Souvid Datta was born in Mumbai and moved to London at the age of 10. Since then, he has been raised between the two metropolises, developing an interest in the fields of multimedia journalism and social justice. Since winning his first dSLR in an iPhone travel photography competition in 2012, he has worked on photography projects on the Sonagachi slums in Kolkata, India; gangs in London; pollution in Xingtai and Ningbo, China; and drug addicts in Kabul, Afghanistan. His work has been published in The Guardian, TIME LightBox, and the BBC. Among many other awards, in 2015 he was the recipient of a Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography, and he won the College Photographer of the Year Portfolio Silver Prize in 2014 and the Alexia Foundation Student Grant in 2013. He graduated from University College London in Political Science and Conflict Studies in 2014. He believes photography is a powerful tool for self-expression, informing public debate, and documenting history.
Datta was one of the ChinaFile 2015 Abigail Cohen Fellows.