Kalpesh Lathigra is an award winning documentary and portrait photographer known for his luminous images of forgotten communities and spaces. His work has taken him to Afghanistan, the Soviet Union and India. His current project, State of Grace, was inspired by and shot during frequent trips to the US during the Obama elections. The images are honest and elegant, an outsiders view of the country and its current state. He is also producing a book of images from Lost in the Wilderness, a culmination of his own US journey and the experiences of life on the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Lakota Sioux. Taking inspiration from classic American color pioneers such as Stephen Shore, Mitch Epstein and Joel Sternfeld, the project is a quiet yet powerful reflection of the people of the area. PLANET° recently caught up with Kalpesh in New York.

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