Jhuma Datta: Through the lens of a kindred soul

Some people enter your life and quietly become family. Jhuma Datta is exactly that for me - an elder sister, a kindred spirit and one of the most quietly extraordinary people I know.

I owe this special connection to my dear friend and brother, Justice Arijit Banerjee of the Calcutta High Court, whose generosity in bringing beautiful people together is a gift I continue to count among my greatest blessings.

Our friendship has travelled well from Kolkata to Mumbai, where I spent cherished time with Jhuma when her husband, Justice Dipankar Datta, who served as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, and then to Delhi, where he now sits as a judge of the Supreme Court of India. Through every transition, Jhuma remained her own person entirely: camera in hand, eyes wide open, carving out a luminous artistic identity alongside a distinguished legal household - entirely on her own terms.

As an art lawyer, I am surrounded by beautiful art. Yet, few experiences match walking through an exhibition beside Jhuma. Her perspective is unhurried and deeply felt - she doesn’t just look at an image; she reads it. Every gallery visit with her is a quiet masterclass.

Jhuma has been behind the camera since 2008, with her work gracing international exhibitions and galleries, including five solo shows across India. But accolades don’t capture the dedication behind each image. She travels to the world’s most remote and demanding landscapes - from the Aurora Borealis in Iceland to glacial lakes, the Dolomites of Italy and the high-altitude valleys of Ladakh, enduring weeks of bitter cold, punishing terrain and relentless uncertainty. She waits for the perfect light, sleeps in the wilderness and pushes herself far beyond what most would dare, all for one singular, unrepeatable frame.

Her earlier life as a painter - watercolor and acrylic on canvas - gives her photography a rare quality. Each image reads less like a photograph and more like life seen through an artist’s eyes. National Geographic Traveller, Better Photography and India Today have all recognised her work. In 2025, she received the prestigious Swadesh Samman Award - an honour long overdue.

Her sixth solo exhibition, Prakriti Raga: A Melody of Nature, was inaugurated in the distinguished presence of Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant, Justice Vikram Nath, Justice PS Narasimha, Justice KV Viswanathan an ex-Vice-President of India and other eminent guests.

The exhibition is currently on at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, until May 24.

Please go. These are not merely photographs; they are hard-won windows into places most of us will never reach, brought back by a dedicated woman photographer who endured much so we might see what she saw. I promise you will leave looking at the world a little differently.

I am endlessly proud to call her my didi.