A Window to Bengal Delicacy
I was commissioned by a jewelry designer for a product photo shoot for her upcoming collection. Mostly, I love this kind of projects more than covering weddings since there are more scope for pushing my boundaries and also more exposure for experiments. In ninety percent of the times, if not 100%, I try to sit with my clients and extract as much information as possible to get what she/he exactly wants out of it. And the more you communicate, I think, is the more you get to explore on the both sides.
I approached this particular assignment in a way to bring out the most of Bangladesh and the amazingly colorful tradition she has through the ethnic designs of my client's jewelries. It was a last moment call and we did not have much time to prepare. So, I decided to keep it simple. A simple concept, yet an approach to present it as elegantly as possible. Since, being an architect and designer at the same time, me and my client's inspiration of work comes from the tradition and the age old cultural elements of this country, we picked up one of the historical buildings, Beauty Boarding, in Old Dhaka as our location.
'Beauty Boarding', Old Dhaka.
Preparations going on. Even in this kind of project, say fashion photoshoot or product photoshoot, candid moments can work wonder ! Each of the photographs you are seeing above are candid ! Yes ! I love the moments that comes naturally rather telling them what to do or faking a moment for that matter.
Well, as Bangladesh is a tropical country, the architecture of the historical buildings are the best examples of contextuality ! These are the few buildings that responds to the climate and context to the fullest. The sharp shade-shadow, depth, play of light and the colorfulness are the few features I wanted to use for this particular project.
I have never been comfortable with artificial light ! The mantra of my solo project is to keep calm and have faith in natural light ! Adding to that, these historical buildings offer amazing surprises in every nook and corner ! The spaces designed in such a way, the light creates a more dramatic ambiance to the whole context ! Harsh light is something that every photographer struggles with and I am no different ! But here I was more than glad to have that clear cut edges and lights ! The outcome it pretty amazing as you can see.
©KA
Special thanks to these amazing ladies for making it a memorable shoot. Being a solo photographer I did not have any assistance regarding this particular shoot, no extra pair of hands or heads! The perk of shooting alone is that you eventually end up forming a bonding with the models. These ladies helped me out throughout the entire shoot in an amazing way ! Heads up to them !
Cheers.
Click the link below for the promotional video