Parvathi Kumar

Born and raised in eastern Canada, of South Indian origin, and based in New Jersey, Parvathi Kumar was trained as a teen by her mother in manual film photography, and gained formative darkroom experience in high school. Despite two technical degrees, her passion for photography over the last 35+ years remained strong, and she became a full-time freelance photographer in 2010. She has received awards and recognition internationally, and exhibits her work widely in group and solo shows in the US and abroad. In 2021 she released a self-published photo book entitled “Everyday Blackness: Celebrating Exceptional Women”. Her portraits of 25 Black women of all ages and backgrounds from the NJ/NY area, with supporting text, honors them as ordinary Black women with extraordinary contributions. The work had a full exhibit at the Visual Arts Center of NJ in 2022, a feature and interview in The Pictorial List in 2025, and a feature in the April 2026 issue of the Royal Photographic Society’s WE ARE magazine. Parvathi is drawn to street photography and being a “flaneuse” – wandering and observing with camera, responding intuitively to candid scenes, gestures, moods, and moments. She composes images in a way that linger in the viewer’s mind, perhaps with a sense of mystery, or that raise questions, or that tell a story of sorts. In May 2024 she had a feature solo exhibition of her street photography at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ with work from her travels in various countries. She lives in Bridgewater, NJ with her family.