Latest / Skin Anarchy / Neha Oberoi, Professional Editorial Photographer and Founder of Neha Studios

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Neha Oberoi, Professional Editorial Photographer and Founder of Neha Studios · Skin Anarchy

• 0:40
  SPEAKER_04: I'm really excited to introduce her and to learn from her because this is a part of Central Anarchy.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_04: We haven't really um really you know dove into and it's I'm just so excited to be starting off this series in this new direction as well with her as our first guest.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_04: So um you know me, I'm done ranting, but uh I want to introduce you guys to Neha O'Broy, who is the founder of Neha Studios, which is a very high-end photography studio.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_04: I love your work, Neha.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_04: So welcome to the show.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, Ata.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: It is so lovely um to have you with me.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I'm so glad.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_04: We only just did a two-minute intro for you.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_04: Like I was just like talking and talking and talking.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_04: I love her work.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: That is so kind of you.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I wasn't always a photographer, I have a corporate background, and I learned very early, um, in my early 20s, actually, um, that I was making money.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: I had I went to college, I had the job, uh, and I was, you know, doing what I went to college for, uh, with corporate background working for Siemens, one of the biggest, you know, uh companies in the world, a German-based um company.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: But I felt very unfulfilled.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I I guess most people don't wonder those questions that I was wondering in my mid-20s.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: What is my purpose?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: What is that ticks my soul?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, part of the reason I was able to have that kind of perspective to life is because I lost my parents at a fairly young age.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I had that realization that you cannot take life for granted that you're always gonna retire and go on adventures or you know, wait till you're 40, 50, 60.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I just could not.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: I was so unhappy.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_04: Well, Neha, I want you to step back because I didn't actually ask you properly.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_04: And I want to because I want you to start from the beginning because I know you have such a unique journey, and I know that you I want you to tell us like when did you move to the States and like you know, just how did everything really start?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_04: Like just go from the beginning.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, I could start over.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: So whenever you're ready, I will start.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, just go ahead.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, Ekta.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: It is so nice to be here with you, and thank you for having me.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um I am Yeah, I'm so excited.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm really, really a huge fan of your work, huge fan of your photography.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, as I've already ranted about in the introduction portion portion of this, but I'm uh a huge fan and and the art and just how you capture reality is just it's mesmerizing.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_04: So um, you know, I'm super excited.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_04: I know you've worked in fashion editorial and you do so much great work.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_04: So I want to know everything.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_04: I want to know from the beginning how it started, you know, your whole journey and all that good stuff.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_04: So if you can um walk us down memory lane.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I was born and raised in India um and in Delhi area.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I moved to the United States after finishing my bachelor's in India.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I came here on an international finance project uh for Siemens German company.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: And my project was to transition um and handle the finance part of it.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I spent 10 years working for Siemens.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I came here as a 21, 22-year-old, but a few years into my corporate journey, um, well, I started questioning what am I doing?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because I was so unfulfilled, so unhappy.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_04: And in the time when every an older age, too, than most like Indian Americans.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_04: That must have been really interesting.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_04: Like that, how was that transition for you?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um, one, I should have felt the gratitude that my first project out of college was an international project and I was going to America.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of my friends were so envious of me.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I was excited too, because I thought, oh, look, my dream's coming true.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: I finished my college, I have a dog.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, look, I'm making, you know, wonderful dollars and I'm traveling, and you know, here I'm living the life.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: But um, very soon I realized that this isn't what I wanted.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't what I expected.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: It didn't make me happy.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I started questioning that why I cannot live like this for the next 30 years, 35 years of my career, you know.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to live for the weekend.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to find something that take my soul there, wanted to, you know, get me out of the bed in the morning and just feel the passion for life.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: And that wasn't there.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: And that's huge.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_04: That's huge.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_04: And the fact that you had that realization is also huge.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_04: I just I want to say that there's so many.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Is because of, you know, going through the loss of my parents who passed away at a fairly young age.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: And um I just didn't know what to do at that point.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: So I started reading books.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then I picked up Iggy Guy and I picked several other books to find the purpose and meaning to life because I was so restless, so unfulfilled that I just it didn't make me happy at all.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I was miserable, and I felt so guilty that I wasn't grateful for this wonderful opportunity I'd been given.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: And even though the people I worked with so amazing, but I just could not bring myself to accept that this is this is what I want from life.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: So then I started going back to when I was eight, 10, you know, and I started finding things that really sparked my soul.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: And it was always dance, drama, or art, um, crafting.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: I also tried uh designing and uh sewing one summer.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: So the bottom line was it was always creativity, any sort of creativity.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: And that's when you know, I was like, well, I do know when I am in the creative mode, that's when I feel just alive.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: So, like most photographers, I picked up the camera around that time in my early 20s.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: It was purely just my first DSLR and I'm just shooting everything, but very quickly I realized that was the outlet to my creativity.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I I started shooting everything uh at first in my early 20s.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was shooting kids, I'm shooting portraits, I'm shooting landscape, everything.