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Elvin Jacob
Canada, b. 1986

Born to Malayalee parents in Bihar (India), I grew up in a multi-cultural society. So I learnt to absorb different cultures and effortlessly switch between languages quite early on. Since birth, I have moved over twenty 'homes' across India including in Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Manipal (Karnataka), Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Bengaluru (Karnataka) apart from Bihar of course. So I pretty much feel at home, anywhere and everywhere.

In 2016, I and my wife (who was three months pregnant then) quit our full time jobs in the same week and moved to a serene gated community on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Compared to those living in the city, we didn’t have to deal much with the usual hassles of city life like traffic and pollution. But whenever we went out into the ‘city’, we were reminded as to why we moved almost 30 kilometres away from our last place of residence. We brought up our daughter in that community around a wonderful circle of friends and led a life full of fun and frolic which included almost daily swims in the pool and strolls in the park. In December 2022, we shifted base to Toronto, Ontario where we now reside in our twenty-fifth ‘home’.

I like creating clean, honest and timeless photographs. Rituals and Reactions - I’d say form the essence of my wedding work. I am embarrassingly emotional and am naturally drawn to such moments. Most of the times, it is too loud to absorb them thanks to the cacophony of Indian weddings. I capture these moments so that You & I can laugh/cry looking at them later. Over the last decade, I’ve shot weddings across India, through cyclones, floods and curfews. I even once turned DJ at an official wedding party after the groom’s friends forgot to arrange for music!

When I am not shooting weddings, I work closely with F&B brands on their visual content showcasing their products as per their marketing and communications goals. My work spans the entire creative process - mood board visualization to photography and postproduction. Photos that I produce are used in the brands' apps, websites, packaging design, menus, internal communication and in-store advertising among others. My clients include Amazon, Krispy Kreme, Barbeque Nation, Chai Point, Freshmenu and Nandus Chicken.

In 2019 and 2021, I served on the International Jury of Akshaypatra’s Annual Photography Competition which usually sees entries from over 65 countries. And in October 2015, I was a selected participant of the Magnum Photography Workshop with Chien-Chi Chang in Bengaluru.

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