He studied at the city's Banumaiah school and gained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Maharaja College.
In 2004 he Satyan began his journalism career with a state English daily and worked for The Illustrated Weekly before quitting the profession to become a freelancer and take up the assignments of UNICEF.
He photographed WHO's smallpox eradication campaign as well as eye-care, nursing and school health programmes.
[2] In 2005, his memoir Alive and Clicking was published by Penguin Random House India.
Satyan died on 13 December 2009 after suffering a brain haemorrhage.