If you haven’t seen photographer Kasturi Mukherjee’s distinct portraits, we can safely say you’ve been missing out. Her fashion photography especially will stun you with its pensive connect. “I have been trying to shift the objectifying gaze of my audience to the more humane side of photography. I have been studying and researching the female gaze and hopefully, my next body of work will be all about that,” she tells us. So how did the photographer get her start? Here’s finding out:
Tell us a little about how you ventured into photography
My grandmother and my father are photography enthusiasts. Naturally as a child I found profound joy in this art form. Over the years, there was a distinct development of a passion for photography as a professional career.
.jpg?w=640&auto=format%2Ccompress)
What camera(s) do you usually use?
Canon 5D mark iii & canon 550D depending on what I am shooting.
Can you tell us a little about your foundational influences?
Cinema has been a foundational influence for me. Movies and films of Ritwik Ghatak, Satyajit Ray, Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, Nandita das, Celine Sciamma and many more. Among photographers, I have been highly influenced by works of Homai Vyarawalla, Dayanita Singh, Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, Annie Leibovitz, Prabudha Dasgupta, Peter Lindbergh, Richard Avedon and many more.
Have you ever come across a challenge or a problem which a male photographer probably wouldn't have faced?
The gender privilege that a male photographer gets is what I have to battle out everywhere, and not just in photography.But times are changing, I am happy to see so many women are finally taking up photography as a full-time profession.