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I just didn't know who I was as an artist, and then slowly I transitioned towards glamour.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah because oh like most artists, I just felt not um good enough to say, well, I want to be a professional photographer.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: As you know, in Asian countries, we think if you have a degree, you're qualified to do that.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: If you have to have this like if you have this piece of paper that gave you permission, that now you can go do it, because this piece of paper justifies that now you're validated and now you're allowed to do it.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: But how could I just say that I want to be a commercial photographer?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have a piece of paper to validate it.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought, just like you know, probably a lot of other photographers, they're like, all right, well, at least I can shoot people, I can shoot portraiture, I can take nice pictures, start there, and then I slowly went towards glamour.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: That was my first step towards fashion and beauty, you know.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, honestly, it's like the way you shoot, like, you know, just keeping it on glamour and like especially the editorial area, it's just like it's not it, it it captures like a lot more than you know, I've seen, I think, since I grew up, because I grew up with magazines, right?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm sure you know that.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I've seen it so many times, and like I grew up with magazines, but I'm not gonna lie to you, my favorite part was the photography.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_04: It I had such a deep appreciation for that art form that like, because that's really what mesmerized you about an ad.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_04: It was the way that it was shot, it was the moment that was captured, and this ability to capture a moment.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_04: I've always felt like it requires this ability to see things, and you know what I mean, like a different perspective is almost used in terms of like, yeah.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: There is so much connection uh with photography personally, um, that I I will I will walk you through how like it just it it's so uh draws so much emotion out of me.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: I am so connected to this, it is just unreal.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um but for me, what I realized slowly was uh that it wasn't just uh the beauty, I also wanted storytelling aspect.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: So if you've seen you've seen my work, there is always some story to it.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't just want to take a pretty picture.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: For me, it was so important.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: What am I saying?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: And that's when I realized that where I was um with trying to shoot glamour or portraiture, it was so limited.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: I could not experiment, I could not take the concepts uh and you know, because I needed to work with professional models to be able to do all of that or actors, you know.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: And initially, when I was shooting portraiture, I did shoot some artists, uh, a few singers who were just um, you know, coming into the industry.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: And slowly I realized that that's when I felt fulfilled when I worked with other creatives who understood what I was trying to say and work with me and give me that.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: And part of the reason I am I feel that storytelling is very powerful, um, but I also missed that I don't have pictures with my parents.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: The few pictures I had with them, um, they were, you know, the physical albums I grew up with.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: And as I moved, they lost.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: And today I sometimes wish what would I give to have one family picture with my parents?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: And something like I could give a leg.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because I need my arms.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: I could give one leg.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean that's that's such a deep and such a I can't even like I'm I'm just listening to you because that's such a real reason to really perfect what your art is, you know what I mean?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_04: It's like you always say things like the best artists in this world have this like immensity of pain that comes with the life that they've experienced, which has led them into this ability.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_04: I think I'm this is what I've heard, you know.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: It yes, and it is very great at fault, yeah.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, um, I so it wasn't that I had compromised professionally in my life in my early 20s, I was also in a relationship that was so toxic.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: My whole life, my whole board was to the outside the world, I was living the dream.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: I was living in this big giant house, I was traveling the world, I was driving the best cars, I had a big fat bank account, but I was so miserable in life that I didn't want to live.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: I was so unhappy with everything in my life.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: So the whole board had to come out.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it took a lot of courage for me to give up this career that I had built.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: I spent 10 years, you know, and then all of a sudden I'm saying, I built this, I don't want this.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's just getting out of here, and I am gonna start again from scratch, from zero.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: And when all my friends had sustainable careers, you know, families and you know, all that, and I am saying, I want to start over my life completely.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: I want to, I want to be true to myself, I want to find myself, and it was the same thing I had to struggle um as a photographer.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: I was told initially, well, your work isn't uh commercial enough, or your work isn't polished enough by polished, meaning it wasn't photoshopped enough.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: And my rule was always that you know we only remove something that wasn't uh naturally there.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I always loved the skin texture, I always loved all the details and the imperfection and all of that.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like so glad that industry is now coming to this place where we are embracing the skin texture, we are taking this photoshopped images out, and there are so many brands who are now actually putting a disclaimer, no uh skin editing done.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was me all along.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_04: I was talking to um Jason Hoffman for uh Laura Mercier, he was saying the same thing that whole no no touch-ups, nothing.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_04: Like you you gotta, it's gotta be like what it is is what it is.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_04: Like, and that that's to me, that's a whole different level.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that yeah, exactly.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I you know, the way I shoot and the way, you know, if you if you know the lighting, you know, uh, and you know how you're shooting, and of course, if you're working with a team that's wonderful, there is no need for photoshop.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, and your work is not.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, unrealistic uh expectations for these young generations.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we all know on social media and filters, and we should not be ashamed of our natural skin.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I mean, but that's something, you know, I was always all along, I was following this rule.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: And even when I got this feedback, I did not they and I was told, how you know your work is fantastic.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: How about you send these for another run of retouch?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: I did not do that.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I was I always walked out and you know, I was like, no, this is who I am, this is my work, and I didn't want to leave one place of compromise in corporate, you know, career to come and abandon me as an artist again.