NEW Joseph Radhik becomes the first Indian and the 57th photographer on Sony's Global Imaging Ambassador program.
My journey with making images started in 2001, and my very first image making device was a digital one. So unlike the rest of the photographers who've graced these august pages, I'm fairly new and consider myself still a learner in the craft. But I'll tell you this, I can't remember my life before I stated looking at the world in frames. Photography has made me see the beauty in the world around us, whether it is the smile of a 80 year old woman that shows a life well lived, or a surreal sunrise viewed from 17,000ft up in the mountains. This ability to see beauty has turned into an obsession to seek more beauty. In turn, this search has turned into a life full of travel.
Not just the travel that takes you places, but the kind that forces you to experience new lifestyles and cultures. I spent 6 years studying engineering and management, and 3 years working with some of the best companies in the corporate world. I traveled to rural corners of India selling toothpaste and to big glass faceted corporate houses selling ideas. And while I truly enjoyed this life, I always found pure joy while creating images. So it was in the winter of 2010 that I quit to become a full fledged wedding photographer. Why weddings? is a question I get asked a lot. To me, weddings stand for everything that I love about the art and craft of photography - they force me to interact with my subjects, but at the same time teach me to respect the occasion and be a fly on the wall, they require you to be quick on your feet, they're simply gorgeous to shoot, and are full of emotion.
That then, brings me to what I seek for in my art. Two factors make up pretty much every one of my images : beauty and emotion. All the images I seek need to have both of these aspects, the rest of the technicalities are optional. By emotion, I don't just mean capturing an expression on camera but I also hope to elicit an emotion from my viewer when they see my work. I hope to steal more than 5 seconds of my viewer's attention with my images. 5 seconds may seem less but in our age of rapid social media consumption, it is nothing but a meaningful pause. A pause that begs for you to look deeper or simply be so stunned that you'll sit back and soak in the detail. Beauty as a term is self explanatory and my work revolves around this central theme across all genres.
Recognition
International Photography Awards 2015: Weddings. Global First Place.
Sony Artisan of Imagery, India
Zeiss Camera Lens Ambassador
Featured in press around the world
Speaker at major photography conferences