Award-winning photographer Kalim A. Bhatti has a keen eye for culture and an innate ability to capture it in intriguing images.
His ability is derived from his exposure to various peoples and places during his own life, which began more than 40 years ago in Nairobi, Kenya. While he immigrated to the United States in 1974 with his family, Bhatti continues to travel the world, sojourning in exotic places like Italy, Morocco, Kenya, India and other foreign destinations, where he experiences different cultures, captures them through the lens of his camera and brings them home for local art enthusiasts to ponder and enjoy.
While he has come a long way since his humble beginnings, Bhatti still remembers a distinct sound from his childhood: the whiney noise of his father’s self-timer camera.
“That sound is etched in my ear for eternity,” Bhatti said, reminiscing about his first introduction to visual arts and saddened by the memory of his mother’s decision to sell that camera while visiting London. “It’s comparable to a young boy’s first baseball card or a teenager’s first car. It’s something you’ll never forget.”
After arriving in America, Bhatti grew up in the City of Harrisburg and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics from Capitol College in Laurel, Md.
He purchased his first camera in eager anticipation of the birth of his first child. The camera arrived on the same day his wife went into labor. Rushing home from work, Bhatti picked up the camera and headed to the hospital. His life was forever changed in two ways on that single day, as he became a loving father and also realized his calling to enter the photography profession.
“Since that day, I have lived my life through photography, learning to capture unique moments in time with the close of a camera shutter,” Bhatti said.
Soon thereafter, Bhatti spent his nights in close companionship with a police scanner, waiting to hear about news events that he would rush out to capture with camera in hand. He spent his nights in eager anticipation, waiting to capture that first image that would bear his name in the byline. Then, it happened. His first image – a photograph of a fatal accident scene – appeared in the Harrisburg Patriot-News in the early 1990s.
He later served as a staff photographer at the Middletown Press and Journal, where he won several photography awards, and regularly contributed photographs that were used by The Associated Press. His work appears in the New York Times, USA Today and other nationally renowned media outlets.
Bhatti’s life is an American journey combined with vast exposure to international culture. Today, he provides you with an opportunity to see the world as he has seen it through the images he captured, the scenes he has witnessed and the places he has experienced. Take a trip around the world with the vivid images produced by Kalim A. Bhatti.
Bhatti is available for everything from news assignments, wedding photojournalism, environmental portraits, senior pictures and everything in between.