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: I was so adamant that no, I will say stay true to myself.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: I am not going to repeat what I have done in the last decade.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, um, I actually did not leave my corporate job until 2017.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: So after that.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_04: Oh wow, but you were doing this and the full-time job.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I kept I kept my job and I kept shooting, and you know, I would shoot in the evenings or over the weekends or use my vacation time, and then I would stay up till 1 a.m.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: uh calling the images, editing all of that stuff.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: And it was like so hard.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: But in in 2017, when I when I finally told my boss um here in New York that, you know, I'm leaving, it was a Monday morning meeting, and I said, here's my two-week notice.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: And she says, F off, you've lost your mind, do it on the side, or da da da.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, nope, I am jumping.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: I am I am doing this now.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: There's no going back.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I left the office um in the afternoon around two o'clock, and I sat in the parking lot and I cried and cried.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: I cried there for two, three hours.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: I I because there was grief, you know, I had built something that, you know, there is still grief to it, that the people I loved working with and all of that, but all of a sudden, and there was a huge amount of uncertainty.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: Where am I going?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: If I will even find my place in the industry or not.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I've had, you know, I was fortunate to work with um uh a consultant and photo editor who helped me see myself as an artist, you know.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: So when I would shoot, I would go to her and she would help me see what were my strengths and you know what I could what I needed to work on more.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: So it wasn't always just me.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: So last few years or when I first left in 2017, the first uh couple of years I had that support.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I also was kind of seeking validation to make sure I guess I thought I don't know the rules.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: I was just completely exploring and trying to just find what it means to me.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: What is creativity to me?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: Who is me as an artist?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: But then there was also a little bit of fear.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: Am I doing this right?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, and but then what you know is there aren't any rules, you're not supposed to follow any rules, you're supposed to just do you, but that does not come right off the bat, you know, it takes a lot of just trusting yourself and just letting go of that validation.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: And now at this point, when I shoot, I am so in love with the work that I no longer expect anybody else to appreciate it, except it if they do, it's wonderful, but if they don't, I still love what I did.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: And that place, it takes time to get there.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: I I think artists they they have they all go through this struggle to get to this place where they find you're like, you know, this is me, I am me, and this is what I shoot.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: And if I if I shot like anybody else, that would be a waste of artists and me.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, and it's also how you see the world, right?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and it's a question of your perspective of the world, and that's one thing about photography that I think no one really talks about, and that's really at for me at the heart of you know, the core purpose of um, you know, this podcast, because I realized very, very soon after starting that mini little personal blog I had, uh just things I loved.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, wait a minute, I know nothing about the people that are bringing these ideas of oh, buy this product or look at this model, look how stunning all of this looks together, you know, in this lighting.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_04: Like all those things were things I knew nothing about.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_04: So, like when you say something like, Well, I'm a beauty connoisseur, I'm like really interested in the beauty industry, or even an influencer, you should actually really know the people who make the content that make you want to influence that brand or that thing, or you know what I mean?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_04: So that's why I think that's why I think beauty photography and fashion photography is such a unique niche in the realm of photography, because it's not about just showing off some pretty clothes or showing off some pretty makeup, it's about creating, you know what I mean?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's an expression because people don't buy a pretty picture, people buy a story.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: We all know this.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, everybody, we need a connection, and that is the powerful aspect.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I definitely love beauty more than fashion.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: Not that I don't love fashion, but beauty is my jam.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and part of the reason is I love the talent because when I'm shooting beauty, it's just me and the model, and just the raw emotion and face.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: There is nowhere else to hide, there is no location, there are no clothes, just give it to me.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: And there, you know, it's it's it's the camera is right in your face.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: And you have to be so comfortable in yourself.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: But that's what um, you know, my job comes in making sure I build that model up, making sure I build, you know, you know, that reputation and the connection before she even comes on the set.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you know, what is that?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_04: What is that process for you?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_04: Like, what is the setup and like you know.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Getting acquainted with the model, like what's that whole process like for you?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, um most of the time I only have have seen uh models portfolio before model shows up on the set.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: So all I know is their name and the size, and you know, of just you know, pictures.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like medicine, like you look at the chart and you're like, okay, really, yes, exactly.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: It is just yes, and then you've been given this model, and then on the day of the shoot is when I first meet the model.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I have this first one or two hours of uh building, you know, a reputation, helping the model be comfortable.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I have been in plenty of situations where I worked with more than one model.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you know, one model is less experienced, and the senior model is just uh you know, um a little less patient and sometimes a little aggressive, and then it can really hurt the confidence of the model who is junior and you know, trying to do her best.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that's when, like, uh I've had a situation where you know, this model, the younger one, she finally came around to me and she's like, I know I'm not doing a good job, I'm not delivering it.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then that's when I said, you know, there's that's not a problem.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I told the senior model to take a break.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: I spent 20 minutes with this younger model, and the images she gave me, oh my gosh, you would not believe that it was actually Canon uh US.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: They came and commented on one of her images, and she was a younger model, and wow, her images ended up uh, and I think Canon US also shared one of her images on there on the Instagram.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, that's so but you know, it takes it's not.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: I I always say this, it's not about experience, it's about can you match the energy?