Vikram Bawa is a photographer with over 25 years of experience. His photographs are among the best professional photos, and he is well known for his craft. Vikram’s interest in photography started from a young age because of his parents’ affinity to the art they practised on TLR cameras. Vikram tried using these cameras and learning between the ages of 8 to 12. Around 17 he started clicking again. Vikram has always been interested in reading and gaining knowledge. He liked reading about science, art, history, etc. He pursued science because he thought it was easy and graduated in math from college.
During college, Vikram started a chemical company with a partner and ran the company for 7 to 8 years. Photography was his passion at that time, but he found it hard to divide his time between work and photography. When the time came, he made a choice and made photography his full-time career. Vikram’s family was also supportive of that choice.https://www.youtube.com/embed/ugp-4UwaBGM?controls=1&rel=0&playsinline=0&modestbranding=0&autoplay=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Finmandi.com&widgetid=1
When Vikram quit his company, he was unemployed. He only had 20k in his bank account to support himself. It was a struggle to start as a photographer at that time. Vikram considers himself a self-made man. Vikram created India’s first panoramic magazine cover with celebrities in 2001. Around that time time Vikram also created India’s first 3D cover and a special cover with ‘disappearing images’ for ELLE. Vikram’s campaign with Skoda won international awards as he created fashion images out of a campaign for a car brand. And many more firsts in International awards.
Some of Vikram’s most memorable shoots have been with celebrities who are now his friends. Jeweller Yogesh Jashnani is one friend with whom Vikram’s shoots are always memorable. Vikram experiments a lot. He is not tied down to any specific genre and keeps himself open to new ideas and projects. At the moment, he likes keeping things simple. He shoots models in candid poses with no makeup. He enjoys shooting with minimum team and equipment. He wants to capture the person. The rapport with the subject is more important than hair and makeup and assistants and extra equipment, he feels. Vikram says that this is how photoshoots used to happen a while ago, and now the trend is coming back.
Vikram believes that everyone has struggled in life. There is a struggle to keep finding work, to do better than one did before. However, he also believes that struggles make the journey more enjoyable. Without struggles one becomes complacent, he feels. His popularity on Instagram spiked in the last two years when he seriously started dedicating time to thinking about uploading photos. He wasn’t very active before that, though he was on Instagram for four years. His account is full of great pictures that can be very inspiring to budding photographers who can learn a lot. Anyone interested in professional photography and looking to make a career out of it can look up to Vikram and take inspiration from him.
