Budding photographer Amira Chanana has been capturing her exotic trips through her monochromatic lens. She shares with Riya Sharma that when a picture is captured in different hues, it loses its essence
Amira Chanana (17) feels that photography is a medium, for teenagers like her, to escape since academic work is often quite rigorous and thus one needs a creative outlet. She believes that photography demands creativity and intellect in the right amount.
Chanana is the perfect example of someone following and believing in their dream. She captured her first photograph casually when she was 10 and since then has been capturing the world around her in black and white. She believes that there’s no point waiting for the right time, as she convincingly says, “You don’t wait for your camera to take a picture for you, you have to take it. It is about taking that one step across the line.”
Exhibiting her first collection, Travelogue in the City, Amira shared, “The exhibition displays photographs from different parts of the world I have travelled to. The fact that I don’t want to forget the essence of the memory of what I saw personally, not like what the person next to me saw, forced me to capture all these places.”
The exhibition showcased pictures from all the exotic places that she has been to in the past one year. The artist chose not to put photographs from her visit to Taj Mahal and when we asked her, whyIJ She replied, “India is my home and it doesn’t describe travel; that’s more cultural. This exhibition is about my exotic travels.”
The artist who captures only in black and white added, “What attracted me about the black and white is the emotional engagement. Everyone has seen coloured photographs in every other photo magazine. We all have seen Eiffel Tower in colour but capturing in black and white adds an emotional aspect.”
Amira explained that she started learning more about photography through printing. The ones which featured at the exhibition in black and white were digital. She said, “I was always clicking but not in a very serious manner. When I started printing my own photographs I started seeing all my photos from that angle and it was then I realised that I really wish to push it out there and be serious of my work. Plus I really love the medium.”
Comparing her first photograph with the ones featured in the exhibition, she shared that the photographs in the collection were more mature. “As I developed, my skills at photography also developed. So, my initial photos were pretty immature as I was capturing like a girl. Earlier, it was more about capturing flowers and bees but now as I grew up, I realised the essence and emotion of each picture.”
Justifying her fascination with black and white, the young photographer feels that we tend to lose to essence of a picture when we capture it with different hues. She said, “With colours in a picture, it becomes difficult to bring all the colours in right amount and for them to match and look symbiotic and aesthetically pleasing is hard.”
On being asked, if there is any right mood to capture the perfect shotIJ The artist replied, “I think the photographer has to make the mood, especially in black and white. Some of my photos were captured in coloured and then transitioned to black and white. It offers more life, emotional appeal and vividness of expression to a picture.”
