Mahesh Shantaram has 'made love' to a number of Africans in India. “If you think of a handshake as a way to begin a relationship,” says the Bengaluru-based photographer, “then making a portrait is quite another extreme. It’s like making love.” Looming behind a lens, choosing to shoot in the nights, meeting African students in the outskirts of cities, kindling a love for long exposure shots, Shantaram is deep in the throes of a passion that he picked up earlier this year.

Prosper, a Tanzanian student, lives in Byrathi, Bengaluru, and heads a 200 people-strong Tanzanian community there. His parents are affluent politicians back home, and he came to study in Bengaluru to escape the limelight. Pics/Mahesh Shantaram