobbyists, which influenced Bawa. Bawa started shooting on a Yashica automatic camera and his father’s Yashica TLR. The first camera which he bought was a Yashica FX 3 Super 2000 SLR. It was on this camera that he learnt the photography skills of which he makes use today. He has also directed music videos and a film called ‘Yahaan Gandhi Bikta Nahin’, a short film on Gandhi in present that has been part of a traveling exhibition to art galleries across India. He has pioneered Fashion Films in India and has made fashion films for various clients including Jewels by Queenie, Nikhil Thampi, Gitanjali, Joy Shoes, Harshita Deshpande and Delna Poonawala. Bawa's first photography assignment was with Rani Jeyraj. Since then he has shot for magazines including Femina,Verve,Hello!,L'Officiel,Elle,Hi Blitz,Marie Claire,TheTechy, and Stuff. Brands that Bawa has worked for include Coca-Cola, Dove, Godrej, L'oreal, Reebok, Skoda India, Sony Electronics, Taj Hotels, Catwalk, Kingfisher airlines, Sahara Ambey Valley, The Leela Palace,Goa, and FSP London. He has photographed Bollywood celebrities Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Shilpa Shetty, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Abhishek Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Karishma Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Hrithik Roshan, and Lara Dutta. He unveiled his own Fashion Calendar on the theme of Draupadi for 2014 in Mumbai with stars like Kabir Bedi, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Evelyn Sharma, Shamita Shetty, Nimrat Kaur and many more in attendance.
He was judged as the "2nd best photographer at the PMA International Awards, USA" for his 3D photography. The images were part of a 30 country travelling exhibition.
