“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” – Ansel Adams. Photography is one art that makes you relive your favorite moment, portrays your favorite story through a lens. This article explains the story of one such, inspiring and talented photographer, Arun Raj n Nair who joined as a Design Expert at the age of 19 and has been a photographer ever since. So let us read more about his story of shooting through the lens.
Tell us about yourself. When did you find your passion for photography?
Myself Arun Raj R Nair, I’m working as a Design Expert at Technopark for the past 8 years. My passion for photography was actually the reason why I joined as a Design Expert at the age of 19. But as an IT professional life becomes busy, I had to totally keep away my passion for photography. After waiting for a long time, I finally came back to photography. I hope the pandemic which happened may be the reason for my return.
You specialize in content photography. Can you explain this?
I started my career as a fashion photographer. As I understood from my experience, photographs that conveys a story have life in it, and that is the reason why I chose to become a concept photographer. I convert my photographs to questions that I have in mind to ask society, and the success that such photos returned me has made me stand strong in concept photography.
Can you share the most memorable work you have done?
I always find interest in doing works that become memorable to viewers and myself. Till now, all the work that I have done is in my memories. The concept story in which I clicked the photo of a woman who was crying near the body of a dead soulmate, each person on the set including me had tears in our eyes. That was the first experience for me. It was not a shot that was to be remembered because of the feelings we had, but still, I remember it.
Can you share some of the accolades you have received for your work in
concept photography?
I am extremely happy that the first concept photo story that I created had become viral and that I got soo much appreciation from my friends and family as social media started supporting me just after my first shoot, many mainstream media companies came to support me. As a result of the unconditional flow of support from social media, all the concept shoots I’ve done became viral. The highest media publicity I’ve got was for the concept story that I did with a transgender. Famous mainstream newspapers like Indian Express and many Malayalam mainstream newspapers featured it. That was the strongest support I’ve got and it helped me grow my talent. The photo story that I did just after that concept shoot also got viral and I got my favorite title “Viral Photographer”. 6 of my 8 shoots became viral and so, most of the FM channels, news channels, etc started featuring my concept shoots. But I still consider my greatest achievement to be the support that I’m getting from my social media family.
What are the challenges faced while embarking on your journey as a
photographer?
I’ve faced a lot of challenges. Before people started recognizing me as a concept photographer, I’ve gone to many famous models for my shoots. This is still been faced by many new photographers. I’ve got rejected by many people and now I’m attending this interview as a viral photographer, I feel really proud about that. I was able to make people who rejected me at the beginning come towards me to take part in my shoots, and that it the best winning moment for me in my life.
What are some of the content or topics on which you base your work?
I’ve never seen many concept shoots to date and because of that, I didn’t have an exact idea about the first shoot I was going to do. My only aim was to picture what was in my mind using my photography skills. I’m a person who has done fashion photography and product photography, and I understood concept photography very easily. A good storyline, a clear storyboard, frames that could touch anyone easily, and a cast that can express the content which is to be conveyed to the viewers, etc results in an excellent concept photo story. Such stories will only be accepted by viewers and that’s why my stories take weeks to complete.
Your favourite part or what gets you excited being a content maker
People choose many ways to point out the positives and negatives that they see in society. When writing conveys their thoughts through writing, artists convey it through their picture arts, and I convey it through my photography passion strongly pointing the negatives and positives in society and the answers for my questions excites me as a concept photographer. I deeply understood that emotion plays a major part in photography and that’s why I’m strongly holding in concept photography.
What do you think is the most required skill for a content photographer?
This is a great question, the first main skill that a concept photographer needs are patience. When problematic situations occur in which we become unable to frame what we have in our mind, patience is the key that leads to a successful result, but if we start to get tense, it leads to a failure and if we face it with patience, we can successfully tackle it like everything else. Next is hard work, getting a successful result or a failure in a concept photoshoot depends on our hard work. If we put in hard work on a thing, the result will be deserved. Skill achieved through experience will only help a photographer to capture the most emotional sequence in frames, it’s my opinion, and rather than this, good content should be there. Each person’s life experience and view towards society will be different, else a mind that is powerful enough to think. I have depended on all these.
What are you future plans and upcoming projects?
I deeply have in mind that the distance to a movie director is too short for a concept photographer. My future plan is to direct a movie for sure. I’m currently working on a movie script and I believe that I will be able to start it soon. I’m proud to say that I’m also part of a small cinema family which has Director Thulasi Das, Cinematographer Anil Gopinath, Director G Sreekantan. I believe that because I was born in a family of such people, dreams about cinema started growing in my mind. I can promise that my film will also be my question to society just like my concept photo stories. I love to reach more heights depending on the thoughts that had helped me to grow till now.