"Keep Upgrading Your Portfolio With New Work" - Gorkey Patwal

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1. Tell us about your background and journey.

I always wanted to work in advertising when I was in college. Photography and film making happened on the job. I never went to any film or photography school, and everything was learnt by trying new things and failing at it. 

I was always interested in photography as a kid but never wanted it to be my full-time job/career, and till now after doing it for 6 years professionally I still don't want it to be. I feel if I just do photography, I will block all my other creative ideas and hence I do photography on the side and do other things with it all the time like nowadays I am into a podcast and have launched my own podcast channel.


2. How and when did you realize your passion for photography?

I use to shoot random things when I was in school with my Sony Handycam, but I think it all came down to me when I saw wakeup sid and came out of that movie thinking I want to be a photographer because it looks like photographers are cool people, so that's how it all started. 

I just wanted to be cool, and photography was the catalyst for it, 11 years from that I am still committed to photography, and I believe if you invest so much time and hard work to something that ends up being your passion. So photography was never my passion nor is my passion, photography is what I am committed to.


3. What are some tips you would like to share with amateur photographers?

Be consistent and try new things. Keep upgrading your portfolio with new work. Photography is simple, and you get it sooner or later in life. Most important is to learn new things and keep practising.


4. What are the important skills one should have to be a successful photographer?

Some important skills to have other than photography are having good PR skills so that you can build a good network and get more work. You need to also have good management and business skills to grow more while doing what you love doing.


5. What are various opportunities available for aspiring photographers?

With Instagram, the world is open now. You can do so much with photography nowadays. You can work for a magazine, work for a production house, work on a movie set as a photographer, so the opportunities are endless all you have to do is figure out what you like and stick with it.


6. Which is your favourite book, and why?

I recently started the habit of reading, and some of my favourite books are - Milk teeth by Amrita Mahale, modern romance by Aziz Ansari, Elon musk by Ashlee Vance.


Interview by - Shamayla