Imagine Photojournalist Society

Imagine Photojournalist Society was founded in 2012 in Jodhpur by international photojournalist Purushottam Diwakar, who has been practising journalism for more than 25 years, much of it for India Today. It exists to keep documentary photography honest and to pass the craft on — bringing documentary photographers, editors, educators, writers, and students into one room through an annual seminar, mentorship, field assignments, exhibitions, training camps, and an internship pathway.

The society treats a photograph as evidence and a public record, not decoration, and works to build a culture that reads images as carefully as it reads words. Its magazine, Jeene Ka Andaaz, carries photo stories, field notes, and civic reporting from members and mentees. Through the Camera Commandos initiative, Imagine trains women to report from the frontlines of conflict, disaster, and neglect — putting a camera, and a sense of responsibility for the truth, into the next generation's hands.

Joining Imagine puts you in the room with people who do this work for a living. Membership is built around mentorship: you learn directly from veterans like Purushottam Diwakar and the editors, photographers, and educators who guide the society, in conversation and on assignment rather than only from a syllabus. Every member earns a place at the annual Jaipur Photojournalism Seminar, where keynotes, panels, and one-to-one portfolio reviews give your work the kind of honest, experienced reading that is genuinely hard to find anywhere else.

Beyond the seminar, the society runs workshops, training camps, and photo walks through the year — on the ethics of the image, archiving and captioning, long-form documentary projects, and the craft of telling a complete story in a single frame. Members are matched with real field assignments: event documentation, photo essays, and civic reporting that put theory to the test and build a portfolio that stands on its own. The strongest of this work is published in the society's magazine, Jeene Ka Andaaz, giving members a genuine byline and a readership beyond the classroom and the campus.

For women, the Camera Commandos programme offers a dedicated path — rigorous training that prepares photojournalists to report with skill, courage, and composure from conflict, disaster, and the places the news too often overlooks. Across all of it runs one commitment: to treat a photograph as evidence and a public trust, and to take the truth of an image seriously.

Membership is open to students, early-career photographers, working professionals, and anyone serious about the frame. You leave with mentors, a body of published work, a network that reaches across Indian photojournalism and beyond, and a standard to hold your pictures to. What you bring is curiosity, commitment, and a willingness to look closely, ask questions, and keep looking.