I am Richa Maheshwari, and a Self Made and Self Taught photography entrepreneur, I have been running a production house for 9 years.
1. Tell us about your background and journey.
Hailing from Kanpur, I was born in a middle-class business family. I always secured good grades in my academics and extracurricular, so when I got 97% in my class 12th( which was a big thing back then) people thought I would go in for some good commerce college.
Obverse to that, I dropped the year and started preparing for NIFT due to my inclination towards fashion and arts. The gamble of skipping the year was worth it and I attained AIR 16, eventually a seat in Fashion communication dept., NIFT Delhi.
This was the first experience of risk-taking in my life and the subsequent four years prepared me further; whether it was repaying the entire education loan within a year, to refusing to sit for placements, to starting my own venture while being in college, or taking the risk of setting up my own studio without working under a photographer for 2-3 years.
Cut to today: sitting 7 days away from completing 9 years of my company, I am glad that I embarked on this journey.
2. How and when did you realize your passion for photography?
I always believed in doing smart work so that I could save time to do freelance while studying. Hence, my assignment submissions used to be in pictures and not in a verbose thesis.
Fortunately, my picture-taking skill bettered with time, and I was encouraged by a professor to take it up professionally. Being a fashion student obsessed with the latest trends, I decided to marry the two and started reading and practicing fashion photography.
3. What are the important skills one should have to be a successful photographer?
A photographer should have a dynamic approach that includes keeping updated with the latest that is happening in the technology they use, with the developments in their genre ( in my case it's the ever-changing fashion), keep experimenting, and develop their own style.
4. What are various opportunities available for aspiring photographers?
Speaking about fashion and lifestyle field, the demands have been changing and growing and will further see an upward positive graph. Digitalization of the same has opened more avenues for photographers because to sell things online we need pictures.
So be it e-commerce photography to product photography to catalog photography, there is no dearth of work.
5. What is your idea of success or your mantra in life?
Success for me is not just about how much money I should make but it is about how happy I am and would be and for that, I follow this simple mantra of working really hard but living life to the fullest as if there is no tomorrow.
6. Who is your favorite fashion photographer and why?
Though there are many, among the contemporaries I love David LaChapelle for his sheer uniqueness, brilliant ideas, and creative execution.
7. Do you have any tips for people who want to join this field?
Be dynamic, focus on what you want, keep experimenting, develop your own style, and never give up.
8. Which is your favorite book and why?
I am not a voracious reader but ironically I read a lot and almost everything I come across but in brief. I have been reading Rabindranath Tagore's work a lot lately. Fireflies inspired me for this year's calendar and the latest I am reading is Gitanjali.
Gold medalist Communication Design ( NIFT), TEDx Speaker, Limca Record Holder (fitness), Asia Book of Records Holder (fitness)
Travel Enthusiast (49 countries in the last 5 years and counting) That_ Indian_Abroad
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