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Joshua Francis's avatar

This is one of those stories that just adds fuel to my fire for visiting India and capturing stories of my own there

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Gajan Balan's avatar

Love to hear that. Enjoy the journey.

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🇯🇵Layer Caked Photography🇯🇵's avatar

Hi Gajan… I followed your message about preparation, stylist, model .. location scouting leading to the shot you so had in mind.

Just out of curiosity would an impromptu approach to getting that shot work as well? Like walking around and taking random shots.. sort of like street photography where there might be one banger shot in the 1000 you took that day?

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Gajan Balan's avatar

Thanks for asking, short answer is no.

With this image, we were going after a very specific story. While we could try to recreate that same story in the market with a more street/documentary approach would be difficult. And in some ways, impossible. To find the face, the outfit, and the scene would be leaving too much up to chance. More importantly, it would be a different story. Not that one is better than the other. Just different.

I love creating portraits of strangers in the moment because there is often a story around them that has attracted me in the first place. The importance being there is already a story in place. For this project, I had stories already in mind that I was hoping to share. So my goal was to create them from scratch as opposed to trying to force an existing scene into my story. I think that summarizes the difference.

Hope this helps ✌🏾

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Gio Ynoa's avatar

Just getting back to photography and you’ve always been an inspiration since your Fuji days. Glad to see you’re still doing great work. Love the vision and execution on this one.

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Gajan Balan's avatar

Truly appreciate the support. Thanks for reading ✌🏾

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Khalid's avatar

Inspiring Story Gajan! I'm new to the family but always looking forward to viewing your art. Keep it up and may you have a blessed February <3

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Gajan Balan's avatar

Thank you, Khalid.

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Corrine's avatar

Gajan! I was wondering about when your next post would land and like magic!!! There is is! Haven't even read it yet, just wanted to say I was looking forward to it!!!

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Gajan Balan's avatar

Haha, thank you Corrine. Truly appreciate the support.

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Saj Eswarakumar's avatar

This definitely Inspired me to explore some pictures I snapped during my trip to India in 2016.

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Gajan Balan's avatar

Do it ✌🏾

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