After years wandering Tamil Nadu, this photographer wins US$10,000 top prize with mirrorless and DSLR project

Rising talent Sridhar Balasubramaniyam has been awarded the US$10,000 Saltzman Prize for emerging photographers, recognizing a powerful long-term body of work documenting landscapes and communities across southern India.

Balasubramaniyam, a visual artist based in Chennai, won the prestigious prize from the Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) for his photo series Manarsuzhal, captured with Fujifilm's top APS-C mirrorless and Nikon's versatile full-frame DSLR.

Created over several years of wandering across the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the project explores the shifting relationship between people, land, and memory in southern India.

Tech info

The images were captured using a hybrid kit combining the mirrorless Fujifilm X-T4 and the full-frame DSLR Nikon D750.

The Fujifilm X-T4 is a lightweight setup for documentary-style shooting. Its in-body image stabilization helps keep handheld shots sharp, while its tactile dial controls make it easy to adjust settings quickly.

Pared with the compact XF23mm f/2 R WR prime and versatile XF18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS zoom, the camera offered an agile kit well suited to long days of on-the-move photography.

Alongside the mirrorless body, the Nikon D750 delivered the benefits of a full-frame sensor, known for strong detail, natural colors, and reliable performance in difficult lighting conditions.

Paired with the flexible AF-S 24-120mm f/4 G ED VR zoom and classic 28mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens, the DSLR setup helped Balasubramaniyam capture environmental portraits and expansive landscapes throughout the series.

Artist statement 'Manarsuzhal'

"Manarsuzhal (literally translating to "sand whirl") is a work that was born out of years of wandering across Tamil Nadu. It is a journey through the intricate landscapes of the state; a journey where the movement of time, nature, and people constantly reshaped my idea of home.

"Emerging from unplanned moments, Manarsuzhal unfolds as a meditation on impermanence, belonging, and the quiet endurance of the land. Each image carries within it the traces of a journey, like sand blowing across the landscape.

"Shot instinctually over a long period of time, these images produce a space for the recording of moments that occurred on the peripheries of the everyday.

"From the damp clothes of a farming family spread to dry before a mountain fractured and eroded by quarrying, and bees building nests inside electric bulbs, these images are witnesses to a layered and contradictory Indian landscape, marked by tension, resilience, and transformation.

"Seen through the lens of sensory ethnography, photography here becomes less an act of representation and more an act of listening, to the restlessness of the soil, to the fragile rhythms of the everyday, to what disappears and yet remains.

"The camera turns into a sieve, allowing what is solid to fall through and what is fleeting to endure. On looking back, the quotidian becomes more than the sum of its parts. Through capturing the transient, Manarsuzhal arrives at a portrait of permanence."

For more insights, visit the CPW website.

You might like...

Browse the best mirrorless cameras and the best DSLRs, along with the best lenses for the Nikon D750.

Here are 10 global photo contests now open for entries from March to July.