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With phones and DSLR’s in every second person’s bags, photography in the city has grown from being a professionally dominated profession to an amateur’s playing field. But what good are your skills if you’re not using them to something other than your own personal ends? That thought is what made Hyderabad-based Satyanarayana Golu turn to photojournalism — to help people around him.

“You may have gifts, but unless you use them, what’s the use?,” Satya says, “It’s great that there are so many mediums to put our photography forward — every phone has a camera that you can use to take photos and upload onto Facebook, but I think people should think about what they’re capturing.”

Born in Sangareddi into a farming family, Satya moved to Hyderabad in 2003 to pursue a Bachelor’s degree, but dropped out of college when he realised he wanted to do something more. Working with magazines and, even now, with an NGO, Jai Bharathi, he decided to bring social issues to the mainstream: “My activism has helped me learn about different issues and how to bring justice to them.”

Farmer suicide in Telangana
Satya finished a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from JNAFAU last year, and after 10 years of covering social issues in and around Hyderabad ranging from fluorosis to environmental problems, he took part in the recent Indian Photography Festival. His work was appreciated by Los Angeles Times photographer Barbara Davidson, who will be featuring his work in her online column, alongside other photographers from the city and the country.

“During the work review, Barbara saw the pictures I’d brought to her, but noticed I had kept a few in my bag,” Satya says, “She forced me to show them all to her and said I had a very good, strong eye for photography,” adding that she even took the effort to get a translator and spent an hour and a half exploring his work and giving him pointers about how he could publicise his work even more.

A child affected with fluorosis in Nalgonda
Satya, who says he will soon be studying law to help with his fight for social causes, says of his own work through photography: “As much help as I give to the downtrodden, is helping me just as much.”