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have the drive?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: Do you believe in this concept?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: Are you willing to go as far as I'm going to go with you?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I will work as hard as I have to to get the shot, you know.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I understand this that I have to make sure that the model feels safe and comfortable.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and nobody walks out of my set upset.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: We all have to make sure we all had an inspiring great day.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it is just so important to me.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: And this is why I love beauty because this is who I am as a person.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: I don't do shallow connections, I cannot do.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, this friend is only to go to the park or this friend is only to go have, you know, go to the gym or yoga with.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: I don't do that.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot do that.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: For me, it has to be just, you know, you either you're all in or all out.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_04: I agree.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_04: I agree.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's what's why when you know I meet a model, like my first, you know, when I first meet them, I want to know them, who they are, what matters to them.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: And part of the thing is that I understand this really well with uh how to approach people because when I first moved to America, um, a lot of people said, uh, were you born here?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, no, I was born and raised in India.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you speak really good English.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and in my early 20s, I was a little impatient, and I used to get so upset, and I almost wanted to tell them that there are more people in India who speak English than the population of the United States.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know, but it's it's coming from that place, you and then asking, you know, a lot of times I was asked, oh, what ethnicity are you?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, are you full Indian or half Indian?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, all these questions, they are so aggressive and just you know, putting the other people in such a discomfort place because you feel judged.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: They're judging you from the place where you didn't make all those choices.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't choose my skin color, I didn't choose where I was born.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you ask me the decision I'm most proud of that I've made in my life?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: What is that I love about this city?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: What do I love about this season?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Or what brings me to life?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: Ask me the questions that are me.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: And that is how I know how to connect with people.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: Especially, you know, it is so such an important part of my job to be able to connect with the subject who is I'm shooting.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to know uh what type of music they love or what type of food they like.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: All these things are very personal and you can build on that.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I mean, I think that's the thing that you know people are having a hard time understanding is that, you know, it's not just about this like quick process of churning out media or turning out, you know, images or whatever.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_04: It's more so about taking the time to understand like what is being portrayed.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm not gonna lie to you, the more and more I look through social media and I, you know, I've spent my good time, you know, even on my platforms that I love.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I spent a lot of time on TikTok.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_04: I've spent a lot of time looking at content content on like reels or Pinterest.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like everyone is so focused on delivering content in a very fast way that the quality is just completely lacking sometimes, I think most times.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_04: And that doesn't keep your attention.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we're living in a world now where you know people are advertising that you need to be able to catch someone's attention within two seconds.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_04: But then where do you fit in the concept of going to an art gallery?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_04: Somewhere, think about somewhere historic, you know what I mean?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_04: Like that you really want to go see the paintings, if you want to go see Van Gogh's art or you know, Picasso's art, what are you gonna just like fly through each exhibit in two seconds?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_04: No, you're gonna stand there and you're going to look and you're going to interpret.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that aspect is, you know, I'm coming to my point of promise.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_04: I think that aspect is a huge player in this idea of print versus digital now.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_04: Because in print, it was as if you were almost, you couldn't just scroll down.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_04: You couldn't just like and so I want to get your opinion.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_04: I I know I asked this question quite a bit, and I have a lot recently too, with my editorial um interviews, but and I really want to get your perspective of that because I think that would be so interesting to see how a professional photographer sees digital versus print.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: I am not gonna lie, I love print.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I grew up flipping family album, and you cannot just replace that.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: And even like now, when you when you see your work printed, it's something tangible, and there is just no other feeling like that.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, yes, we have been going through a pandemic and a lot of stuff has been has been digital and just you know everything, uh, but we cannot replace the print.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: You just you there is no way.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, you you can't you you need you know uh packaging, you still need the the paper advertising is never going to go away.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think we get.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_04: There's a very special niche, and I don't know why we're not like really talking about it much because I know that you know with magazines and a lot of really big publications, you know, if it's oh girl, if you're you know, a harper star, you obviously, you know, you need the numbers and you need people to be reading your articles because they're top notch, but so is your photography.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_04: So I've always wondered why a lot of publications like that don't create a magazine or print version um that is for the you know, the community or the population of people out there that are truly magazine people.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_04: They love flipping through a beautiful set of imagery that represents beauty, fashion, skin health.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's like that's still something that you they utilize, right?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_04: Like magazines still utilize these images.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: Impact is so powerful, something that you hold in your hand, you take a moment and you can feel the texture, you pay attention, you can slow down and appreciate the colors, you can appreciate so much detail about it that you just lose it on a phone or on the screen.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's just not the same.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it's the same way, somebody sending you a digital card versus something you get in the mail.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_04: That is just that's an awesome analogy.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you cannot replace that.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: So it it does not matter whether you are, you know, doing it for uh for portraiture or commercial, no matter what it is that you're doing, you cannot replace the print.