Sheetal Petkar Srivastava

I’m Sheetal Petkar, a still life photographer based in Pune, India.

I don’t invent beauty, I reveal what nature has already designed. Each still life is arranged by hand and lit only by natural light, in quiet conversation with the Dutch Golden Age. The photographs are often mistaken for paintings.

My way of seeing began in old Pune, a city on the Deccan Plateau of western India, a couple of hours from Mumbai. It was slow, leafy and unhurried then. I watched dew drops roll off blades of grass and came home with hands stained purple from mulberries. Nature was everywhere, and I learned to look closely.

Light has been my material for 18 years. I first picked up a camera in 2008, while lighting scenes for Hollywood films, to train my eye. Later in 2013, I ran my own portrait studio. In 2018, I turned to still life, to work with nature, the world I grew up in.

My work is an invitation to slow down and see that beauty is already all around us. We only have to look.

Self-taught photographer.

2026 · Sheetal Petkar: Still Life · India Art Festival, Nehru Centre, Mumbai, India · Solo booth

2023 · Sheetal Petkar: Still Life · Malaka Spice, Pune, India · Solo display