Born on March 31,1957, Prashant Panjiar is a self-taught photographer. A post-graduate in Political Science from Pune University, India, he worked on photographic projects focusing on peasant movements and other social issues through his college and university days. His first self-financed project that received public acclaim was his work for a book on banditry in the Chambal region of Central India.
In 1984, he joined mainstream journalism with the Patriot newspaper where he photographed many important events including the riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, terrorism in Punjab and the elections. He also traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia in that period and produced the book, “The Survivours – Kampuchea 1984” for Patriot Publishers. In 1986 he moved on to join India Today magazine. As senior photographer with India Today, many important international stories were entrusted to him. Apart from spending nearly 3 months in Iraq, Kuwait, Israel and Saudi Arabia covering the Gulf War in 1991, he also covered the situation in Afghanistan after the Russians pulled-out. He traveled to Pakistan a number of times working on difficult stories, invariably at the height of Indo-Pak tension. Within the country too, he covered the major events and trends. These included the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, Punjab, Kashmir, the elections of 1989 and 1991, the Bihar earthquake, and many socially relevant stories.
In 1995 he joined the Outlook Group of Publications as Associate Editor, in charge of photography, and was part of the core team that launched Outlook magazine. He rose to be Deputy Editor of the magazine responsible for the look and visual content of the magazine, which involved generating of ideas, conceptualizing, visualizing and having the photography executed. He was also one of the magazine’s main photographers. He also worked as consulting picture editor for the group’s other magazines, Intelligent Investor (now, Outlook Money) and Outlook Traveller.
In October 2001 Panjiar left the Outlook Group to devote himself to full-time independent photography. Based in New Delhi he specializes in reportage, editorial and travel photography. His work is published in leading magazines both in India and abroad. Since 2004 he has also been working on issues such as AIDS, education and livelihood for international foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the American India Foundation. Panjiar also continues to work as a consulting editor. Through October 2001 to March 2002 he led the team that launched the Indian Express Group’s new Sunday Express. In 2002 he also completed work, as photographer and picture editor, on a book titled ‘The Ranas of Nepal’. His most recent work, as Picture Editor, is the recently released book of the most memorable photographs of India from DK / Penguin India entitled ‘India – The Definitive Image’.
Panjiar served on the jury of the World Press Photo Awards in Amsterdam in 2002.
Since 2002 he has been on the panel of judges of the annual SOPA (Society of Publishers in Asia) Awards for Editorial Excellence. He has been on the jury member of the Ramnath Goenka Press Photo Awards and the Mumbai Press Club Press Photo Awards. In March 2005 he served on the international jury for the first annual China International Press Photo Competition organized by Xinhua, the national news agency of China.
