Kiran Chukkapalli captures the unseen with his ‘7 Decades - Silent Refugee Crisis’ exhibition

With his handy mobile phone camera, the photographer gives us a window into the lives of countless refugees at his exhibition in Old School Brindavanam in Jubilee Hills

Kiran Chukkapalli Vinay Madapu

When you hear the words ‘refugee camp’, what comes to mind? An indescribably hard life, where food, shelter, and clothing are sparse, and the feeling of not belonging hurts the heart and soul. It gives you a whole new perspective — a sad one, really. But Kiran Chukkapalli, a human rights advocate and photographer, believes in telling their stories, through which he has brought change too. We got a glimpse into the world of refugees at his photo exhibition

‘7 Decades - Silent Refugee Crisis’ at Old School Brindavanam in Jubilee Hills. He speaks to CE about his journey, exhibition, and more.

One of Kiran's photographs on displayVinay Madapu

Kiran took these photos when he did the Bharat Refugee Yatra, where he travelled 1,300 km across the country on a motorbike. “I found a few camps in Rajasthan. I undertook this journey not to have an adventure but to understand things better. I clicked candid black and white pictures of these refugees, all with my phone. Somehow, there is a section of people that we don’t talk about,” he laments. But the people in these photos are not just mere subjects to Kiran. He has empowered them by starting a clothing line, where the clothes are hand-stitched by refugees in these camps.

In a world where everyone usually dreams of becoming a doctor, engineer, lawyer, pilot, and so on, Kiran realised his true calling when he first heard of Swami Vivekananda. “It took me about 15 years to completely grasp this. After that I went to Rishikesh, followed by the Himalayas and then Kerala. All these things gave me a perspective of what the world is and what knowledge means. That is when I moved to the interior tribal areas, where there was no electricity. I lived with people there and started about 40 schools and healthcare centers,” he notes.

In this photograph clicked by Kiran, a young girl sombrely stares into the camera Vinay Madapu

But it was not a smooth journey at all, with hardly any support despite his will to change lives. He recalls that when he was around 20 years old, he was in a tribal area in Odisha, striving to give them electricity through solar energy. “No one offered me shelter there; I was younger, so it was rather scary to be in an area I didn’t know. I spent a whole night under a tree with no food to eat or water to drink.

Another candid photograph by Kiran at the exhibitionVinay Madapu

That’s when I started deeply pondering about life,” he says. But he powered on due to the teachings of the Vedas. He adds, “The holy scriptures state that just like winter and summer, sadness and happiness come and go. I realised that I was drowning in despair due to my ego — if I had come there to help people, I should do so without any expectations.”