An independent scholar, curator, historian and writer on art and photography, Dr. Niyatee Shinde is an ex-Research Fellow, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC on the subject, Interdisciplinary access to photographic collections within the Smithsonian units. She also shaped the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Mumbai as its Director and Curator. One of the Founder-Editors of the Times Journal of Photography, The Times of India, and with over three decades of experience behind her, she is often invited as a nominator for several international awards including the Leopold Godowsky Jr. Photography Award 1997, the Robert Gardner award and the Hasselblad Photographer Award for 2000, 2006 and 2017. The first Asian to be invited as the jury for the Hasselblad 2022 Award, she is frequently invited as Portfolio Reviewer at international photography institutions. In 1993 she conceptualized, researched, and compiled `The Legacy of Raja Deen Dayal’, a major exhibition of photographs by Raja Deen Dayal, for the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. In 2003 she hosted Oracle, an annual meeting of over 110 international curators and photography museum heads in Goa, India.

Author of A View-Finder’s Journey, (title essay) with photographs by Praful Patel, Editor of Silver Memories with photographs by K. K. Maheshwari, Niyatee has also compiled, coordinated, and edited Colourful Crossings by Deepak Shinde and contributed several essays to art & photography catalogs. Recipient of many recognitions and honors, she was awarded the Northbrooke Fellowship by the British Council, Paul Getty Grant in 2004 and the 1994 Goethe-Institut Scholarship for photography research. In 2023 she became the first Asian to receive the award for Photography Curatorship by the RPS (Royal Photographic Society), UK. Her company has pioneered the management and upkeep of art collections in the country.

When she is not travelling and exploring newer avenues, you can catch her correcting English of those around her. There you go. She might just say: Catch is not the right word here!