Me, Photography and Life

Like any other millennial narcissist (which I believe there are many) — I was stalking myself on Instagram the other day.

Aren’t we all proud of how prettily we have designed this ‘so awesome’ (false) representation of our life?

Ok. Now, analysing Instagram and millennials is not the point of the article.

I use Instagram mostly to share my photography work and the stalking got me contemplating on my journey so far.

It all seriously began on a September afternoon. It was Onam celebrations in college. We were all waiting for our turn to eat the sadhya and were boiling in the heat of the Kerala saree. (Why does looking beautiful have to be so uncomfortable :/)

And suddenly I had a moment — I saw something very beautiful and had this urge to capture it. It was my friend Smrithi. I reoriented her into the beautiful pose I saw her in — and clicked it with my then 8MB Micromax smartphone. (Which was a big deal back in 2014.)

And that day — I clicked pictures for hours. The hunger, the heat, the uncomfortability and the people looking didn’t matter. That was my first taste of passion.

And it was definitely the start of something — since then I have been clicking pictures almost every day.

And through all those five years (woah feeling old already) — my photography has evolved with me and has meant different things to me at different times.

Initially, it was just about doing something new, fun and interesting. It sort of also became a cool thing to do in college. Those were the times when people changed Facebook DPs at least once in two months -so it felt cool to be on everybody’s picture credits lists and to have a hashtag (#greeshma_photography) in your name.

Then, came a time when my head was full of thoughts. This period put a stop to my photography. Because photography requires you to be present in the moment — which I was hardly doing at that time. Thus, those magical moments of photographic inspiration started happening less often.

Soon the head full of thoughts became an eye full of tears. And after every crying episode, there was this calm period -“The calm after a storm.” as they say — mostly evenings when I used to sit outside, and just watch the beauty of nature and sky and click pictures.

In fact, photography is what got me through those depressed times. It is what convinced me that life is indeed beautiful and worth living.

Fast- forward to today, when I type down this article -

Photography to me — is not a hobby,

It is not a passion.

It is a part of me,

Its the way I live.

My brain sees photos everywhere and I take at least ten photos everytime I step out of the house.

I am grateful to my genes and experiences which wired me this way.

Photography helps me to see something different even in everyday banalities.

It helps me fall in love with all sorts of beautiful people.

It thought me to live in the moment -so much so that photography became my sort of meditation.

It showed me the randomness of life- that I and whatever I did and will do is a product of this random process I really have no control of. This helped me stay humble, embrace life and be happy all the same time.

It showed me the beauty of those serendipitous moments of being in the right place at the time — and I consider myself the hunter of those moments.

And it is something that I don’t need permission for. Because photography is about seeing something beautiful. And all I need is my eye.

The eye is the greatest camera.

And the best pictures will forever be the ones in my head. :)

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed reading this. Do check out my photography work as well. :)