Nilu picked up a camera at the age of eight, and on looking through the frame was instantly spellbound; it was the first time she had ever seen something sharp and out of focus at the same time. She has held onto her camera ever since.

Nilu’s love of photography has led her to working as the in-house photographer for Opera Holland Park, to documenting life in the community for Kensington and Chelsea, projects for Hermes, The Photographers’ Gallery and The Victoria and Albert Museum to name a few.

As a student, Nilu wasn’t entirely happy with simply using a conventional camera and was constantly working at making her photography more sensory. She managed to achieve this in her final term as a sculpture student at S.I.A.D where she built a free-standing walk-in camera (a camera obscura).  Images of the passing clouds in the sky were naturally projected onto the interior walls of the installation through the pierced holes in the ceiling. In this way, her love of fine art and photography finally came together in the perfect way.

Since graduating from art school in 1995, Nilu has traveled extensively, meticulously building permanent and temporary cameras obscura world wide. Inspired by the different landscapes and backdrops to her obscura projects, as well as the exposure to many different cultures, Nilu created stunning photographic documents of each of her projects. Needless to say, at home she seemlessly works as a documentary photographer, covering a diverse range of projects including fine art, commercial events and family portraits and daily life.

In addition to the above, she delights in showing young people how photography works by way of cameras obscura and pinhole. She sets up the most marvellous workshops where children can understand the basics and natural wonders of photography simply by viewing the live image inside the camera obscura and by making pinhole cameras and printing their photographs in the darkroom. For students of all ages, these classes are both memorable and invaluable.

Nilu’s passion for the art and applications of photography shine from every aspect of her work, be it a documentary-style shoot of a wedding, capturing the outlandish world of fashion for Fashion Fringe, doing classic portraiture or the art she creates with her cameras obscura.

She is still holding on to her camera and has no intention of letting go…