ABOUT
Born in Calcutta, Ashok Sinha is an American filmmaker and photographer who shoots lifestyle and creative culture though a contemporary architectural lens. Before he pursued an art career based out of New York City, Ashok programmed telecom satellites for the U.S. government after graduating from Columbia University, left behind a second career in advertising, and eventually settled in Manhattan, where he now lives with his wife and daughter in a town house on the East Side.
On the centennial of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s voyage, Ashok crossed the Drake Passage to Antarctica on an icebreaker ship, photographing for the National Geographic Image Collection and fell for modern design on a travel assignment documenting Oscar Niemeyer’s architecture in Rio de Janeiro. His timeless images capture a sense of place.
He drove 2,500 miles shooting Gas and Glamour, an art book of Los Angeles roadside buildings from the golden age of car culture. It was chosen by both The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Magazine as a top photo book in 2020, and The Guardian review called it “easy to get lost in nostalgia, and even escapism, looking at Sinha’s photographs.”
As a cinematographer and cofounder of Story Font Studio, he produces documentary films and videos for commercial clients, while his 2019 Sticker City short was featured by Amazon’s All Voices festival and Pigeon Kings of Brooklyn screened at the Syfy Brooklyn Bridge Park film festival in 2015.
He holds a FAA certified drone pilot (SUAS) license, and his studio is a certified New York State and New York City Minority Business Enterprise (MBE). In 2010, Ashok founded the Cartwheel Initiative nonprofit to empower at-risk youth through visual storytelling.
AWARDS
American Photography #39 (2023), #31 (2015)
Architecture Masterprize Photography, Best of Best, 2021
American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Architectural Photography Awards, 2021
Society of Publication Designers SPD 56, 2021
American Society of Media Photographers, Best Of 2012 & 2015
American Photographic Artists Awards, 2015
Photo District News World In Focus, 2014
International Photography Awards, 2011
Lucie Foundation Scholarship Shortlist, 2010
Association of Photographers UK Open, 2009
EXHIBITIONS
2023
AAPI showcase, Nordstrom, New York, NY
Art Fair 14C, Jersey City, NJ
2022
Affordable Art Fair, treat Gallery, New York, NY
2021
Fall Transformation, Front Room Gallery, New York, NY
Holiday Haus Warming, Front Room Gallery, New York, NY
Holiday Hues & Blues, treat Gallery, New York, NY
Affordable Art Fair, treat Gallery, New York, NY
2020
Americans Looking In, Center for Book Arts, New York, NY
Gas and Glamour, Ron Herman Japan, Tokyo, Japan
Verdant, Front Room Gallery, New York, NY
Vital Force: Water Essential, Front Room Gallery, New York, NY
America in Photographs, Front Room Gallery, New York, NY
Kehrer Verlag @ Photo London, London, UK
2019
Urban Dance, The Plaxall Gallery, Queens, NY
To Take Flight, 222 Bowery Art, New York, NY
Summer Sampler, Front Room Gallery, New York, NY
FR 20, Part I: The Environment in Contemporary Photography, Front Room Gallery, New York, NY
ASMP @ Aqua Art, Miami, FL
ASMP @ The Photography Show by AIPAD, New York, NY
2018
Strata, two person exhibition of aerial photographs, Front Room Gallery, New York, NY
HOME, Augusta Savage Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Benefit Auction, Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin HS, Pace Gallery, New York
2017
International Photo Exhibition 160, Royal Photographic Society, London
At Scale, two person exhibition of aerial photographs, Sherle Wagner Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Art & Oppression, Santa Fe University of Art & Design, New Mexico
Other Art Fair by Saatchi Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2016
Elte X Uprise, ELTE Mkt Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Art in Architecture, Darkroom Gallery, Essex Jct., Vermont
2015
Portraits, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
War & Peace, Darkroom Gallery, Essex Jct., Vermont
2014
Drift, Citigroup Center, New York, NY
Faces, Darkroom Gallery, Essex Jct., Vermont
Illusive Self, Taller Boricua Gallery, New York, NY
2013
Rising Waters: Hurricane Sandy, Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY
Illusive Self, Taller Boricua Gallery, New York, NY
Portraits, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
The (Un)Fair Art Exhibition, New York, NY
Curate NYC, Online Gallery Exhibition
Benefit Auction, Housing Works’ Design on a Dime, New York, NY
Affordable Art Fair, Uprise Art, New York, NY
2012
Home, Umbrella Arts Gallery, New York, NY
Uprise Art, Chelsea Market Concourse, New York, NY
Benefit Auction, Housing Works' Design on a Dime, New York, NY
Benefit Auction, Family Dynamics, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York, NY
2011
Exacting Proportion, Mixed Greens Gallery, New York, NY
Portraits, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
Faces of the Economy, Art for Change Gallery, New York, NY
Dinner, Umbrella Arts Gallery, New York, NY
Meeting of the Art Waters, Wilkes-Barre, PA
2010
WoRK, New Orleans Photo Alliance, New Orleans, LA
The Work Office, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York
Artists for Advocacy, Coalition for Asian American Children & Families, New York, NY
Benefit Auction, Young Photographers Alliance, New York, NY
2009
Association of Photographers (UK) Open Awards Exhibition, AOP Gallery, London