Sridhar Balasubramaniyam Winner of the 2026 CPW Saltzman Prize

Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is pleased to announce that Sridhar Balasubramaniyam is the recipient of the 2026 Saltzman Prize for Emerging Photographer. Selected by a distinguished jury from a shortlist of ten international candidates, Balasubramaniyam is a Chennai-based visual artist whose work in photography and video explores the complex relationship between body and land.

Now in its third year, the Saltzman Prize for Emerging Photographer honors the achievements of a rising artist whose recent work has gained international attention and whose distinctive vision brings fresh perspectives to contemporary photography and visual culture. The award includes a $10,000 prize and will be presented during the 2026 CPW Vision Awards gala on May 16. Balasubramaniyam will also present a solo exhibition at CPW in 2027.

“We are delighted to recognize the exceptional work of Sridhar Balasubramaniyam,” said Brian Wallis, Executive Director of CPW. “We also look forward to engaging with Sridhar and a broader community of artists and photographers working in India and beyond.”

Drawing on more than a decade of experience as both a performance artist and photographer working in theaters across India, Balasubramaniyam creates projects deeply rooted in the folk traditions, ritual performances, and tribal wedding ceremonies of southern India’s Dravidian communities. The term Dravidian refers to a family of languages—distinct from Indo-European languages—spoken primarily in southern India and Sri Lanka, including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, as well as Brahui in Pakistan.

Balasubramaniyam’s widely recognized project “Body and Land” has received several major awards, including the Alkazi Theatre Photography Grant (2020) and the Serendipity Photography Grant (2020). The series was exhibited at the Alkazi Theatre Archives in 2022 and later presented at the National Portrait Gallery in 2024. He was also nominated for the Joop Masterclass—the educational program of World Press Photo—in 2025, and was a finalist for KG+, the open-call satellite festival of the Kyotographie International Photography Festival, in 2026.

“I am truly honored to be selected as the recipient of the 2026 Saltzman Prize for Emerging Photographer,” Balasubramaniyam said. “To have my work recognized by such an esteemed jury, including my long-time inspiration Carrie Mae Weems, means a great deal to me.”

The 2026 Saltzman Prize jury was composed of Clément Chéroux, Director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson; Carrie Mae Weems; and Sarah Meister, Executive Director of Aperture.

From the 2026 shortlist, the jury also awarded honorable mentions to Widline Cadet (Los Angeles, CA) and Kerr Cirilo (Brooklyn, NY).

Sridhar Balasubramaniyam
Sridhar Balasubramaniyam is an Indian visual based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His artistic practice with photography and video explores the intricate relationship between body and land. Drawing on over 10 years of experience as a performance artist and photographer in theatres across various cities, Sridhar’s work reflects a deep engagement with Dravidian folk stories, performances, and tribal weddings. His acclaimed project, “Body and Land,” has earned significant recognition, including the Alkazi Theatre Photography Grant in 2020 and the Serendipity Photography Grant (2020). This work was exhibited at the Alkazi Theatre Archives in 2022 and featured at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2024. World press photography nomination 2025. finalist for Kg+ 2026.
www.sridharbalasubramaniyam.com
@irdhasri

Manarsuzhal
Manarsuzhal (literally translating to “sand whirl”) is a work that was born out of years of wandering across Tamil Nadu. It is a journey through the intricate landscapes of the state; a journey where the movement of time, nature, and people constantly reshaped my idea of home. Emerging from unplanned moments, Manarsuzhal unfolds as a meditation on impermanence, belonging, and the quiet endurance of the land. Each image carries within it the traces of a journey, like sand blowing across the landscape.

Shot instinctually over a long period of time, these images produce a space for the recording of moments that occurred on the peripheries of the everyday. From the damp clothes of a farming family spread to dry before a mountain fractured and eroded by quarrying, and bees building nests inside electric bulbs, these images are witnesses to a layered and contradictory Indian landscape, marked by tension, resilience, and transformation.

Seen through the lens of sensory ethnography, photography here becomes less an act of representation and more an act of listening, to the restlessness of the soil, to the fragile rhythms of the everyday, to what disappears and yet remains. The camera turns into a sieve, allowing what is solid to fall through and what is fleeting to endure. On looking back, the quotidian becomes more than the sum of its parts. Through capturing the transient, Manarsuzhal arrives at a portrait of permanence.