Jay Ullal was born in 1933 in Mangalore. He pursued a career as a cameraman and worked in the Indian film industry in Mumbai until 1957. Following that, he joined the Times of India as a photo reporter for their photo feature unit, where he spent several years capturing stories through his camera lens.
In 1963, Jay Ullal left for Germany, passing through England. Upon arriving in Germany, he found work with the women’s magazine Constanze, where he remained until its closure in 1969. Subsequently, he embarked on a fruitful collaboration with the Hamburg weekly magazine Stern. Over the course of nearly three decades, he provided extensive photo reportage from various parts of the world, with a particular focus on crisis regions like Cambodia, Rwanda, Vietnam, Indochina, the Middle East, Pakistan, and the Balkans.
In recognition of his remarkable contributions, Jay Ullal was honored with the Bundesverdienstkreuz, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 1998. Outside of his professional accomplishments, he has enjoyed a 63-year-long marriage to his wife Rajni, and the couple were residing in Hamburg, Germany.
