Shankar Subramanian | Hornbill Festival - Nagaland

Photo © Shankar Subramanian - All Rights Reserved

I may consider myself as an old hand in India, but I cannot justify the reason for not having been to its "seven sisters" yet. The Seven Sister States are India's contiguous states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura in northeastern India...and this is a huge blot on my record.

One of Nagaland's most attractive festivals is the Hornbill Festival, named after the bird, and which is one of the largest celebrations of its indigenous warrior tribes, who live in India's far north east region. The hornbill bird is particularly revered by the Nagas and is reflected in tribal folklore, dances and songs.

The festival is organized by the state government and is attended by all of Nagaland's major tribes. It features traditional arts, dances, folk songs, and games.

So it's with pleasure that I feature Shankar Subramanian's Hornbill Festival photo gallery. He has photographed the tribal performers; mostly of the Ao tribe, and possibly others from the Angami tribe and the Rengma as well.

Shankar Subramanian is a talented photographer who's been photographing very seriously for the last 15 years. He travelled extensively in India and beyond. He is passionate about travel photography and portraiture, and loves to create stories and mini multimedia documentaries using photographs and music from his various travels.

Browse through his website, and you'll see his portfolio includes galleries of Holi, Ladakh, Assam, Kashmir, Pushkar Camel Fair, Bhutan, Bali and Kumbh Mela to name but a few.

His photographs from Rajasthan, Mathura, Allahabad gained international recognition from the prestigious International Photography Awards, International Color awards and Black and White Spider awards. He mentored many aspiring photography enthusiasts and is a member of the International fellowship of Rotarian Photographers.

Apart from being such a prolific travel photographer, Shankar found the time to attend my workshop during Travel Photographer Society in Kuala Lumpur in 2016. He introduced us to the intricate -and unforgettable- Bollywood dance step called "You screw in a lightbulb with one hand, and pet the dog with the other", and which became our class' signature movement.