Essay 602 • Sep 1st 2025
- by Tom D Morgan
Shot over three days at the Karamdaha Mela in rural Jharkhand, India, Maut Ka Kuan ("Well of Death") is British photographer Tom D Morgan’s visceral look at a fading carnival tradition. In this high-risk act, stuntmen ride motorcycles and cars around vertical wooden walls, performing inches away from the crowd. Tom’s series captures not only the raw spectacle but the quiet tension behind the scenes, a portrait of thrill, grit, and the human spirit on the edge of collapse.
Tom D Morgan is a UK-born photographer and visual artist whose work explores the delicate interplay between people and the natural world. Raised in Ashdown Forest and now based in France, Tom’s work has been featured in exhibitions and publications, and he seeks to capture raw, human moments that reveal deeper social and environmental truths.
His commercial practice, TDM.Space, has seen him collaborate with clients such as Burberry, Nike, Chanel, and Tiffany & Co. At the same time, his projects pursue a slower, more contemplative path, inviting viewers to encounter nature not as something to master, but to meet and live alongside.