Drawing upon his innate instincts as an artist, Akash has changed the way wildlife is photographed and presented. He is a dedicated environmentalist, and his body of work strongly reflects that – the creatures of the wild are always a part of a larger story in his pictures. Over time, some of his pictures have become icons of wildlife photography, regularly featuring in international magazines, National Geographic, WWF journals, Time magazine, the globally-admired Incredible India campaigns and have featured in many other celebrated publications.
A former CANON brand ambassador, Akash is now the brand ambassador of NIKON. He is also an active member of NIKON PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, and the first Member of SANDISK Extreme Pro Team Worldwide, as well as SANDISK’s and Western Digital’s brand ambassador.
He is acknowledged as the pioneer of Art Wildlife Photography. He has more than 100 prestigious advertising and photography awards under his belt. Among them, is the honour of being one of the ‘10 most influential people in photography industry’ adjudged by Ernst & Young for Asian Photography in February 2013.
He is the only photographer whose black and white exhibition titled ‘In Search of Asian Nudes’ featured in Limca Book of World Records as the first-of-its-kind theme-based display in the world. Till now, Akash has done 12 solo exhibitions all over the world including in Paris, Miami, Hamburg, Monte Video and in India.
He has to his credit, five Coffee Table books on various subjects.
Praveen has, over the course of his long and illustrious career, covered a range of breaking stories in India and abroad. He has travelled to Sri Lanka in 1995 to record ethnic trouble, been to Pakistan to cover elections and also covered the Lahore declaration. In India, Praveen has covered almost all the big events of the 80’s and the 90’s – from the riots in Bhagalpur and Hashimpura to the Delhi pogrom in 1984; the demolition of the Babri Masjid and its rehearsal to the plague in Surat and Operation Black Thunder as well.
Praveen has covered 10 prime ministers and eight presidents and amassed a reservoir of offbeat photos of an array of political leaders during his long, varied career. Of late, Praveen has covered the unrest in Kashmir after Article 370 and the violence that took place in Uttar Pradesh in the aftermath of the anti-CAA protests.
As India locked down as part of the Coronavirus pandemic, Praveen set out on the road and reported on the ground realities throughout the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, chalking up unique day-to-day coverage in these unprecedented times. He has continued to find interesting and offbeat stories across the country throughout this last year and remains the same passionate and persevering journalist he started his career as.
Praveen Jain received the Sanskriti Award in 1995.
Then he shifted into the profession of film making, designing, storytelling and specializing in props and miniature. Worked as a Creative Director for 14 long years with Sesame Street (Galli Galli Sim Sim) and television show Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai. He has done a complete feature film ‘Gandhi to Hitler’ as a Production Designer. He was also associated with the films like Dil Se, Rang De Basanti, etc.
Currently, he is associated with Pune film institute, NID, Pearl Academy as a guest faculty for Film Studies.