Ashima Narain’s journey with the camera began on her 16th birthday when her parents gifted her one. And that was the turning point of her life which led her to the creative world of photography. The former photo editor of National Geographic Traveller magazine was here in the city to participate in the recently-held TEDx event at GITAM University.
For a photographer whose works span a diverse spectrum of areas from portrait and fashion photography to advertising and wildlife, the one thing that remains close to her heart is environmental issues. It was this passion that led Ashima to tell the story of the magnificent flamingos of Mumbai through her 24-minute documentary film ‘In the Pink’ in 2007. Screened on the Discovery channel, the movie marked Ashima’s entry into documentary filmmaking. It was also one of the first studies done on the flamingos of Mumbai.
“It took me nine months to shoot this self-funded project. I had to use my earnings from commercial photography to do the documentary because it was something I was very passionate about,” says Ashima, who is the recipient of the Commonwealth Photographer of the Year in 2004, the Ramnath Goenka Nature & Environment Photographer of the Year 2006 and the Best Asian Wildlife Documentary award from Japan Wildlife Film Festival in 2008.
Successful journey
Ashima, who began her journey in photography in 1996, says that those days there were far too women photojournalists. “In fact, most women photographers were in the lifestyle journalism space which was considered to be safe. That image has gone through a big change with more and more women getting into photojournalism. Women are bolder now,” she says.
Ashima has travelled across the country with her camera to document the stories of people and places. But travel photography is a different ball game altogether, she says. “People feel that travel photography means taking pretty pictures. But it is documenting a city and a culture in a different way. You have to show how a Mumbai is different from a Delhi,” she adds.
She has also shot a documentary film titled The Last Dance. It spoke of how the Indian sloth bear, that is entitled for the same level of protection as the tiger in the country, is ruthlessly trained to dance for the pleasure of human beings. The film was used as a conservation tool to expose the state of bears to governments and the police.
The photographer travels across the country to document the stories of people and places
