Ashish T's photostream

It’s difficult to say when I got interested in photography, it seems such a long time ago even though it’s only been over 5 years that I’ve been actively pursuing it, but my interest in images goes a long way back. And like with some souls, I too realized I was getting beyond the surface only after I was deep into it. If anything the expenditure incurred is what awakens one to the fact but by then one is hooked to it, and most things become secondary. It was when I reached this stage that I realized that there was no going back, only forward. This website is an effort in that direction.

If someone were to ask me what keeps me at it and whether pursuing it day in and day out does not bring fatigue to the whole thing, a certain kind of sameness, I might have said ‘yes’ in another circumstance, and age, but having ‘seen life’ through the viewfinder for some years now, identifying with the faces, situations I trained my camera at, the details which were ‘hidden’ before now played out in all their colours, and starkness. Then it is no longer possible to stay unconnected, some part of me became a part of the picture I was trying to capture. And when this happens, I suppose it is not possible to look at a photograph and not see oneself in it. In short, photography becomes life, and vice versa.

At times though, I suppose like most artists eventually do, I did wonder if my pictures could make a difference like all those news photographs documenting human condition do. Actually there is no knowing which of the photographs will strike a chord, and which won’t. It has got more to do with how a viewer connects with it, which in turn depends upon what experiences have shaped the viewer’s sensitivity. So I like to believe, and maybe it does percolate in my visual senses too, that if each picture can tell a story by itself or in a series, then there are sufficient diverse stories around where I shoot which can, and maybe do, touch a chord with the viewer.

My photo gallery is an effort in that direction, to connect with life that seeks to connect with us.