Dimpy Bhalotia (born 1987) is an award-winning woman street photographer and creative director based out of London and Bombay. Coming from a lineage of artisans, she completed her schooling from Bombay and moved to London in 2005 and graduated in BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Womenswear from London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.
Her work has received widespread acclaim and won her over 24 prestigious awards globally, including to be the first Indian to win the Grand Prize Award, IPPAWARDS 2020, for her photograph "Flying Boys". Apple CEO Tim Cook called the results of this competition "extraordinary" and applauded the photographers' "outstanding work" on twitter. According to L'Officiel, "Flying Boys is now the most famous photograph." She also won the Female in Focus Award from the British Journal of Photography.
Dimpy's work is a celebration of voices behind the most groundbreaking and innovative photographic work of our time. Her photographs have influenced significantly on the evolution of mobile street photography. Dimpy is the first and foremost woman photographer to pioneer street photography with mobile phones. She began photographing with a Samsung SGH-D500 in 2006, Nokia N95 in 2007 and then to the iPhone 4 and 5s from 2010 to all the generations of iPhone till date. She uses Leica cameras & variety of film cameras for commissioned work. Dimpy is very well-versed with variety of cameras. She has been a huge inspiration in the photography industry and is widely known for her unique perspective and originality in her photographs. Dimpy has created powerful photographs that continues to captivate, educate, and inspire current and future generations.
Dimpy has been named one of the 12 top UK woman photographers to follow 2022, 21 most influential female photographers 2022, 31 Most Influential Street Photographer 2023 & 2022, 32 famous street photographers 2021 and Best Street Photographer of 2019. International publications from Washington Post, Forbes, The Guardian, Adobe, L'officiel, National Geographic, BBC News, GQ Magazine, The Telegraph, The National, Cult of Mac, Economic Times, NPR and many more have published and featured her work. Dimpy's work has been housed in world's finest galleries, and she is renowned for her powerful pioneering photographs.
Dimpy is the founder and producer of Light Wanderers, a creative agency and production house, which crafts bespoke iconic photographs and videos for clients worldwide. She is also the founder and curator of 'Pure Street Photography' a very well known global street photography community. It has over 141k followers on Instagram. The community's goal is to support photographers all over the world and to celebrate their achievements by recognising, sharing, and presenting compelling photographs to an international audience.
Dimpy is on the judging panel for The One Club of Creativity - Young Ones 2023, Art Directors Club of New York Awards 2021, IIT Kanpur 2023, Italian Street Photo Festival 2022, ADC 101st Annual Awards Members' Choice Award 2022, MPA Awards 2020, Zeaous Co 2022 and Fa! Foto Awards 2020 & 2021 photography awards. Her work has been exhibited in over 9 countries and she is taking her photography towards casting the living elements in her photographs into life-size sculptures and installations. She is a member of The One Club of Creativity, National Geographic Your Shot, Diversify Photo and Women Street Photographers.
Selected Clients -
Apple
One Plus x Hasselblad
AquaTech Imaging x Axis Go
Oppo x Hasselblad
Penguin Random House UK
Xiaomi x Leica
Notre Dame Magazine
• Grand Winner, PIPA
• Gold Winner, The Prix de la Photographie
• Winner, Female in Focus Award, British Journal of Photography
• Winner, Feature Shoot Street Photography Awards
• 1st Place - The Independent Photographer
• 1st Place - Concurso de Fotografia Alicante
• 1st Place - San Francisco Street Festival
• 1st Place - Monovisions Awards
Publications -
• Dimpy's energetic photographs were used in the book cover for the novel Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara. Published by Penguin Random House UK.
• #ICPConcerned: Global Images for Global Crisis. The book presents photographs showing daily life in the midst of the global pandemic. Exhibition was at The International Centre of Photography, New York.
• Women Street Photographers. Munich; London; New York: Prestel, 2021.
• Reclaim the Street : Street Photography's Moment. Published by Thames & Hudson, 2023.
Exhibited at -
• British Journal of Photography - London, England - Oct to Nov 22'
• International Centre of Photography - New York, USA - 20' to 21'
• Billboard Exhibition - Los Angeles, USA - April 21'
• Berlin Foto Exhibition - BarTur Photo Awards - Berlin, Germany - August 21'
• At Unesco Heritage, Logo Photo Fest - Alpago, Italy - July 21'
• Posters on the Streets of New York (8 locations in Manhattan & Brooklyn) - August 20'
• Venice Fashion Week - Venice, Italy - October 20'
• The State Historical Museum of the Southern Urals - Chelyabinsk, Russia - August 20'
• Treviso Photographic Festival - Treviso, Italy - September 20'
• Kolga Awards - Virtual Exhibition - 20'
• Format Festival - Virtual Exhibition - 20'
• Indian Photo Festival - Hyderabad, India - 20'
• Flickr Headquarters - San Francisco, USA - 19'
• Berlin Photo Week - Berlin, Germany - 19'
• El Barrio Art Space PS109 - New York, USA - December 19'
• Photo Box Exhibition - London, UK - 19'
• Italian Street Photo Festival - Rome, Italy - 19'
• PHOS Sofia Photo Festival - Sofia, Bulgaria - 19'
• San Francisco Street Festival - San Francisco, USA - 19'
• Documenting Humanity - New York, USA - 19'
• Montage - Calcutta, India - 19'
• Retro Kolkata - Calcutta, India -19'
• Foto Art Festival - Poland - October 19'
• BSP Festival - Brussel - November 19'
• Toshiba Exhibition - Dubai, UAE - 18'