Gautam graduated in Chemistry at St Xavier’s in Mumbai. He then joined the ad world in 1974 and kept working for 15 years.He was teaching at St Xavier’s. He approached approached Alyque Padamsee, the then CEO, Lintas for a job.He joined as a copywriter and the went on to be in charge of the photo department. He turned a fashion photographer in 1980. He shot pictures of actors Shabana Azmi, Tina Ambani and Jackie Shroff. He soon became famous for portraits of Hindi film stars shot in soft diffused light. He took up from where photographers Dheeraj Chawda and Neeraj Arya left. He preferred to be in the picturesque Kunnoor, and shttled between Kunnoor and Mumbai during the latter half of his life.He was an avid music lover and collector of opera recordings. Nikhil-Wagle of IBN-Lokmat in an interview asked him as to how he would like to be remembered. Gautam’s response was that people should say, ‘ He was living till he died.’ He also established him as an author by contributing to Celebrity magazine. He also wrote scripts. He did scripwriting for Bekhudi (1992) and Anjam.He published Faces, a coffee table book, in 1997.

According to Shobha De, the difference between a good picture and a great picture is in understanding light. Gautam understood both light and people. Gautam will live in his many immortal images. Gautam’s soft focus style of photography was unique.