The founder

Balpreet Singh Cheema

From a phone with a broken screen in India to a studio of his own in Berlin. This is how Kala Prism began.

Scroll through his story

2015–17

A phone with a broken screen.

It began in India, with a phone worth about 20 euros. The screen had stopped working, so he couldn’t see what he was shooting. He shot anyway: pointing, guessing, and finding out later what the light had done.

ODISHA INDIA
2017–19

Cameras that weren’t his.

A friend’s camera for an afternoon. Another’s for a weekend. Every borrowed hour was a lesson, and every time he gave one back, he wanted his own a little more.

DELHI INDIA
2020–23

The first one he owned.

His first real camera cost 450 euros, and it felt like the world. Still, it was never about the gear. It was about people: the way they open up when someone truly sees them.

LUCKNOW INDIA
2022–23

Learning the craft in Lucknow.

To learn the art properly, he began working part-time under a photographer in Lucknow. He watched how light is shaped, how people are put at ease, how a portrait is really made.

LUCKNOW INDIA
2023

Starting again, far from home.

To build something of his own, he moved to Berlin. He worked part-time to pay for every lens, spent his evenings at photographer meetups, and slowly found his people in a new city.

BERLIN GERMANY
Always

More than one way to tell a story.

He writes songs and sings them; his first came out after the move to Berlin. He models for a few brands, so he knows how it feels on the other side of the lens. And at the end of the day, he cooks, almost always for the people he loves.

BOTH SIDES OF THE LENS
2026

For the kid with the broken phone.

Kala Prism is the dream of that kid in India, finally out of his head and into the world. The cameras are better now. The hunger is exactly the same.

BERLIN KALA PRISM