Arko Datto is a contemporary international artist based in India. His varied work spans forced migration, techno-fascism, digital surveillance, disappearing islands, and nocturnal geographies, forming interconnected inquiries into the existential pressures shaping the contemporary moment. His projects unfold over several years, allowing him to build layered, immersive, and complex narrative worlds.

By continually developing diverse visual languages, narratives, and styles, Datto pushes the boundaries of both still and moving images. His practice incorporates photography, film, video, and installation, drawing from documentary traditions while embracing the essayistic, experimental, and oneiric. Across mediums, he seeks to challenge, subvert, and consistently propose new ways of seeing.

Datto’s long-term personal projects and commissions have been published in TIME, National Geographic, The Atlantic, and the New Yorker, among others. He received grants from Prince Claus Fund, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, and IDFA Bertha Fund. His work has been exhibited at Halle-14 Centre for Contemporary Art (Leipzig), Fotografia Europea (Reggio Emilia), Light Work (Syracuse), SFO Museum (San Francisco), Fotomuseum Den Haag, and Hamburger Bahnhof (Hamburg). Datto has published three photo books: Pik-nik (Editions Le bec en l’air, 2018), Mannequin (Edizioni L’artiere, 2018), and Snakefire (Edizioni L’artiere, 2021). As a curator, he has been associated with Galleri Image, Kochi Biennale, Obscura Photography Festival and Chennai Photo Biennale.

Web: arkodatto.art ; IG: @arkodatto

Courses & Workshops: Photographing the Night