| NAUREEN SHAH |
"I've always thought I had great ideas about advertisements", she says, as she talks about her transition from an ad-person to a fashion photographer. It was in this job that she was exposed to a completely new field that was ultimately going to become her career. "Photography is a full-fledged profession and there is more to it than just clicking the camera", therefore she started reading books on the subject and when she got an opportunity to go abroad on a USAID scholarship, she took basic photography as one of the courses.
After returning home she began her photography career with outdoor shoots as she did not have proper equipment and required natural light for the sessions. "My first shoot was for Womens Own " and later , with technical advice from high profile professional photographers like Asif Raza and Mirza Khursheed Masood , she went on a shopping spree to Singapore to buy proper professional studio equipment, which furnishes her drawing room-cum-studio today.
A sucessful and shrewd photographer now , Naureen's work-life is not without problems. Non availabilty of technical equipment and the absence of maintanence facilities make it very difficult to work as even for small repair-jobs the closest place is Dubai or Singapore, says , Naureen who has no stone unturned to discover new places for equipment and its repair.
However , having been in the field for the past three years she has tried out various aspects of photography. Starting from fashion shoots , she took up agency work , designed calenders and diaries and is now actively into press advertisements , with great plans to go into photo-journalism. Black and white photography however , remains her first love , especially for portraits.
However , she hates the mundane fashion shoots in most of the fashion magazines , as they are devoid of creativity. "Fashion shoots should have a concept and a theme as the magazine is selling an image. Most of our magazines are like catalogue magazines that just take the photo's of dresses and compile them. They end up at a tailor's shop with women crowding over the patterns to be mass produced. Fashion photography is not catalogue photography , people buy a magazine for an image". And though people are maturing now , she thinks it's the designer who needs to be educated more than anyone else.
And does she refuse to shoot is she does not like the concept? "The first thing I ask when they approach me for the shoot is 'who is the model?' I want to know what the concept and what the clothes are like? We then exchange ideas and go ahead with the shoot. At the location if someone comes up with something strange, I don't agree". That is because Naureen is full of new ideas and wants to give an exclusive treatment and undivided attention to every shoot of hers. It's not surprising that she goes to bed thinking about the different angles she can use to capture the model's image and the mood of the theme etc.
But no matter how accustomed she is to painted faces of fashion models , Naureen finds bridal photography very boring. She wants to go into bridal portraits because they are good business, but with a different style. "The couple can either come to me or I can go to the bride's home, but attending the function is a big NO NO". And what's her idea of a great bride? "A happy bride is a beautiful bride", says Naureen who loves photo-sessions where she can capture the expressions on people's faces, because like any good composition of art , her photography too is meant for the consumption of people.
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