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: The power of something tangible, it's it's just cannot be replicated with just a flip of screen, it's not the same.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_04: So I completely agree with you, and it actually breaks my heart because I well, it doesn't break my heart, it makes me happy.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not gonna lie, because I get to see these images.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_04: But for example, when I look at some like a platform like Pinterest, I feel like Pinterest played such a huge role in the shift of the entire um photography sector of this industry because you were now able to find professional photos that have gone and inspired so many designs and so many brand designs.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_04: And you know what I mean?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_04: Like that's what that's where I was like, okay, you know, I think when Pinterest came on the scene, it was like access immediately to certain images that were described, you know what I mean?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_04: It was like a library.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, a shutter stock and a lot of these stock images, and part of the reason is that it is so difficult to break into commercial photography.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it is so hard, especially for women.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because there is this mindset that women are better shooting, better at shooting families and kids.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: No, a creative mind is a creative mind.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: So, but even I think I saw this last year that in advertising, it's still only 13% women.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's and that is so shocking.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: And America is supposed to be a first world country.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the gap wouldn't be so so big.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, so I think that is one of the problems.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: Another thing is that there is no standard, no standard pricing, it's art, it's creativity.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, and a lot of times when people when they first enter the industry or they are still building it, they will do the work for less money or not uh not charge for licensing because they well, the client doesn't understand licensing and doesn't want to pay for it, and uh the photographer is just happy that he can get a gig or she can get a gig, and I think this is where you know uh people have this mindset, well, I can always find a cheaper photographer, you know.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: So people think that I have an iPhone or I have a DSLR camera, and all I need to do is buy a beauty dish or you know, buy a ring light and I am a photographer.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: But you know what, all those are tools to creativity.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things, like I've I've heard this from my friends too, you know, who think that oh, they're smart, they're engineers, and they've got a camera now they're they're a photographer, you know.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I tell them that, oh, if if the camera is what makes a photographer, well, the stove in your home does that make you a chef?
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_04: That's really good.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_04: I like that.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's true.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and but it's it's like it's just a tool that helps me create.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_02: I have a vision, I know what I'm going for.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's easy for somebody to just uh one day or spend a few hours they had fun shooting.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Can you produce consistently?
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want to do this 40, 50, 60 hours a week?
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's not about that, oh yeah, you took a nice picture out of the blue, it worked, or you know, I mean, there is so much more to it.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: How committed are you?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: And can you consistently produce?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: And do you do you have this drive and passion to say something?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's yeah, it's exactly that is so hard.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: Why is it still why are we still arguing about this?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: That somebody has a camera and that makes them a photographer.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, that's what everybody thinks in the influencer world.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_04: You have a phone, so now you are allowed to talk about whatever and whatever category it is, doesn't matter, health, legal, whatever, you get to now express it.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_04: And that's you know, it's okay to a certain degree, but like when I when I get mad is when there are brands who are paying very novice, like wannabe photographers that are now known as influencers, like$700 a picture for a piece of a bottle of skincare or a bottle of this, because it's like, well, you could have put that money towards a real photo shoot and a campaign.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_04: And that goes directly to the artists who have now inspired this entire social media, like you know, this revel revolution where everyone wants to take the cleanest and most beautiful photo.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_04: They want to make the, you know, the put the little pearls by the jar.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_04: And it's it's created a a momentum, right, for the appreciation of photography.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_04: And we're not even we're not giving credit to the people who are behind that, who are the professional photographers that didn't have social media.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: So it really well-known top brands, they were looking for a photographer here in Brooklyn for two months uh during this pandemic, they could not find a photographer.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_02: They were paying only$700 for eight hours, eight-hour day.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_02: No wonder you can't find a photographer.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think?
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, are we now exploiting artists because there is pandemic and you know, things are not as great in New York?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I think it's also about, you know, I think I want to go back to that point I made about magazines having this, like, if they do what if they do want to keep print, like you know what I mean?
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_04: I really like the idea that I shared because there's a good amount of people who really enjoy photography, we really enjoy the pictures of the models and seeing all the different looks, and it actually can help with you know styling your own looks, you know, a lot of times, whether it's makeup or clothing.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_04: But my point is like if you're going to take a profession um that has been turned into a profession, but it's really a skill, right?
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like art is something that you can't practice your way to being like the most like you know, innovative artist.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you can practice your way to being great and you know the best of the best, technically, but there's an aspect of you know, perspective, like I mentioned very early in the show, that can't be uh put into somebody.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_04: And so you're ignoring a lot of that and you're giving that away from being included in the imagery that's gonna now be shot.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_04: So that's now trickling down and affecting consumers, it's affecting uh the way that people look at themselves, it's affecting, you know, a lot of different areas, and you know, that's the idea here, right?
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_04: It's like you gotta look at the whole like you know, food chain.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_04: What's going on?
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_04: What are the what are the consequences of these changes?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_04: That have been that have taken place because of social uh social media.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_04: So, anyways, that was my point.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I just wanted to get that out there, but um I want to ask you, you know, when it comes to doing a shoot for say something like you're doing a shoot for um I don't know, maybe makeup, right?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_04: A makeup brand.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and there do you guys get like a theme assigned or like what is it that like what's the process of like shooting for a specific campaign?
