A meditative exploration of life on the streets of Mumbai.
Over one decade and a million steps, Sunhil took photographs of a city he had known for years, but never quite understood. That is, until a brutal injury forced him away from potentially ever walking those streets again. It was also the injury which persuaded him to return to street photography, and this time round his explorations were deeper and more intense.
“As I walked, I healed. And as I healed, I walked.” As he walked, he was encouraged to look past his first impressions. And as he healed, a hidden city revealed itself to him.
The book is a collection of over 100 monochrome and colour analog landscapes. With a foreword by Zoya Akhtar and evocative poetry by Ankur Tewari, The Opium of Time is a romantic celebration of a city whose spirit is often camouflaged by a delicate
and vulnerable veneer.
The book was released in March 2022 in a limited edition and is now available for sale online and in select stores.
Sunhil Sippy, Sunhil grew up and was educated in the UK before heading to America to pursue an undergraduate degree in English Literature
from Georgetown University. He moved to Mumbai in 1995 to explore a career in film and advertising. His first feature Snip! won the National Award for Best Editing in 2001 after which he went on to immerse himself in the world of commercials, successfully directing for brands like Asian Paints, Blue Star, Pepsi, Horlicks and Lux among many others.
His photographic work began with vigour around 2008, and his passion for the streets of Mumbai has broadly driven his vision for the past 15 years. He participated in the citywide Focus Photography Festival in 2013 and 2015. In 2020 he completed an intensive street photography workshop with Alex & Rebecca Norris-Webb in Mexico, followed by a portraiture workshop with celebrated Lebanese-American photographer, Rania Matar in 2021.
He continues to direct commercially while also pursuing ongoing personal photographic projects. Sunhil is committed to philanthropic photographic and film work for NGO’s such as The Savitri Waney Charitable Trust, Teach For India, Akanksha and Hamari Silai.
