Shweta Patil

 Shweta Patil

"My name is Shweta Patil and I live in Mumbai, India. I’m a graphic designer who's extremely passionate about photography. For me, photography started out as a tool for self discovery. I do quite a lot of self portraiture because I find it therapeutic."

 

"I have been photographing for 4 years now. My interest in photography really came about when I bumped into the magical world of Flickr! I must have spent an entire week just going through people’s photo streams until I finally made my own account. I didn’t have a DSLR back then, but my 5mp camera was enough for me to start clicking.

I have always been creative and finding photography as a way to express my thoughts has immensely helped me become the person I am today."

"I photograph because it makes me happy. I realized soon enough that photography is not only a way to express what I feel but it is also a way to capture the stories of other people, places and things. And this made fall in love with photography even more.

Also, since I started photographing, my love for traveling and writing grew immensely and these are the other two things that make me extremely happy.Presently, I don’t wish to make photography as my career. It’s something I’m passionate about and there’s a lot I still have to explore! This decision could change in the future but for now I just wish to meet a lot of amazing photographers, collaborate with them and never stop learning."

"The most important part of my work to me is the reaction I get it from it. I want my work to silently inspire people. As a teenager, I used to think that I was the only one going through a certain kind of bad phase and hence I would not speak about it to anyone. But then I would come across stories on the internet which I could relate to and would realize I’m not the only one. Knowing that would make me feel a lot more positive and that’s the kind of connection I want to give to people. I want them to know that they’re not the only one. That’s the reaction I hope to get."

"I shoot with a Canon 550d. I recently got a Zenith film camera but I have yet to explore it completely."

"Creative block is a phase which I try to break out of by sleeping! It usually works for me. After I get up, I feel a lot better and fresh. But I can’t always do that, so the other times I watch my favourite parts of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Or read positive quotes. Also, going through the works of amazing artists on Flickr, Instagram and Tumblr, help me a lot to break out of a creative block."

"The hand series started out with one casual hand shot but grew into something more meaningful. When I started with photography, I was struggling through a lot of insecurities and trying so hard to make sense of who I am. Each of the hand shot talks about that phase of mine - whether it was the dreams I couldn’t achieve, the sadness I couldn’t bear at times, the feeling that I was constantly being misunderstood, my false understanding of beauty or my strong will power. I would never share any these struggles with anyone. Using just my hands in the photos makes it more of a 'silent language' which expresses that phase of my life aptly."

"There are a lot of things that inspire me. Music certainly is one of the main things and there are a lot of songs with beautiful lyrics that have inspired me for years. Billy Joel’s Vienna would be one of my biggest inspiration. Light inspires me. I forever want to capture it. Day to day life experiences and the people in my life inspire me a lot too. The vast amount of emotions one can feel, is something that I find so beautiful and is a never ending source of inspiration."



(Interview by  Carli Rentsch)