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, it depends um, you know, who who you're working with, but a lot of times the the direction comes from creative director and art directors, you know, and uh depends on um the theme comes from them, definitely, and what is the idea of the shoot and um what would be, for example, if it's uh you know, they're doing some summer campaign or we're doing some Christmas holiday campaign, uh, or we're just shooting um, you know, uh a shoot for diversity, you know, where we have uh four to six different models.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um and you know, we're now just doing a beauty campaign that shows inclusivity and diversity.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: So that all direction comes from from there, from you know, the brand and the creative director and the art director.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I have also um I've worked with some of the smaller brands where I can go in as a creative director.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: So once I understand um, you know, what the brand is about, so like some of the brands they are vegan or they're all green.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: So then, you know, I have incorporated um things like um greenery in in the images, you know, um textures of the leaves, or you know, um, yeah, all those things that that represents that this is this brand is all clean and green, you know.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just understanding if I am doing it, uh if I'm working for maybe a brand where they don't have a marketing department and they don't have their own creative director, not director.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I also do that and I really, really enjoy that part.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I've done lots of projects uh you'll see on my website as well.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've done one on women empowerment.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of them have also been, a few of them have been my own uh ideas that I wanted to create and then they were picked up by magazines.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, one of the ones I'm very that's very close to me is uh choose your pain.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: It was a it was a beauty shoot that I did where I picked um different things that represented pain.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: One was like, you know, this um this kind of veil fabric that kind of represented suffocation and the pins, um, the board pins and the safety pins and all those.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: And we created this shoot, which you know, my idea behind that was you know, that there is pain in life, there is no avoiding that.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: There is pain in doing it, and then there's pain in not doing it, so you might as well choose the pain you love.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I really I agree with you, and I think that's a very unique way to look at it because you know, you when you had said creative director, I was immediately thinking, I'm like, if you're gonna be a creative director, you should have some sort of they always have like photography experience, right?
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_04: Like I would imagine.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and it's something I think um, you know, uh as I I guess grow into my career more, um it would be nice for me to have a little more um maybe take on creative direction.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um and and you know, because here's the thing, you know, everyone can't pull out emotions from people.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_04: There's very few people.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_04: And now if you can do that and capture it, I mean that's that's phenomenal work.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_04: That's amazing, you know.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_04: So I think you should, you definitely should.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_04: And also, like that actually leads me to one of my biggest questions, which is tell me about Naha Studios and tell me like what your vision is and like what you're at, you know, where you're at right now with the business and what it took to start it.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_04: I want to know everything about it.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, so um, like I mentioned, you know, I left my corporate job in 2017.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_02: So that's when I had a portfolio.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I still didn't quite know um, you know, that I I would love beauty so much.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: I hadn't done enough beauty back then.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then um, well, and then I I did uh a yoga campaign, you know, and I did a few campaigns, but then hit um and I did some some other work as well, and I it hit the point in my life where uh my personal life had fallen completely apart.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was in the middle of divorce and it was it was very um it was a very difficult time and I decided to take a break and go to India.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_02: And it was supposed to be like a six-month um, it was supposed to be like a six-month or one-year um time off where I could just go find myself, figure out, just get away from all the noise and just figure out because I still quite didn't have the direction um for the business at that point, either.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, or I just couldn't completely put my all efforts because.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Is of the struggle, personal struggles in my life.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I ended up going to India and then that um six to eight months almost became two years because of pandemic.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I didn't move back to the US until last summer, last summer.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: And how did you feel to be back?
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_04: Are you happy?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yes, I am.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you know, I came back in middle of the pandemic where the flights they were only allowing US citizens to move back.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, it was like the food was under the seats and no blankets, no pillows, and I didn't eat for 24 hours, but I was glad to be back and you know, uh safe.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um well I'm glad that you made it out safely.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_04: I know India was hit very, very hard as well, um, most recently, too, with the pen, you know, everything being mutated and all that stuff.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_04: So welcome back.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_04: I'm very glad that you're back.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, so it's been um, you know, a year and a half.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like last summer is when I when I moved back.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then since then I came back and I think when I returned back, I knew exactly where I wanted to go.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: I had a very clear vision.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: I I know what I want to shoot.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I know eventually I would love to take on more of creative direction, which right now I do it with the editorials a lot of times, where I also, you know, um take on creative direction, but uh I haven't been able to do that a lot with um with the commercial work because usually there is segregation, you know, there is an art director and creative director, and then you know, I go in as a photographer.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I, you know, it was it was nice.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't shoot much until um until December of last year.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I did a lot of self-portraits uh projects last year just to keep myself sane and keep creating.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um but then this year has been wonderful.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_02: I've shot a lot of beauty, I've shot some some fashion work as well, but I've shot a lot more beauty this year.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: I also would love to do more social campaigns with a story aspect, with a message empowering women, you know, or or something that could help the society be better, you know, and be happier and find honestly.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_04: Let me use your images for white collar brown girl.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_04: I'm telling you.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that would be wonderful.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_04: So that's really what I I really want that because that's exactly what I why I created that podcast was because I was like, you know what, like you gotta show people what the wor real world looks like, and that's exactly like what photographers do is really show you.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_04: They're not they're not always gonna, you know, capture a smiling face or capture, you know, they're gonna they're gonna capture reality, and that's a huge thing.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that the more that you know, I really am a huge believer, like if you're tagging someone's art and it's professional art, especially if it's like professional photography, you your your caption, the first thing should be art credit, this person, you know what I mean?
