Indrani (born Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri) is an Indian-Canadian director, photographer, and digital artist. She is known for her work for celebrities, beauty firms, advertising agencies, and fashion magazines.[1] She works with photographer Markus Klinko.[2]
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Indrani was born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and began a successful modeling career at 14, in order to work closely with great photographers and artists around the world. She studied philosophy at spiritual centers along the way, especially Vivekananda Vedanta, initiated by Swami Bhuteshananda, President of the Ramakrishna Order in India.[3]
Indrani graduated Magna Cum Laude (High Honors) from Princeton University with a BA in Anthropology in 2001.[4] At Princeton, she spearheaded the student movement to create a Program in South Asian Studies, and revived the teaching of Sanskrit.[5] She won Glamour's Top 10 College Women Competition. [6][7] Simultaneously she commuted from New York City where she mastered digital postproduction art and developed her art with Klinko.[2]
In 1995, Indrani met the Swiss classical harpist, Markus Klinko. They became professional photographers together and were soon known as a fashion photography duo, "two of photography's biggest talents."[8]
The fashion editor and style icon Isabella Blow was the first to discover Indrani's work with Klinko and gave them their first magazine cover for Sunday Times. The singer David Bowie was the first artist to commission them to shoot his portraits for an album cover (Heathen). Supermodel Iman asked them to shoot the covers of the book of her photos, I am Iman and gave them their first ad campaigns. The duo credit Blow, Bowie and Iman for teaching them to push all creative boundaries.[2] They created award-winning covers for Beyonce's solo debut Dangerously in Love, Mariah Carey's Emancipation of Mimi and Mary J. Blige's The Breakthrough all of which became top-selling albums of their years.
Indrani became a director of films, documentaries and commercials.[9] Her recent collaborations include Lady Gaga, Kate Winslet, Katie Holmes, Will Smith, Eva Mendes, Anne Hathaway, Jay Z, Keanu Reeves, Kanye West, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears.[10] Her advertising clients include Lancome, Elizabeth Arden, Shiseido, L'Oreal Paris, Pantene, De Beers, Baume-et-Mercier, Anna Sui, Hugo Boss, Nike, and Pepsi.[2] Her work has been published in magazines like V Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, Arena Homme Plus, Flaunt, Interview, and Cosmopolitan.
She has had numerous exhibitions including "Icons" in LA and NY at the Angel Orensanz Center, presented by the Lucie Foundation in concert with the Month of Photography Los Angeles and the Farmani Gallery, in 2009 and 2010.[10]In 2011 Indrani directed a film starring fashion icon Daphne Guinness called "The Legend of Lady White Snake: A Tribute to the Spirit of Alexander McQueen." Previews of the film are featured at the Daphne Guinness Exhibition at the Museum at the Fashion Institute from September from 16, 2011 through January 7, 2012.[11]
"Their reputation has recently catapulted the pair in front of the camera with Double Exposure, their new reality television show documenting their shoots from initial thought to hard copy."[12] The first photographers to have their own docu-series, Indrani, Klinko, and stylist GK Reid star in Double Exposure. The show provides glamorous, dramatic and comedic glimpses behind the scenes of photo shoots with celebrity and fashion stars including Lady Gaga, Dita Von Teese, Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian and Naomi Campbell.[13] The show has received much media attention and glowing reviews.[14]
Life & Style reports, "The former lovers impress with their client roster and entertain with their fiery personalities."[15] "Markus Klinko and Indrani - the most famous twosome in fashion and celebrity photography - will give television viewers an inside look at their sometimes tempestuous and highly prolific working relationship" according to American Photo[2] According to Slate magazine, “Themes include the aesthetics of desire, the symbiosis of artist and muse, and Lindsay Lohan missing her call time…High-glossily trashy-good.”[16] The show is described by Cosmopolitan Magazine as “A new guilty pleasure… Feels like America's Next Top Model and Project Runway mixed together and on speed.”[17]
The show airs in the US on Bravo and currently airs in over 50 countries worldwide including[18]Canada on Cosmo TV[18], Australia on Arena TV, South Africa on DStv, in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica and other countries in South America on Fox Life, premiering March 3, 2011[19] and Denmark. In Asia, on Sony Entertainment Network SET in Thailand, the Philippines, and other countries, premiering August 4, 2011. In India and China and other Asian countries on AXN, premiering Fall of 2011.[20]
Indrani has been the subject of media attention since her days as a fashion model on an episode of To Tell The Truth.[21] She was a featured guest on America's Next Top Model, Make Me A Supermodel, and Style Me[22] and was interviewed for E! News, Access Hollywood, Fashion Television and The Short List.[23]} CNN's Showbiz Tonight interviewed the duo live on July 13, 2010 about their shoot with Lady Gaga and Naomi Campbell.[24] Indrani and Markus Klinko appeared on Larry King Live to talk about photography, Double Exposure, and argued against the imprisonment of Lindsay Lohan.[25][26]
In 1994, Indrani founded a women's literacy center, free library, and charitable school in her ancestral home in West Bengal, India, together with her father, Ajay Pal-Chaudhuri.[27] Known as SEESchool.org, the Shakti Empowerment Education foundation provides free, quality education to over 300 children and women, as well as a free homeopathic dispensary, free vocational training, and free adult literacy classes to the poor.[28] Indrani continues to support the school with her work.[10]
In September 2010, Indrani travelled to the Central African Republic, to film and photograph the urgent UN Mission to eradicate malaria with Mandy Moore, PSI Ambassador. [29]
Indrani has donated months of work to create several campaigns for Keep A Child Alive, fighting AIDS in India and Africa, including the "Buy Life" and "Digital Death" campaign which raised over a million dollars in less than a week, and won 2 Gold Lions at Cannes for ad agency TBWA / Chiat Day New York in June 2011.[30]
She is an Advisory Board Member of Marriage Equality, for which she photographed Perez Hilton,[31]she was a celebrity model for Red Dress for the American Heart Association, and she created images to support Smiley Faces' reconstructive surgery for children with cleft palate.[32][33] Indrani states "Ultimately I am working for a deeper meaning in my life, which is helping others."[34]