Tamil Nadu: This doctor found his calling in photography in the Himalayan terrain

At the age of 72, Dr. Srinivasan Periathiruvadi has just returned from yet another dedicated trek through the Himalayan region photographing the consuming wilderness. And his love for photography predates his medical career by years. It began in 1964 in Thoothukudi where he had spent his long evenings in a photo studio of a friend’s father after school, attentively watching the art of film developing.

It was momentarily paused when Dr. Srinivasan was pulled towards medicine. “Medicine took every minute of my time as an MBBS student at Kilpauk Medical College in Chennai, and I just didn’t have the money for photography,” he recalls. Only while pursuing MD in medicine, a stipend made him pick the camera again, albeit briefly.

From 1985 to 2005, photography receded to the background, where his career took him from CSI Rainy Hospital in 1981 to a short stint in the U.K., and eventually back to Chennai where he fully immersed himself in laboratory medicine, founding Lister laboratory (now Lister Metropolis) and the not-for-profit, Jeevan Blood bank where he was balancing the two worlds of being a physician and photographer.

“Only around 2009, I returned to photography with intention, and never looked back,” he says. The Himalayas reclaimed him as he truly found his passion for photography at the high-altitude solitude.

At the photography exhibition at Folly, Amethyst in Chennai on November 21, 2025
| Photo Credit:
R. Ravindran

At his fourth photography exhibition at Folly, Amethyst, Dr. Srinivasan displayed a monochrome collection of Himalayan images alongside his friend Jayanand Govindaraj who exhibited abstract photographs last month. Dr. Srinivasan’s series opened with an image of a mountain woman strolling around, which also happened to be a long wait to capture. “When I saw her emerge from behind a bend, I stood waiting nearly an hour for her to enter the frame,” adds the medical professional.

Over the last four years, the doctor-photographer has travelled extensively across Kashmir for his next exhibition, planned for 2026, and had also published two books that document his journeys just through photographs.

“In the medical field, many feel worn down, and they don’t develop any other hobby. Every professional should have an hobby, be it serious or casual, but it is essential to find your inner self and expression, and step away from the pressures of the professional world. Without that, it gets difficult as we age,” says Dr. Srinivasan, who also had his stint with wildlife photography.

Dr. Srinivasan Periathiruvadi, during his photography exhibition at Folly, Amethyst in Chennai
| Photo Credit:
R. Ravindran

For decades, six days a week belonged to medicine and one day for photography, but the ratio reversed little by little with time. Now, he says, he has taken a conscious decision to indulge more in photography. In the past few years, he has moved away from colour to mostly monochrome work. “When colour is absent, our eyes mostly start noticing the form, tone, contrast, and distractions fall away,” he says.

Dr. Srinivasan is up at 4.45 am and cycles 20 kilometres a day, but he says going to the high altitude areas need not only physical endurance but mental strength. “Mountains test your mind first. Anyone planning to go to high terrains must acclimatise both mentally and physically,” he says. His photo exhibition Mountains and Mugil shown at Folly is now accessible as a 3D virtual gallery too at https://www.natureimages.in/