From the view of the public, my 2024 might have seemed like an incredibly successful year. Earlier in the year, I photographed the Indian Elections, covering the 6 major parties in Telangana & Andhra, by shadowing a parliamentary candidate from each party for one day. Then my wife & I went on a long holiday to America, with an extensive road trip across several National Parks. Following that, I did a short course on entrepreneurship at the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad. Towards the end of the year, we launched the 13th issue of Concorde Zine, and my photo series on the Indian Elections was exhibited at the Indian Photo Festival. And the biggest icing on the cake was having Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft and Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe jointly release “Flight of the Eagle”, a Coffee Table Book chronicling 100 years of the Hyderabad Public School, that I had worked on for more than 2 years.
Now I know that all of the above probably sounds exciting. But the personal cost of achieving it is often unspoken. I had to sacrifice a lot of time that I would have spent with family and friends. The amount of stress that I had to endear for most of the year was not healthy. I often had to do a juggling act between my commercial work that actually paid the bills, and the range of personal projects that I was pursuing. There were definitely many moments of self pity where I wondered where this was all leading. The life of a photographer can seem glamorous but a creative career can be quite lonely at times too. But discipline and perseverance was key, to endure through moments where there was nothing to look forward to. I am not going to say that everything is fine now but I will admit that I learnt a lot of important life lessons over the course of the year.
Spending time at the Indian Photo Festival and interacting with other documentary photographers was an interesting experience. The art world sometimes tends to be in its own bubble, in isolation from the rest of society. While that does allow one to have acute focus on one’s art, it also means that we sometimes forget if our work is even valid or relevant in the wider world. It also reminded me of my very first photo festival, which I attended back in 2013 – the Delhi Photo Festival. At that point, I had made it a goal to have my work exhibited at a photo festival – it *only* took me 11 years to see that goal come to fruition and ultimately, it didnt feel as good as I thought it would. But that seems to be the general emotion of growing up.
The world of photography has changed into an almost unrecognizable beast today. When I started my career in 2012, we relied on blog posts, word of mouth, and some social media to get the word around. Now its almost only social media, and even though we all often feel tired of it, we still go back to it and rely on it for recommendations and entertainment. I wish there could be more avenues where we could see visual work and interact with it. The photo festival was a super place for this. But it happens once a year and at one place. I am glad Zines are picking up globally – experimenting with the printed format is great for both the creator as well as the consumer. It allows the creator to break the mould of the 6 inch screen, and it allows the consumer to interact with content in a new way that makes it more memorable.
I wrote this blog post 10 years ago but how Satya Nadella would inspire all the alumni of HPS Begumpet to believe in themselves and their ability to achieve the impossible. But never did I dream that I would, one day, have the opportunity to personally interact with him and Shantanu Narayen. We met them in a personal setting, with both of them praising the Coffee Table Book that was created by me and a wonderful team. It was an experience that will remain with me for a long time. Both of them being Alumni from our school, they became students once they entered the campus, making jokes and being jovial guys, not the corporate CEOs that one would expect them to be. The book itself is an absolute masterpiece, if I may say so myself. I know for a fact that it is probably the finest book of its kind, made for any institution in the country, maybe even the world.
The effort of the team cannot be understated in pulling off this book. Pranav Pingle was instrumental in navigating the complex world of bureaucracy and pushing us to completion even when there seemed to be no hope. Sanjiv Chakravarthy patiently kept up with all our inane requests and ensured that every fact in the book was fully researched and accurate. Anish Penti illustrated and designed the book from scratch with a meticulous eye for detail. Alok Yepuri wrote the text in the book, managing to compile 100 years of history in 340 pages, without missing out on any critical information. And we were supported by a large team from Mirage Media who worked relentlessly over the past couple of years. The book was spearheaded by two absolute gentlemen representing the school, Mr.Chandra Shekhar Reddy Kundur and Mr. Faiz Khan, both of whom showed us the direction to follow and were always available for us.
What does 2025 hold for me? The first step is give my mind the time to relax, to rejuvenate, and to revitalize. The coming year is going to be important and I need to be prepared. An overworked and stressed mind is no place to accommodate new ideas. I will balance life and invest my energy in the right directions. And then? Sky is the limit. As my school motto says – “you are the eagle, to soar is your destiny.”
Currently listening to – Video Life by Chris Spedding
Currently reading – Land by Simon Winchester
Currently watching – Lockerbie on JioCinema
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