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_04: This because honestly, that like for me is a huge pet peeve because I realize that you know people get lost in the idea that oh, well, there's just a team that handles the photography.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_04: There's just a team that's handling that, you know.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_04: But it's like, no, it's not just a team, it's like a group of people who've come up with a concept and they're you know what I mean?
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_04: This is gonna tell you millions and millions of dollars worth of product.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_04: Like, you know, it's it's a huge thing.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_04: So I think there's definitely a food chain here and a cycle that, you know, I I see it being disrupted a lot with social media, but I think it's very, very interesting.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when I um, you know, when I was doing all these projects, like I have several on my um on my website, this is not my story.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's for women because they've been told that, you know, this is, I mean, a lot of times we're so bound to the gender roles.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I did that project, not my story.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_02: I did one art of living, I did fading away, where you know, women struggle of finding who they are in this world where we have so much expectations.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't choose your pain.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like I have so I did one peace of mind, which was on mental health, because I went through a phase of depression.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I am so passionate about all of these projects.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, at first I was I was suggested by so many people that oh, you don't want to show these projects, they're not actually commercial beauty or fashion, so they shouldn't go to your website.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, this will distract, or you, you know, all this.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_02: But I was like, no, I don't have to be restricted to the storytelling, what part of storytelling?
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I I have all this work under projects, and I'm equally proud of this work uh compared to all the beauty and fashion work because at the end of the day, all of this is storytelling for me.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: I am telling a story, whether I'm telling a story for a brand, whether I'm telling a story to society, all of that is storytelling for me.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it has to connect, it has to inspire, it has to, and we know this.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we all talk about uh return on investment.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_02: The only way to get return on investment is to move people, and how do you move people when you tell them a story?
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_04: I completely agree, I really do, and I think that this what you brought up, the storytelling aspect is something that I think as a beauty industry we're really coming back to in a way because it's almost as if like there was a burst in the beauty community of just products and just products, and it was ever yes, you models holding the product, and it's all good.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yes, we need that, but I think more and more brands need to realize that they all need to show who they are, what they stand for, what is their story, and show that through images, yeah, you know, and one of the things I all also have said and when I, you know, talk to when I've gone to the business meetings, and you know, they're like, why does it cost so much?
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and I always say you get what you pay for.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_02: And if you want to know a good brand, you can either judge them by a packaging or the pictures.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think the pictures are the huge thing because you know, brands like I'm not gonna lie, like if a brand really, really, you know, values uh what they do, they will invest in you know, especially the content because that is representing them to their uh you know client base.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_04: And especially that's the first time your customer is experiencing your product.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_04: That's the first sensorial experience they're having with your product is visual.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_04: So if you're hiring some person in Kansas who thinks their iPhone camera is the equivalent of like true, you know what I mean?
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like techniques and you know, just the way that real photography is done, then you're really just wasting your money and like yeah, and packaging is only gonna come later because they will only go buy your product later, the first they're gonna see you.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_04: So no, I even mean the shots, Neha.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_04: Honestly, I'm not even talking about the photography that's like a super zoomed-in image of the product.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_04: I love those shots, but I think that there's definitely something that we that can be changed about it.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, if I were to tell you, if I if I went up to you and I said, Neha, this, I know you're gonna hate it, but I you have to do this for me, you know.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_04: I want just no, and it's important.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not denying that.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, we need to show the product, of course.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_02: But other than the product, what else are you giving it to your clients to know you?
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, know your story.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_04: Your personality, too.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, your personality exactly, because how will they remember you?
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_02: They people see a hundred different products all day.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: How do you remember somebody?
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_04: Then there's so many, only so many colors you're gonna be able to make it.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_02: So you know, it's it's like I guess marketing and sales is very much like dating, you know?
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you give them to to come back to you or to remember you.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_04: Marketing and sales tender, that's what we need.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_04: That's what all really coming down to.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's the message of this.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, yeah, no, I know, I know.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that, you know, Neha, honestly, your work is it speaks for itself, and you know, there's not enough um words I could even offer, you know, verbally or written or in any form that expresses how much you know that you do touch people, your work does touch people.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm telling you, as someone who met you through finding your work out of nowhere, it just you know, you popped up on LinkedIn for me one day, and I just thought and I couldn't stop looking.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_04: And I was just like, who is she?
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_04: And how the heck do I talk to her?
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_04: Because I just it's like what I said, it's the it's the first experience you have with whatever is being, you know, uh like advertised or marketed, that's your first.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_04: And if that photographer, and they're the only people I really believe this that can do this, if they're able to put pull you in, you're gonna buy that brand or that product because it it made a memory for you.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_04: A photograph, people say they're memories, right?
