Mayank Austen Soofi's Instagram project thedelhiwalla creates a living archive of Delhi

Mayank Austen Soofi, selected by Dayanita Singh for Future Greats 2023, has developed a unique Instagram presence under the handle thedelhiwalla, blending photography with literary captions. He documents Delhi nightly, focusing on overlooked aspects of the city, particularly Old Delhi, contrasting with South Delhi. His posts combine images with text, sometimes quoting writers like Marcel Proust, Arundhati Roy, or Jane Austen, adding depth by occasionally diverging from the visual content. Soofi has maintained this project for about four years on Instagram, alongside a longer-running blog, creating an archive that highlights everyday people, such as street vendors and recyclers, often including their names. He works as a writer and photojournalist, contributing to the Hindustan Times and authoring books like Nobody Can Love You More (2012) and The Delhi Walla series. In 2016, his exhibition Somewhere in Delhi, with designer Anna Gerotto, was displayed at various venues in Venice. Dayanita Singh, a photographic artist based in Delhi, had a solo exhibition Sea of Files at the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg in 2022. Soofi's approach revitalizes documentary photography by persistently capturing urban life over extended periods, connecting diverse audiences to Delhi's communities.