Celebrity photographer Amit Khanna who recently delivered a TED talk and completed 9 years in the industry believes that photography is an art that creates memories galore.
When did you start your journey with fashion photography?
I began working as a professional photographer around the 7th of February 2012
You’ve been in this industry for almost a decade now. How has the journey been?
It’s been an amazing journey so far, lots of learning and unlearning, lots of love as well as criticism (good and bad), it feels great to make people look good and help them reach places. Its’ been a wonderful experience so far hoping for creating some great art in days to come.
The first-ever Dadasaheb Phalke excellence Award in the category is to your credit. How does it feel?
It’s a huge responsibility to keep up to that level of appreciation, it feels good I am happy for myself but not overconfident, still have a long way to go and create value.
What’s the unique power of photographic art as a medium?
Photographic art creates memories galore!, it makes us believe that at least for a millisecond everything was perfect, also the kind of photography I do, its a medium to represent talent to the Industry as well as the audience, my aim is to ensure every person I click is the best version of themselves at that moment, photographs these days are an extremely influential medium for everyone.
How’s your TED Talk experience been? How did you prepare? Did you feel more empowered?
Well it was great to speak for TED, your thoughts reach out to so many people and your journey actually travels through many hearts and minds, It does require a lot of prep, one needs to put down their talk and there are various rounds of edits, the team at TED is very particular and they actually invest a lot of time in you which is great they ensure you deliver, I tried to keep my talk very real and more casual yet inspirational. I feel empowered as TED is a platform that has a huge following and reaches out to many
Were you also a little reluctant or nervous about this whole idea?
I was never nervous to give a TED talk neither reluctant I look forward to many more.
What advice do you have for other TED & TEDx Speakers?
I would just like to tell them to keep it real and honest, it’s not easy to put it all in words but if u preserve the end result will be truly inspiring
How do you see photography evolving in the next few years?
I do see a lot of mediums such as DSLRs and Lights impacting the photography growth largely, also use of various photo manipulation techniques and software impacting photographic art, however even though we have emails replacing letters in the past 2 decades we still miss the Lettres, hence in spite of various technological upgrades coming in we must not forget that pictures are clicked from the heart and not the equipment
‘The Illusioner 2021’ was a rare but interesting idea. What’s the future of changing fashion?
Illusioner 2021 was appreciated hugely and I am glad and proud of the calendar as well as happy about the teamwork that went in to put it together, a calendar depicting male emotions was a thought which was exciting but difficult to execute, I am happy the message came across, I look at fashion becoming gendreless in years to come I just hope its rather soon, I personally feel fashion or any form of art should never have a gender we as a society must broaden our thought process
What lies ahead on the work front?
Lots and Lots of pictures and concepts for sure, I am looking at breaking stereotypes this year and be a tiny medium of change at my workplace, Apart from photography, there is a lot of writing/direction as well as growth of my production house A square entertainment with my dear friend and business partner Ankit Bhatia.