Albin Mathew

I freelance for Forbes magazine, Fast Track automobile mangazine, and Onmanorama. For Forbes, I have photographed profiles of business leaders. For Fast Track, I photograph automobiles on a monthly basis, working across launch events and showrooms, as well as race tracks and off-road locations.

At Onmanorama, my work has increasingly moved towards long-form visual storytelling — stories that allow me to stay with people beyond the headline.

In 2024, I covered the Mundakai-Chooralmala landslides in Wayanad extensively through photographs and video stories, and later documenting the first anniversary of the disaster. I reported on multiple by-elections — Palakkad, Chelakkara, and Nilambur — combining photography with video interviews, including on-the-move conversations with political candidates, and ground reports.

A few recent visual stories

1. Waiting for the runway — Keezhallur, Kannur
A ground report on 165 families whose land was frozen for nearly a decade for an airport expansion that never materialised.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRDMGTRR1bM

2. When the sea moves in — Uppala, Kasaragod
Homes, roads, wells, and power lines swallowed by the sea. Residents describe life caught between advancing waves and an elevated railway line, and the cost of prolonged inaction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kykrvv8hP64

3. The last man in the forest — Mundakai–Chooralmala, Wayanad
. After the July 30, 2024 landslides, tribal families fled the forest. One man stayed. This is the story of Krishnan, a Kattunayakan herbal gatherer who refuses to leave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKMNC-D8tMY

After moving to Kochi from Chennai, I led the visual coverage for the Kerala editions of The New Indian Express until 2022. Over seven years, I helped shape the daily coverage while mentoring and collaborating with a team of photographers.

I started as an intern with The New Indian Express in Kochi in 2010, soon after receiving the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi State Award for photography. In 2011, I joined the newspaper’s Chennai bureau as a trainee news photographer, becoming a staff photographer the following year. Those early years were formative — covering city and civic life, politics, breaking news, and learning the discipline of daily journalism.