London-based Malayali photographer Keerthana Kunnath on capturing the “unspeakable”

London-based photographer Keerthana Kunnath often uses the term art when referring to her photos dealing with nuanced themes, such as gender, sexuality, womanhood and mental health. Originally from Beypore in Kozhikode, Kerala, the 29-year-old shutterbug aims to spark conversations about themes that “people often shy away from”.

Her last photo series, Not What You Saw, portrays South Indian women bodybuilders flexing their muscles garbed in traditional Kerala attire, like a kasavu mundu (handloom garment with zari border) wrapped around their waist and thighs or a checkered fabric skirt inspired by fisherwomen. These photographs question outdated beauty standards and gender stereotypes. 

The series has earned Keerthana, The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain’s International Photography Exhibition Awards in the Under 30s category in February, 2025. “I wanted to portray these girls as confident. They are not just challenging the ideals of beauty, but they also dare to go to these competitions wearing bikinis and pose in front of so many people,” says Keerthana over a phone call from Mumbai. 

“I was researching on kalaripayattu (martial art from Kerala), when I stumbled upon this group of body-builder girls,” says Keerthana who started working on this series in early 2024. “Everyone had seen body builders in typical gym clothes but they haven’t seen an Indian body builder in clothes which are inspired from our culture . My friend Elton John, a Thiruvananthapuram-based stylist and I, didn’t want to make it just the saree, we wanted something fun and fashionable with some cultural inspiration in mind.”

Keerthana shot the models using an old analogue medium format camera, Mamiya 67, at locations spread across different parts of Kerala and Karnataka. She says, “I just decided to do this as a personal project. I didn’t even share it with an editor for around six months after shooting it. Last summer I shot a few more pictures and I am still working on this series. I never had an end goal in mind.”

Additionally, Keerthana’s works were recently featured in the British rom-com Picture This, released in March 2025, as those shot by the protagonist Pia (played by Simone Ashley). “They wanted to use my archives and also shoot the images the character was shooting which would go in the film,” says Keerthana, who was approached by the makers of the film after they stumbled upon her Instagram profile.

Also read | ‘Picture This’ movie review: Simone Ashley and Hero Fiennes Tiffin fail to make this romantic comedy work

Origin story

The photographer worked as a jewellery designer for a few months after graduating in Fashion and Lifestyle Accessory Design from the National Insititute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Bengaluru in 2017. She was also the creative head of a jewellery brand in New Delhi for almost four years. That was where she discovered her passion for photography in 2017. “I was having a full-time job and was freelancing. But back then I wanted to be a fashion photographer, and came across this Master’s course in London,” says Keerthana, who studied Fashion Photography at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts from 2020 to 2021.

Finding her way

One of her first photo series — a project for her Masters, The Kaleidoscopic Self, exploring the duality of humans and gods, in the context of religion and identity, earned her the International Photography Award by the British Photography Journal in 2022.  

Following her post-graduation, she landed her first assignment with Nike. “It was a big confidence boost for me as well as for my family, seeing how my work could do as a campaign as well.” 

Beyond taboos

Gradually, Keerthana’s parents could fathom the type of conversations she was trying to start. “They got an idea of the work I was trying to do, even with themes like gender and sexuality and how society is regressive and not open to those who are different,” she says.  

“Growing up, I didn’t know what being queer meant. When I studied at NIFT, I had gay friends. I realised that it’s a huge spectrum of people and a way of being. It’s a completely different idea than what I had and it was not because they didn’t exist in our society, but because we weren’t exposed to them,” says Keerthana.   

“When I went to London, I had lesbian friends who were married and had kids together. That was a different experience for me, to see how normal it is, especially with people avoiding those conversations in India,” says she. Her duo exhibition with artist Elliott Nicole J Waller, Eyedentity, in Osnabrück, Germany in 2024, explored the “artistic presentation of queer identities”.

Mental health is a recurring theme in Keerthana’s artworks. She says, “I am someone who struggles with mental health. It was taboo to say it out loud.” In London, she started relating to the works of her contemporaries, identifying with their inner turmoil. She found it necessary to address these issues through her work. “It was such an unlearning experience,” says the photographer. 

While a picture might be open to different interpretations, people often reach out to Keerthana saying that they comprehend what her photos are conveying and express their pleasure over her revealing it, she says. “As an artist or a photographer, you don’t know what the other person gauges from your work. But at least you try and explore things.”

Keerthana’s award-winning photos will be showcased at the Saatchi Gallery in London as part of the Royal Photographic Society International Photographic Exhibition from August 5 to September 16. Her works will also be displayed at the Fujifilm House of Photography, London this year.