Rubini Naidu (b. 1994, Detroit) is a visual artist and impact strategist based between Detroit, United States and Chennai, India. Her work explores identity, empathy, and decolonial reimagining – framing photography as a social practice and using collaborative storytelling and participatory design to create restorative experiences for people and communities. 

Working with digital and analogue documentary photography and portraiture, alongside social practices of community engagement and facilitation, Naidu creates projects that merge imagemaking, facilitation, and research for collective reflection. Naidu has had a solo exhibition at the Ann Arbor Downtown Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, (2025) and group exhibitions with Cluster Museum, Ann Arbor, Michigan, (2025) and Photoville, Brooklyn, New York (2025). She has received a Creative Residency in Michigan Central (2025) and a Fulbright in India (2018-19). Her past clients include: The New York Times, The Washington Post, ACLU, and Everytown for Gun Safety. 

Rubini holds an M.A. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Columbia University and a B.S. in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University. Rubini’s background in grassroots and philanthropy in India, East Africa, and the United States, including roles at the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute of Population and Reproductive Health and with the Foundation for Sustainable Development, informs her work. Naidu founded and is currently building Empact, a community and studio practice where she continues to explore empathy.

For commissions and collaborations, please contact via rubini[at]rubininaidu.com or +1 248 231 8247.

For CV, view here.