Battling the fierce competition in the field of wedding photography, and coming out alive is this IIT graduate, who left his job as a consultant after 4 years, to pursue something that let him reach out to more people. Setting up his company within a mere 3 months, today he’s one of the most sought-after wedding photographers, or should we say wedding photography “artists” in India. In his quest to use his talents for something more challenging, he started creating 3-minute movies of stories that needed to be told! Introducing Amrit Vatsa, the Shaadigrapher!
Getting A Kick Out Of Work
When asked about his switch from a well-settled job to photography, Amrit says- “During my gig as a consultant, I was clear that it might not be something I wanted to do on a long-term basis. It’s not that I didn’t like my work, or that it was boring, or that I was struggling. I was pretty good at my job, and I even got back-to-back promotions. But I realized that my audience was kind of limited. I wanted my work to reach out to a larger audience. Maybe I would have been able to achieve that if I gave it more time, but I was young and running out of patience.”
He continues, “Some people get a kick out of being creative, but I don’t! I get a kick when my work is not lost in a small group of people. When a lot of people look at my work, it motivates me. So I was looking for something part time. Anything that gave me an option to have my space, as well as earn some money to sustain.”
Amrit Vatsa says that he always had a good sense in design and aesthetics. He was into painting, sketching, digital drawing etc. He even ran visual design teams at IIT in his fourth and fifth years, which allowed him to explore that side of him a lot. That sensibility was useful when he decided to pursue a career in photography and cinematography.
But why photography we asked and Amrit Vatsa had this to say- “I considered theatre and IIT coaching, because they involve a huge audience, and if you’re good, it reflects. That’s when someone suggested that I explore wedding photography. Photography was just a hobby till then. I wasn’t a passionate photographer or a passionate actor. Anything that I wanted to do, I would have figured out a way to do it, as long as I could impact a lot of people. Basically, I guess I’m a People Person! People charge a huge sum for a day’s work as a wedding photographer, and if you get enough work, you’re set. You may take a year to reach there, but once you do, you will get what you want.”
The Shaadigrapher Journey
Amrit shares, “I mostly got my initial photography projects through connections. It took me 3 months to set up Shaadigrapher. After that, I had enough bookings to sustain. I ranked higher because of Google. Right from the first wedding I covered, my work was better than the 50% images of the existing work present on Google.”
But unfortunately, he says that ShaadiGrapher actually saw a decline after few years, starting from around 2016. He further shares, “My idea was never to make this into a business. And being a freelancer, I slowly started losing out to ‘service providers’, especially when ‘candid photography’ pretty much became a ‘standard’ offering.”
“Wedding photography helped me explore what being an ‘artist’ is, and the weddings that I get to shoot these days (say around 10 a year) are where people who hire me clearly see the difference between candid photography as a service, and Amrit Vatsa as an artist whose pictures have a clear and distinct point of view. I am happy with it!”
“In weddings, I like to create those pictures the most where there are just two or three people in the frame, like the bride and her mother for instance. They would have forgotten that I exist, and I get to capture their precious interactions. I can’t earn money if I pursue wedding photography solely as an art. I also need to think about what they want and try to balance it out.”
Story-Telling In 3-Minutes Is An Art
Over the last few years, Amrit Vatsa has been spending more time on short documentary film-making (3MinuteStories) than on wedding photography. And other than the ‘aesthetics’ aspect of it, there is nothing much in common between these two jobs. He shares that one of the challenges with 3MS is that it takes way more time, effort and brain-cell to create than it would ever take to say make 500 images from a wedding (or even a 10-minute movie)! It takes him about 10 days of work to make a 3-minute video!
He says, “I decided to make 3-minute stories that inspire or are unique. When I spoke to people and listened to their stories, they had so much to tell. They would get really excited about it and speak to me for hours. But the challenge lies in being able to choose the parts of the story that one can connect emotionally to, and then portray it well. Every story might be good, but making it interesting is what counts. That’s the challenge!”
“My understanding keeps changing every time I listen to a recording. Only after 3 to 4 days of listening do I grasp everything that he/she meant to say”, he expresses. Amrit picked up storytelling from his business consulting stint and then later by reading books, reading different things online, and spending time watching related videos on Youtube. He attributes a lot of his learnings to Youtube, which helped him to pick up the technical skills required for his present job.
When asked about the challenges involves, he says,
“Sometimes it’s a struggle to get a great story, especially for paid assignments. For example a solar lamp manufacturer recently hired me to travel to Africa and make stories on villagers whose lives were transformed (in some way or other) by getting access to these solar lamps. It’s easy to write about things like these, but to capture it using real people without scripting or forcing them to do things that they probably wouldn’t do in their day to day lives is a big challenge. But then, that’s the value that I bring to most people who hire me. My job is to overcome this challenge and eventually bring out an engaging story that the viewers anywhere can find interesting, learn something from it and may be feel like making their friends and family see the story!”
Photography In India – Art Vs Business
We asked Amrit what it takes to excel as a photographer. He says,
“A good photographer should be able to take good pictures. It’s as simple as that! What makes a picture good, can always be debated. It’s a subjective world. One way of looking at how good something really is, is to see how much money someone will pay for it – but just like movies, when it comes to photography, that can’t really be said for sure. Just like ‘masala’ movies make more money, the equivalent of that in photography might probably make ‘more money’. And those who make such movies and photographs, might argue that what they create is good and that’s why valued so much. But it is easy to understand, why everyone can’t agree with that. To each, his/her own!”
He further observes that Indians are mostly used to taking pictures in front of monuments or scenic places only. More than photography, they’re actually just documenting their visits and recording their presence in a particular place or event. There’s no angle of art to most pictures.
But for people who really want to pursue photography as a profession, Amrit Vatsa says,
“I think every single profession that you can think of is ‘viable’ for some, and will not be possible for others. Photography is no exception. In general, this is not the best career for someone who just wants a job where he/she can depend upon a regular salary. That kind of market is limited and is probably only getting worse. But if you can figure out how to sell not just your work, but also your own image as an artist or a professional, you can easily sustain and grow as a photographer!”
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