Today we’d like to introduce you to Vaishnavi Patil.
Hi Vaishanvi, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m from Hyderabad, a city in the south of India and come a family of businessmen/women, engineers and doctors. So to live up to the expectations of society, I graduated from Law school during the pandemic. That gave me a chance to take a few months off to contemplate what I wanted to do eventually. Was it something I did not enjoy at all and struggled to get through or something that made me happy, confident and excited to wake up to every day? I obviously chose the latter and decided to take the leap of faith, study more about photography and turn my hobby into my career.
I never imagined I’d be in LA in 2023 but here I am doing my master’s in Photography. I am starting afresh. For Indian standards, I’ve started extremely late but I believe that I’d rather start late than never try.
I’m currently in the second semester of my Master in Fine Arts (MFA), Photography at the New York Film Academy. Every day, I’m learning so much, meeting so many people. I think this decision has made me understand the importance of the balance of understanding technology and networking.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I think my journey into the world of art started when I was really young. I loved colors, I loved painting, drawing. My favourite class in school was the art class, though I wasn’t as good, I enjoyed it and looked forward to it. We had a lot of other activities too. Sports in school were divided into 2, the indoor and the outdoor. For the indoor, I was training to be an Indian classical dancer, in the dance form called Kuchipudi, from the south of India. And outdoors, it was skating. At that time I didn’t appreciate these forms of art and today when I’m unable to do or perform, I miss them. The beginning was a smooth road but when I grew up, and started taking these activities seriously, I was told that these were just hobbies and I couldn’t do just this for the rest of my life. I was confused. As I grew older, I knew art gave me peace and I should do something related to it. But then, the societal pressure and expectations pushed me into law school. I did not enjoy much of it. It was the opposite of what I wanted to do. And then it was showing. But then, a camera was introduced in my life, my sister got a DSLR a few years before and I held on to it since. Maybe not the camera itself, but the form of art. I would take pictures of things around me, the people around me, the campus, the trips I went on with friends or family. It kept me sane. When I finally graduated from law school, knowing if I gave up on this, I would never be able to complete anything. But this was also when I knew I had to make a decision. To try and learn this art form or keep pushing myself in the field of law. I decided to do some research and then talk to parents to let me learn photography professionally. They were just glad I made a decision. I knew they were not very convinced. I only felt like they were happy with my decision when I went back home during my semester break and showed them a few prints of my shoot. Now that I feel that I have convinced my parents, even if the road is not smooth, I’m ready to face it, with the support of my family, that I craved.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I think with the evolution of technology, the happenings around us, the situation I will be in, the kind of people I will be with, and the situations we’ll be put in, I’ll be learning something new every single day. As I consider myself new to the art (or business) of photography, I think I’m still exploring various genres and trying to find my footing. I’m currently enjoying Portrait photography with a combination of fashion. I am also interested in still life and product photography. I have always loved landscape and travel, so will continue to do so.
I would find taking pictures of people challenging but the opportunity and the freedom that I have gotten here, are helping me get over that fear and work with new people and make diverse images. That’s something I’m really proud of and my compositions and concepts are something that sets me apart from the others. I take inspiration from work that I see, the people I meet, the important moments in the history that shape today’s art world, the stand that people are taking for important issues in today’s world and the museums that I have been going to here and appreciate them all even more.
I think the introduction to alternative processes is going to be a game changer in my life and my work. Can’t wait to work on what I have in mind and share it with the world soon.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I think I used to be a person who would always take the easy way out and be in my comfort zone. Me coming to LA, to study photography, is the biggest risk I’ve taken and it is totally worth it. Not doing something that everyone does and doing something that only a few people in my family or community have done, being around people who have already been in the industry for a long time and working with them is a blessing but also a huge risk I have taken.
I think there will be a time in everyone’s life where one will be in a position where they have take make a decision which is extremely risky. And these decisions will be the break it or make it ones. I think risk taking is an action where you challenge yourself and are your own competition, who is the most important competitor. It helps you make important decisions in the future, helps your analytical skills and helps you know yourself better and improve.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vaishnavipatil1997.wixsite.com/vaishnavi-patil-phot
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/patil_vaishnavi20?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vaishnavi.patil.54?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/vaishnavi-patil-536086194
Image Credits
Models: – Erik Alcántara – Nicolás Marín – Atamura Mussakhanov – Benoît Paes Six – Prerana Gopal -Wennan Ma – Tony Joseph -Linh Tang Assistance: -Khush Patel -Ritika Telang -Gabriel Acosta
