User:Shivselvan

Born in 1970 at Salperi a small village in the South Indian State of Tamil Nadu, before my father a artist himself moved to Bangalore for a better career. All my schooling was done in Bangalore at the Baldwin Boys High School http://www.baldwinboyshighschool.org/home.asp, and the St John's High School. Later in 1986 I got my first break in the field of photojournalism at the City Tab and local Tabloid (which no longer exists) before joining The Times of India.

I started my career with the Times of India in 1987 in Bangalore. I had the opportunity to officially cover the sandalwood forests on the borders of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka chasing the elusive sandalwood smuggler and poacher Veerappan. Later I covered the biggest manhunt (for the killer of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi), launched by Indian law enforcing agencies to trap Sivarasan alias One-eyed Jack of the LTTE. I have also had the opportunity to cover sensitive assignments including Cauvery Water riots and the first A-320 Airbus plane crash at the HAL Airport.

In 1993 I shifted my base to Delhi and joined the Deccan Herald News Bureau. This enabled me to travel the Northern States of India, since I was the only photographer based in Delhi with the organization. This unique situation allowed me to fine tune my skills as a photojournalist and cope up with day-to-day pressure at work. I had the opportunity to cover major events like the SAARC summit, visits of Heads of Nations, Uttarkhand riots, and events of International importance.

In February 1996 I joined The Hindustan Times. During my 12 year stint with the largest circulated daily of North India, I had the opportunity to cover the crucial Jammu & Kashmir state Assembly elections held after eleven years. I also covered the elections to the Parliament, the Massive Mid – Air collision at Haryana. I was specially deputed to Bangalore to cover the much-publicized Miss World pageant.

In July 1997 I became the first Indian Photojournalist to be selected for the Reuters Foundation Willy Vicoy Fellowship for the fall term at the University of Missouri, USA. During this stay at the USA I had the opportunity to take part in the 47th Missouri Photo Workshop at Carthage a small town of 15,000 thousand people.

In January 2000 I opted for the Bhopal Edition launch of the Hindustan Times where I was heading the Photo Department of The Hindustan Times, Madhya Pradesh, and based in Bhopal, the State Capital. During my five year stay in Bhopal I got to cover various important assignments such as the formation of the New State wood of Chhattisgarh, to the various political events and the Simhastha Kumbh Mela – one of the three Mahakumbhas in Hinduism held once in 12 years in Ujjain.

In June 2006 I joined the Dainik Bhaskar Group to head their new venture the Research & Archives department. I helped them in setting up the online image database for the group and also have been responsible for the launch of the 3D syndication from the Bhaskar end.

In April 2007 I joined the Bangalore Mirror, a City based tabloid of the Times of India Group as the Photo Editor where I was handling the editing, captioning and ensuring that the best images go for the final print on a daily basis apart from assigning four of my other colleagues and monitoring their work on a daily basis till July 2008.

At present I work with the Daily News & Analysis – DNA broadsheet newspaper in Bangalore as the Photo Editor.

Some of my work can be seen at the below given sites: http://shivselvan.blogspot.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/26464144@N07/ http://www.lightstalkers.org/selvan