Manish Khatri, a freelance photojournalist from Varanasi has bagged second position among the '20 Most Influential Street Photographers' in the world. The contest was organised by UK website www.streethunters.net last week.

The website streethunters.net carried out an online voting for 20 most influential street photographers and registered a participation from 72 lensmen across the world. Rui Palha from Portugal bagged the first position with 2,708 votes and Manish Khatri from Varanasi, India, stood second with 2,305 votes. Vineet Vohra and Rohit Vohra from New Delhi, India, have also made it to the top 20 list.

Manish attributes his success to Kashi

Speaking with iamin, Manish gave the credit of his success to the temple town Kashi. He said, "Goes without saying that my body of work mostly showcases Kashi's cultural landscape. I attribute my success to Kashi and Baba Vishwanath as there is no better place than this city for street photography."

The journey of the lensman

After completing graduation in Fine Arts from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1991, Manish stepped into the world of photography and since then he has captured more than 40 thousand pictures as a street hawk. Besides, he is also connected with PM Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Campaign. Manish has also designed the logo of 'Varanasi Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'.

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