The New Lens on the Islands: How Andaman's Homegrown Creators Are Rewriting What the World Sees

For decades, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands were photographed by visitors. A honeymoon couple's phone, a travel-magazine commission flown in for a week, a Bollywood drone unit chasing one sunset at Radhanagar - and then the islands went quiet again until the next visitor arrived.

That has quietly changed in the last few years. The most interesting images coming out of the archipelago today are being made by people who actually live here. A village photographer in Tushnabad, a drone pilot in Sri Vijaya Puram, a kid in Campbell Bay with a second-hand camera, a music-loving creator who signs off every reel with a Havelock sunset - they have built a new lens on the islands, and the rest of the country has finally started looking through it.

This story is a small thank-you note to that movement.

Looking for the full list? Browse our searchable Island Creators Directory - filter by photographer, drone pilot, DJ, dive team or local media.

A photographer from Tushnabad

If you have to start somewhere, start with Vaishali Devi (@vaishali0517).

📷 See Vaishali's work on Instagram →

Vaishali grew up in Tushnabad, a quiet village tucked into the green folds of South Andaman, where the loudest things are the waves and the afternoon rain. She picked up a basic camera in 2019 while living in Campbell Bay and began documenting the everyday - children playing on the shore, fishermen pulling in at dawn, sunsets that refused to end. One frame in particular, of a small boy in a girl's frock running through a game of hide-and-seek, went on to earn international recognition.

Today she is one of the most recognised travel photographers from the islands, with features and acknowledgements from Andaman Tourism, IPNT, PBMC, ANTO and even a segment on Doordarshan. Her work is profiled in detail by The Wave Andaman, and what stands out in that interview is how grounded the whole journey has stayed.

'Andaman made me fall in love with nature. I always wanted to show people how beautiful this place is.'

Her photographs do not try to 'sell' the islands. They show the texture of life here - the lines on a fisherman's face, the rhythm of the tides, the stillness of the mangroves after rain. For a place that gets reduced to 'blue water, white sand' every season, that honesty is rare.

The Port Blair kid with a drone

If Vaishali is the islands' patient storyteller, Vishnu Ragasumum is its loudspeaker.

A freelance content creator and drone pilot from Sri Vijay Puram (Port Blair), Vishnu has been quietly using digital media to push social, environmental and civic stories that the mainland usually never hears. Earlier this year, one of his drone reels - documenting plastic waste washed onto our beaches, with labels traced back to Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia - went viral and was picked up by MSN and national news outlets. Andaman Sheekha covered the impact.

🎥 Watch Vishnu's drone reels →

That single reel did something a hundred press releases couldn't: it dragged the conversation about Andaman's marine pollution out of local WhatsApp groups and into national feeds. It also reminded everyone that the trash on our shores isn't always ours - much of it rides ocean currents in from neighbouring coastlines, which makes this a regional problem, not a 'Port Blair cleanliness' problem.

(Side-note for readers of our Port Blair nightlife story: yes, that's the same family - Vishnu also helps run Junglee Mirchi / Nimbu Pani in Caddlegunj.)

Shiv from 'dj_nobody_xo'

Then there's the algorithm-friendly corner of the island internet - [@dj_nobody_xo](https://www.instagram.com/dj_nobody_xo/), the handle a lot of you will know as Rahul / Shiv Kumar. His bio reads, simply, 'SHIV KUMAR | ANDAMAN.'

🎬 Scroll Shiv's island feed →

His feed is a steady, almost meditative stream of Radhanagar sunsets, Havelock low-tide pools, Port Blair monsoon skies and Neil Cove blues, often cut to music. It's the kind of account that does what local creators do best - it doesn't treat the islands like a 'destination', it treats them like a hometown that happens to look like this. For a lot of young Indians, his reels are the first time the Andamans show up on their phone without a packaged 'Top 10 things to do' voiceover.

A small personal note - I know Shiv, and what most of his audience doesn't see is that the man can dance. His game is genuinely strong on the floor, and because he DJs too, the music, the cuts and the body language in his reels all click together. Brands have caught on - he's already collaborated with the likes of Goibibo on island showcases (Mark Bay Beach reel) - but the best version of him is still the one mid-set, doing his thing.

The photographers behind the postcards

A whole layer of working island photographers has been carrying the islands' visual identity quietly for years.

• Maiylpalli David Raj (@capturedby_david) - documents the forgotten coves like Shoal Bay, and also runs Andaman Isle Travel, which has served 6,000+ guests using his own visuals. → View their work
• Rajiv Srivastava (@rajiv_srivastava) - has been commissioned by the Government of Andaman Tourism and is one of the most published shooters of Ross & Smith Island's twin-island sandbar. → View their work
• Kamal Sahoo (@through_kamals_lens) - Nikon shooter behind Katha Chitraka, known for silhouette work and sunsets at Swaraj Dweep. → View their work
• Arshad Rehman (@blackshade_98) - chai-obsessed, lost-in-nature work from places most travellers never reach: Trinket Island, Kamorta, Nancowry. The kind of feed that reminds you the archipelago is 572 islands, not three. → View their work
• Sujay Jain (sujayphotography.com) - keeps a dedicated Andaman & Nicobar gallery that has been quietly building the islands' presence on fine-art portfolios. → View their work

The drone and dive specialists

Below the surface and above the canopy, a different kind of island media is being made.

