Archive · 1 Sep 2026
How Indian News Photographs Became National Visual Memory
The book is about photographs that helped people remember important and painful events in India.
During the Covid pandemic, photographers showed hospitals, funeral pyres and people struggling to survive.
One photograph by Danish Siddiqui showed many fires burning at a cremation site in Ghaziabad.
Other photographers showed people migrating, crying or mourning their loved ones.
These pictures helped viewers understand how large the disaster was.
The book also includes photographs from riots and the 2004 tsunami.
Arko Datta says powerful pictures are remembered because they touch people’s hearts.
The author explains that photographers often stand near danger and private sorrow to show what is happening.
Together, the images form a visual record of suffering, loss and resilience.
Binoo K John’s book examines photographs that captured India’s major tragedies and became part of the country’s visual memory.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, photographers documented cremations, overflowing hospitals and mass migration across northern India.
Danish Siddiqui’s drone photograph of numerous funeral pyres in Ghaziabad became one of the pandemic’s defining images.
Other notable photographs included images by Rithesh, Qamar Sibtain, Saumya Khandelwal and Atul Yadav.
The book also discusses images from the 2002 Gujarat riots, the 2004 tsunami, the 2020 Delhi riots and later scenes of private grief.
- Who
- The book’s author, Binoo K John, discusses Indian news photographers including Danish Siddiqui, Qamar Sibtain, Saumya Khandelwal, Atul Yadav and Arko Datta.
- What
- The excerpt examines how photographs of pandemics, riots, migration, death and grief became enduring images of India’s history.
- When
- It covers events from the early 1980s through the Covid pandemic and scenes of grief following the 2022 Delhi riots.
- Where
- The events described took place in India, including Delhi, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
- Why
- The photographs were made to document the scale of devastation and the emotional experiences of people affected by death, violence and displacement.
Emotional Documentation
Concerns About Graphic Images
What makes an image powerful
Emotional Documentation
Arko Datta argues that photographs touching viewers emotionally can be more powerful and more likely to be remembered.
Concerns About Graphic Images
Some viewers may see certain images as relying on shock, although Datta says producing shock is not his intention.
Photographing death and suffering
Emotional Documentation
The excerpt presents graphic images as necessary records of the scale of the pandemic, riots and other disasters.
Concerns About Graphic Images
The images show intimate suffering and disturbing scenes, raising questions about how private grief and death should be presented to the public.
- Book
- All in a Flash: News Photography in India
- Author
- Binoo K John
- Publisher
- Niyogi Books
- Pandemic image
- Danish Siddiqui photographed numerous funeral pyres from above in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
- Time cover
- A photograph by Saumya Khandelwal showing burning bodies appeared on the cover of Time magazine.
- Other pandemic subjects
- Qamar Sibtain photographed Congress leader Digvijay Singh in protective clothing inside Parliament, while Atul Yadav photographed a crying migrant worker near Delhi’s Nizamuddin bridge.
- Earlier tragedies
- The excerpt discusses Arko Datta’s photographs from the 2002 Gujarat riots and the 2004 tsunami in Cuddalore.