Biography
Debmalya Ray Choudhuri (b. 1991, Kolkata) (he/they) is a self-taught photographer from India based in New York.
Rooted in diaristic practice, their work spans photography, performance, and text. Debmalya explores personal trauma and mental health while addressing broader societal questions around the queerness of identity, body, and space.
After the tragic loss of a lover to suicide, their art became a way to process grief and confront the stigma around suicide, addiction, and mental illness. What began as an escape from chaos evolved into a search for intimacy—connecting deeply, both physically and emotionally, with people and spaces to capture moments that feel raw, tender, and honest. This became a foundation for questioning the human condition.
Their work explores how people express desire and love, using encounters with friends and strangers to reflect on what it means to be queer in today’s complex sociopolitical world. Centered on care, community, and collaboration, their storytelling challenges assumptions about identity, representation, and image-making, especially within the blind spots of post-colonial capitalism. The boundaries between subject and photographer remain fluid, opening space for dual perspectives and deeper connections between self and other.
Select shows/interviews/publications/displays:
Granta Magazine, Issue 168: Significant Other (Summer 2024)
Candela Gallery Annual Exhibition-Unbound 13 ,Richmond ,USA
Open call Winner,Synthesis , Fotofestival Lensburg,Switzerland (May-June, 2024)
Grand Prize Winner, 37th Annual Juried Exhibition, The Art Alliance of Monmouth County, Red Bank, 2024, juried by Kelly Long,Senior Curatorial Assistant, Whitney Museum, USA (April 2024)
Rotterdam Photo Festival, part of Rotterdam Art Week, Netherlands (1st-4th February 2024)
Framing Grief Artist Talk, November 2023 (moderated by Leslie Deschler Canossi & Anthoula Lelekidis, ICP Educators and artists)
Projection night, as part of Der-Greif collective, Les Rencontres des Arles (July 2023)
“Divine Queerness: Forms and Tools of Healing”, the LGBT Center, NYC, and Enfoco Inc (June-September 2023)
Louis Roederer Discovery Award, Les Rencontres d’Arles 2022,curated by Taous R. Dahmani (July- August 2022)
The Portrait Photographer’s Manual, Thames and Hudson (Book by Max Ferguson and Cian Oba-Smith), 2023
Der-Greif , 2023.
Trigger Journal, guest edited by Susan Meiselas, Magnum Photos for Fotomuseum Antwerp, 2022
NIDA Symposium, Lithuania,2022
”Photography kept me alive”, Elephant Magazine (Words by Diane Smyth, curator, writer and editor),2022
From Here on Out, interview with Kelsey Sucena, independent researcher and managing editor of The Photocaptionist, 2021
Angkor Photo Festival, Cambodia ,2020
”Photography as a way of living”, British Journal of Photography, 2018
For an extended CV/exhibitions/features list, please email.
Email for work/assignment/commissions:debmalya.roychoudhuri@gmail.com