• Andaman Drone Art (andamandroneart.com) - an island-based drone portfolio that has been cataloguing things like the abandoned Blind Bight boatwreck at Victoria long before 'discovery' reels were a format. → View their work
• Amit Paradkar (@amit_paradkar_) - PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer based in Havelock, with rare footage from Barren Island, India's only active volcano. → View their work
• Frogman Adventures (frogman.in) - Havelock dive school producing steady underwater content from Red Pillar, White House Rock and The Slope. → View their work
• DIVEIndia (diveindia.com) - the Andamans' first and leading dive centre, with a long-running visual archive of Havelock and Neil. → View their work
• The Divemaster Havelock (thedivemasterhavelock.com) - PADI-certified operator with 2,800+ public reviews and a constant pipeline of dive-site reels. → View their work

Studios that show up for big days

These aren't 'influencers' but they are some of the most consistent image-makers on the islands - every honeymoon set, every elopement, every brand shoot from the mainland passes through them.

• ShutterBoat Photography (shutterboat.com) - Havelock-based destination studio for beach proposals, weddings and family portraits. → View their work
• ReadyForShoot (readyforshoot.com) - network of professional vacation photographers across Port Blair and Havelock. → View their work
• Candid Corporation (candidcorporation.com) - destination wedding photographers with solo, couple, candle-light dinner and family packages. → View their work

The quiet inspiration - Kapil (capturewithmoment)

Kapil (@capturewithmoment) has built one of the most respected photography pages in the islands almost entirely through discipline - posting on time, almost every week, with work that stays focused: golden-hour portraits on Corbyn's Cove, intimate beach weddings on Havelock and quiet street frames from Aberdeen Bazaar.

What makes his feed matter is what it has done to the local scene. His clean editing - balanced skin tones, restrained contrast, never the over-saturated "Andaman blue" filter - and his willingness to share behind-the-scenes setups have quietly pushed a generation of young islanders to pick up a camera. → View their work

More handles worth following

A few more island-led (or island-focused) creators readers have flagged to us:

• PhotoBible (@PhotoBible) - an unofficial visual diary of the Andamans: fishing boats at first light, jetty silhouettes, monsoon clouds over Aberdeen Bay and clean wide-angle frames of Radhanagar. Restrained, honestly-coloured work that newer island shooters use as a reference. → View their work
• Andaman Studio (andaman.studio) - Havelock-based shoot team covering beach proposals, candle-light dinners, cinematic drone reels and pre/post wedding sessions. → View their work
• Arun Vlogger (@arunvlogger) - cinematic travel-vlogger whose Havelock dive and drone episodes have been syndicated on Tripoto and YouTube. → View their work
• Harmanpreet Kaur Sandhu (@travelinstylewithharman) - long-form travel creator with detailed Neil Island marine-trail reels and Andaman island guides. → View their work

The island media platforms

And then there's the layer doing the writing, not just the shooting.

• The Wave Andaman (@thewave.andaman) - independent island-run news platform giving local creators the long-form profiles mainland media never bothered to write. → View their work
• Andaman Sheekha (andamansheekha.com) - long-running independent news outlet whose reporting often pushes local-creator stories into national feeds. → View their work
• Experience Andamans (@experienceandamans) - a 10+ year old local DMC, Gold Level Recognised by Andaman Tourism and a multi-year Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice winner. → View their work
• Andaman Wala (andamanwala.com), Go2Andaman (@go2andaman · operating in Port Blair since 2008), Andaman Diaries (andamandiaries.com), The Andaman Travel Guide (@andaman_travelguide) and Aqua Andaman (aquaandaman.com) round out a small but growing ecosystem of island-owned brands telling the story themselves instead of waiting for a Mumbai agency to do it. → Visit Andaman Wala · Go2Andaman · Andaman Diaries · Travel Guide · Aqua Andaman

They're not 'influencers' in the lipstick-review sense. They're local operators who realised that the most honest marketing for the islands is just... showing the islands, daily, from the ground.

Why this matters

You could argue this is just Instagram doing what Instagram does. But spend an hour scrolling these accounts back-to-back and a few real things become obvious:

1. Representation has shifted. For the first time, the dominant images of the Andamans on the internet are being made by people who actually live here - not flown-in crews.
2. The story has widened. It's no longer just Radhanagar and Cellular Jail on loop. It's Campbell Bay, Tushnabad, Trinket, Nancowry, Kamorta, Shoal Bay, Aerial Bay, Barren Island, Blind Bight, Diglipur - places national travel media barely names.
3. Accountability has a new channel. Vishnu's plastic-waste reel forced a national conversation on marine pollution. That's a civic outcome no tourism brochure was ever going to deliver.
4. Young islanders have a career path that didn't exist 5 years ago. A village kid in Tushnabad can now build a body of work that gets recognised by Doordarshan. That is genuinely new.

A small ask

If you're reading this from anywhere in the country - the next time you save an 'Andaman trip' reel, scroll up and check who actually made it. If the handle is run by someone on the islands, follow them, share their post, tag them when you visit. That tiny act funds the next camera, the next drone battery, the next trip to a place no one has filmed yet.

Want the full, filterable list? It lives at our [Island Creators Directory](/creators) - searchable by name, island and tag. And if we missed someone - and we definitely have - [get in touch](/contact).

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*Sources & further reading: The Wave Andaman profile of Vaishali Devi, Andaman Sheekha report on Vishnu Ragasumum's viral drone reel, and the public Instagram / website pages of every creator linked above (verified Nov 2025 - May 2026).