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_04: Captured.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, there's also a memory that gets created when you first look at it.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_03: So that's yeah, yeah.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_04: So I think that you know, your work is extraordinary.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_04: And I I really am actually saying this on air, but I'm going to be bugging her a lot about working with her because I would love to work with you because I just I, you know, I I just really have a very deep appreciation for true artists, and I think you definitely followed some back.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_02: I have fought for this so much.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I just I cannot tell you I had to fight for this career against family, friends.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_02: I lost so many people along the way, but I stayed true to myself.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, a lot of times, you know, especially coming from an Indian culture, um, they're just you're never encouraged a creative career because they just think you're gonna be broke, you're you're gonna be a struggling poor artist.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_02: And it's better for you to be a doctor or engineer because you know, or you'll be well off and you'll be this and this and this.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_02: But is that is that everybody we all don't need the same thing from life.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_02: We all come in and we all have what we want from this life, and we should be allowed to explore that.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_04: I agree, I totally agree.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_04: I think I really do believe in the concept that everyone has genius in them, but you just have to figure out what it is that makes you know what I mean, that makes you feel like it's there.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like there is nothing that brings me to life like uh when I'm on the set.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's I it is just sometimes feels unfair that this is my work, this is my life, because you know, it doesn't feel work.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_04: And that's what it's supposed to be like, that's what life is supposed to be, is it should not feel like work.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_04: And yeah, I agree with you.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I think that you know, and that's here's the thing though, you know, you know that what you have in your talent and what you've made out of your career, you know, you've made a career out of your talent.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_04: Like that's something that you know this, and I think it's important for everyone to understand out there that if you're also able to do that, there's no such thing as lack of motivation or um, I just can't do this anymore.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_04: I really want to retire, or anything because you never retire from the thing you love, it's not something you ever give up, it's something that's embedded in you.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's just you, and I think that concept is I feel it.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's what changes the world, is what I was gonna say.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_04: That's what changes the world is when you have a relentless passion, and I use the word relentless because you can't stop thinking about it, you can't stop, you know what I mean, trying to like mess around with it.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_04: That is what change is, and I really hope people get that because all of these movements and revolutions they don't just happen from half complacency or like you know what I mean, like without you know, it is so natural because that drive is so powerful that you just you can't help it, right?
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and it's a lot of people, you know, uh who have found their genius or they've found their purpose, they all feel this way, you know, whether they have found a purpose to towards you know, projects for women empowerment or in any any you know acting or music or politics or anywhere.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_02: But I think people who understand this, they all know once you get to this place where you know you finally feel that you're adding value, you feel fulfilled, you know, it's it is an amazing place.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I really think I wish the school system could change and we are encouraged to play more and find who you are, and then this world would be much happier and just such a great place to be because we wouldn't be doing things that aren't meant for us.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I can be.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_02: I had to rediscover it, and it took a lot of courage and you know, uh tenacity.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I do have an agent now.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I have um, you know, my agent Elizabeth, she's representing me now as an artist, so my life is a little bit better because I am no longer one army.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and wear 15 hats.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_04: I know, I totally get that.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, no, it's so hard.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that's you know, when uh when you know she came across me, and uh this is what she told me.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_02: The reason she wanted to represent me is because she said, You are in touch with yourself, you know who you are as an artist, and that's not easy to find.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, it's not.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_04: It's not easy to find in inside or outside of art.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, I just everyone listening, I have to cut the episode, you know, um, short, unfortunately, what on my terms, because I could talk to you forever, Nayha, really.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_04: And um, but you know, I really urge anyone listening, especially if you're in the editorial world or you're you know, you're an editor or like a you know, the head of a magazine or publication, really go check out.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna link Neha's um links, everything to Neha Studios, everything to her personal profile.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_04: Go check it out.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_04: I promise you that people who have an eye for truly good art, you're gonna walk away from that, like knowing exactly what I mean when I say she's genuinely genius in this area.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I wish everyone could see her art.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_04: You're an extraordinary human being.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_04: So I I can't wait.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_04: I can't wait for this to go live.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_04: I can't wait to get your feedback, everyone listening out there.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_04: If you have any questions for Neha about photography or, you know, the how to get to a place where you really are a professional, anything, just leave them in the comment section.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_04: I'll pass them along to her or her team, and you know, we'll get well, we'll get some uh answers for you.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_04: But uh thank you, Neha.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you so much.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_02: And um it's been such a lovely time talking to you.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I know I I get so passionate uh about talking about this, but I just hope it could if it could help, you know, one person out there to just believe and try, you know, it would be so amazing.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_04: That's yeah, I completely agree.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that you know, your art really does speak for itself in that way.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_04: And that's really what I meant.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_04: But, anyways, I will be back, guys, next time with another guest.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_04: And I really hope you enjoyed this one.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_04: If you're really um if you want to see more photography related, you know, content about the beauty industry, let me know.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_04: Because maybe me Neha, maybe you and I can work together on something if you have to.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that would be lovely.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_04: I would really love that.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so, anyways, okay, I'm gonna cut the short and then have a nice time.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_02: All right, thank you so much.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_02: Have a good one.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_04: Hey guys, so I hope you love that episode.
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