Documentary & fine-art photography · South Asia & worldwide
Banashree Sengupta — known as Bono — has spent since 2017 photographing the people, rituals, and vanishing ways of life across South Asia, in a signature style of chiaroscuro and chromatic minimalism. Prints available. Mentorship open.
Selected work
Fifty-eight frames, sorted by the world they came from. Scroll each row sideways.
About the photographer
"In every shadow, there is a story; in every light, there is a legacy. I am here to capture them both."
Since 2017, Bono has worked as a travel and documentary photographer across South Asia — an anthropological exploration of the human spirit as much as a portfolio of places. Long before that, between 2014 and 2016, she managed digital marketing and member programs for Emirates Airline, an experience that taught her to balance global scale with individual connection — a discipline she now brings to every frame.
Her work is defined by a fascination with the dramatic dialogue between light and shadow — high-contrast moments stripped of the superfluous, from charcoal pits to the workshops of Kumortuli.
Bono's photography is driven by a quiet urgency to document what is on the brink of disappearing — tattooed tribal elders in Northeast India, nomadic communities being reshaped by state intervention, oral storytelling traditions, and folk performances that survive only in fragments. Each image is an act of preservation.
Between 2021 and 2022, she served as an Instructor for the Nikon Kids Photo Club, mentoring young photographers to find their own voices — a camera, she believes, is a tool for empathy as much as it is for art.
The story behind the name
The studio's mark comes from this exact photograph — a fisherman's children on a Sri Lankan shore, at home in the sea with a washed-up yellow surfboard. It set the tone for everything that followed: simplicity, individuality, and beauty found in the ordinary.
Learn
Private mentorship and small-group sessions on single-source lighting, shadow control, and documentary storytelling — drawn from Bono's years mentoring young photographers with the Nikon Kids Photo Club.
One-to-one
A working session built around your own camera and images — lighting setup, editing, and critique tailored to what you're trying to make.
Inquire →Small group · in-person
A two-day intensive on single-source lighting, shaping shadow, and portrait direction. Max 6 participants, studio provided.
Inquire →Self-paced
Video lessons on low-key lighting, exposure for deep shadow detail, and documentary storytelling in the field.
Inquire →Get in touch