Photographs Speak For Themselves
“Whatever you have,
give it back as much as you can
because it is not yours.”
Living life on the lines above, said by her father, Sakshi Kumar is a photographer and an aspiring doctor, who believes in being good and doing well. Whatever she earns through her photography, she gives 10% of it as charity or donates food to the poor as many times as possible and also buys books & pencils for the needy children. She believes that photography as a profession has made her more humane as compared to the medical degree moreover, she is in love with everything she does. Few of her works have also been published in Vogue Italia and recently, she conducted a workshop too. Capturing beautiful moments is her passion. Sakshi believes there is much more to the world of photography which is yet to be explored. Here, Sakshi reveals about her art and about herself to A.Kameshwari from One World News.
Tell us something about yourself?
I am doing two things in life, I am promoting my photography as an art and also I am studying METCET. I am doing a course of BHMS, which is a combination of MBBS in which we become physicians and have specialization in homeopathy and are also taught surgery. It’s a long course and now I am in my third year. Till the time I am getting good marks, my parents are okay with me doing photography alongside.
So, aren’t you going to take-up photography as a career?
See, I still have time and I haven’t got my degree as a doctor, after fetching the degree I have to do MD as well. That being said, I want to pursue a course of photography too, as I feel there is much more to learn about it. I have conducted few workshops and people who have been to Canon’s workshops have learnt much more here, than what they have learnt there. I feel the reason behind it is that I am revealing the crux of everything I have learnt. Unlike other artists, I don’t keep any secrets to myself.
How come this inclination towards photography?
I love the concept of capturing. I am not good with words, so my pictures become my medium of expression. I capture my thoughts.
I have a continuous creative itch. I become irritable if I don’t do anything creative. I have to do, it’s a need, and I have to let out whatever I am feeling. I am very moody and my work reflects my many moods. Personally, I love photographing couple of things, like I really appreciate women’s beauty, the essence, the elegance and the power they hold.
Once you start capturing such things the possibilities are endless, I mean I have seen people saying this concept has been covered, hence there is nothing left to do, and I don’t get that. There is so much to do and so little time and opportunity too, because if you don’t have a picture or face in your mind that would cater to your theme, you cannot fulfill the desire and complete the picture.
Other than portraits what else have you tried?
What made me well known as a photographer is the fact that twenty of my works have been selected for Vogue Italia. Vogue being the big daddy in fashion and Vogue Italia being the mother of all fashion industries, them appreciating my work was a big deal. A lot of artists got inspired from me and few also thought that what it is about me that they don’t have.
Getting the work portrayed in this magazine is really hard and my work got selected within a span of one and a half years, which is really commendable. I mean I have seen people trying for four to five years, whose work blows my mind, so I was lucky enough.
They have talent pouring in every day. Sometimes, when my work does not get selected, I obviously feel bad, but when I see work which has been selected I am at peace because they are beyond words. I would go for those pieces of work any day over mine, they are that good.
Are your pictures theme based?
I make sure that even if my pictures hold only beauty in it, it has essence behind it. People these days, have objectified everything, what brand, what price, who is wearing it, etc; whatever I capture, I make sure that people look at it as a piece of art but not as something that can be objectified.
Have people ever come to you asking if you have edited a picture?
People always come to me asking if my pictures are edited. Every picture needs to be processed, in some way or the other, you just can’t give me brushes and paint and say this is a piece of art. You have to make it. Photography is an art form now, I am not doing documentary photography where the absolute truth is what you have to show and touching it would be a crime and I don’t need to enhance it. In such scenario a novel photographer would just let it be.
As a photographer, who is capturing moments or surroundings thinking of it as an art form, I would play with colours and depict my mood through it. See everything depends on the subject, I think most of the pictures turn although more beautiful due to use of black and white on it.
How do you plan your pictures?
I cannot follow a routine, I feel some people are meant to be told what to do because they are happy to be told, but some people, like me, can’t take it if someone binds them to a fixed pattern. So, for me it’s really important to find who you are and pursue it.
So, you were being told to be a doctor or it is your choice?
I have really soft spot for people, animals, in fact everything that falls under the sky. But over here I found people are pretty twisted. My journey of getting closer to the reality of everyone not being an angel and photography as a stress buster started when I started my college. A lot of people have their own insecurities and are never happy when they see others smiling, I don’t blame anyone for that because it’s a human nature.
The basic drive to be a doctor is to help people, but here I have seen people saying that they want to be doctor because their parents have invested so much into their studies and exploit people’s money. And the most shocking part is that these people are very upfront about it. They have no guilt. Whereas, I feel as a photographer you can place any price for your product and it would be justified, but when you are a doctor you are placed next to god, people come to you because they are in need, and your job should not come with a price tag. But this is something happening everyday and it’s quite often.
What other art forms interest you?
I love oil painting, because they are so good most of the time. I mean putting each and every expression exact as per the imagination on the canvas is not that easy, so yes, it awes me.
There are many I look up to; in fact there are many things that inspire me. Movies, food, people etc. anything and everything inspires me.
Tell us something about ‘Dream Often’?
‘Dream Often’ is about one of my very good friend. We met randomly at Sarojini Market and I asked her if we could do a shoot together. She agreed to it and within two weeks we had a shoot. The shoot went off quite well and so famous that even now they are being published by various websites. She had a tattoo which said ‘Dream Often’, and for me these two words were description of everything and anything existing in the world, in just two words. The shoot wasn’t important, but the bond we created it was precious. I believe that one is made of dreams; you are what you dream about.
Do you believe in dreams?
Yes I do, I believe in dreams as much as I believe in myself. If a person is devoid of any aspirations in life, s/he is incomplete and when you realize it, that’s when you start dreaming. So, till you don’t hold your aspiration close to your heart you can’t be motivated and achieve your dreams.
What message does your art-work depict?
I tend to make people more vigilant in life. Everything that we see in life, a photographer’s job is to show it more appealingly. A photographer job is to capture a moment so that you can relate to it as many times you want to. Till your picture isn’t relatable for multiple times I don’t think it’s a good piece of art.
What is the craziest thing you have done in life?
I have done a lot of crazy things in life. Once for a shoot I lied down on a road holding a camera for hours, because the idea had clicked me. I didn’t move till I didn’t have the perfect clickable moment I had in mind. I have even travelled alone for shoot as no one was willing to come along. Another moment was when I and my friend organized a photo-walk, but eventually only we two turned up, that too because he wanted to lose weight. So, he had this app which calculates how many steps we took that day and we took more than ten thousand steps. In that shoot we covered each and every corner of Chandni Chowk and got amazing pictures.
My parents don’t even know half of it. They know the success part and hard work I put into my work, but they don’t know the process I take up for each and every work.
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