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. The work centers trauma and resilience while addressing broader societal questions on gender, identity, and memory.
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 personal transformation became the foundation for questioning the human condition, linking their personal journey to their broader artistic inquiry.
In a climate of right-wing populism and selective empathy, both in their homeland of India and their current residence in the US, they strive to delve deeper and explore community and kinship. Their work tries to find the ways in which people express grief, desire, and longing. The author resorts to these interpersonal relationships as spaces of resistance and care, where people hold on to one another and learn to live with vulnerability. They use these encounters with friends and strangers to reflect on what it means to be queer in today’s complex sociopolitical world. Centered on the notion of care, community, and collaboration, their storytelling challenges assumptions about identity, representation, and image-making that are often hidden 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 the self and the other.
Select shows/interviews/publications/displays:
Griffin Museum of Photography, MA, USA, Arnold Newman Prize 2025 Finalist (Dec 2025-Jan 2026)
Behind the Curtain: Vulnerabilities Exposed: CENTER Santa Fe Award winners exhibition, CENTER, Santa Fe, Oct 24th-Dec 5th,2025
"Reflecting The Real "- Photo Museum Ireland, July -August 2025
Winner of The Center Award : “Personal Award” 2025, CENTER Santa Fe , juried by Pauline Vermare (Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator of Photography at the Brooklyn Museum)
A Factless Autobiography , Book exhibition in Kyotographie, KG Plus Art Fair (April 2025)
Cluster Photography Fair, London (April 2025)
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 Dr. 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