42fps Productions: Ethereal Threads of Desire

Could you please provide us with a professional introduction about yourself and your photography work?

Full name - Adityaraj Mehta Adityaraj, founder of a creative boutique production house - 42fps Productions, has over 13 years of experience in the advertising and content creation space. As a writer, photographer & film-maker himself, he has a penchant to keep innovating new ways to break through the clutter of the digital world with images and films that stand out visually and emotionally.

Can you tell us the story behind creating the photographs you submitted?

The inspiration behind the images was to focus on handloom sarees and visually re-kindle the era when sarees were not just garments, but symbols of sensuality, beauty, richness and earthiness.

Can you tell us about how you got started in photography?
I've always had an untethered, wandering, creative soul, but also get put off by monotony and the mundane very easily. My soul craves to be challenged consistently or I tend to lose interest in the job at hand. I started off my journey pursuing aerospace engineering with the dream to work with NASA, but moved on from that to Hotel Management and after setting up and running 2 successful restaurants in 3 years, I felt I was stagnating again. The initial rush and challenge of setting up the establishment was over and now I needed something to stir my soul at a deeper level. I took a course in photography & film-making and on the first project I realised, this was it, this was my calling. There is so much to do on a film and photography set, that there is never a dull moment for me. It kept both sides of my brain active - I was able to dabble in the physics of light but also let loose my creativity and somehow try to marry them both in a constant state of dance! I keep trying to experiment and push the envelope on every shoot, this gives me something new to learn every time I am behind the camera, it keeps me in a perennially suspended state of competing with my own self.

What was your passion driving you during your journey?

Who or what prompted you to begin?Growing up, I had a very vivid imagination, I'd make up and play out extensive fantasy worlds and stories in my head and I'd write about it - that was my only outlet to put into the physical world the visuals I had in my mind. When I first picked up a camera, I suddenly had the power to actually show the world some of these environments and stories that I had in my head. There was no looking back after that, it was like I'd found my calling. That passion for visual story-telling, that power I wield in my hands through a camera, is what still fuels and drives me everyday to do what I do.

Could you walk us through your photoshoot planning process?

I tell all my students this - there is no one way to get to your end goal, there are always a hundred different ways to get there, you have to find which one works for you. And what works for you today may not work tomorrow, so you just have to keep pushing, plan as well as you can, have back-ups in place and let your vision take you the rest of the way home. But if I had to generalise my process, it always starts with the idea, the inspiration. Then you play with it a while, build on it, try not to fall in love with it - because that's when you stop trying to evolve the idea into something better. Then referencing and pre-production is where you need to spend a lot of time, this is what makes or breaks your shoot, the more time you spend prepping, the more creative you can be on your shoot. The goal is to always execute your vision while shooting and NOT to be fire-fighting with unplanned hiccups that creep up on almost every shoot.

As a photography expert, what sets your work apart from other photographers?

I'd like to believe it's my vision and my soul that I pour into my photographs and that is as unique as a fingerprint to my photographs.There are millions of photographers in the world that are alive today, millions who aren't, so there is practically no composition, lighting technique or anything technical that I can do today which is not already done. The only other unique thing in the image then, is my vision, the story that I wanted to tell through that image.

Where do you get your ideas for photoshoots?

I enjoy street and documentary photography, and so I people-watch a lot. Some of my best ideas have come from real life people and their unique idiosyncrasies as they go about their daily life.

What are the most important components of an extraordinary photograph, in your opinion?

If it's a model, the most important component is the eyes. Too many young photographers these days just don't focus on their lighting, they have no catch light for the eye and the eyes look dead, or they have multiple catchlights in the eyes and then it starts looking funky!The eyes are the old school way to understand the BTS setup from a shoot. Zoom into the photo and you can always see which light and which diffuser was used from the reflections in the eye.

How do you strike a balance between your artistic expression and your client's expectations during a shoot?

Tough question, and while I'd like to give you a very inspiring answer, the truth is, I don't always manage to strike a good balance. I have a very cinematic and dramatic style of lighting my images, and most of the advertising world today wants their images and products to look vanilla. Because who's going to buy a 500$ bottle of moisturiser if the model isn't lit high-key?!!So you do what you got to do, if you have the time and a client who respects your vision, show them something experimental, 99% of the times they will say they like it but their bosses will not approve of it, so you take a few quick shots which go into your personal portfolio, then whip out the remaining lights that you had prepped for exactly this, and finish the shoot the way the client wants and call it a day.

How do other artists influence your work?

Are there any other photographers you look up to? Who?- this will take me all day to write down, so I will skip this one for today!

How do you enhance your vision after a session by post-processing your photos?

Do you have a best-kept secret for editing processing that you'd like to share?I like to lock the look and mood for the images prior to my shoot, and so while I keep my lighting ratios in check accordingly, the colours coming from the camera sensor are obviously flat and neutral, so most of my post processing involves correcting for contrast and colour hues and saturation. I think the best kept post-processing secret for all professional photographers is to find an equally talented and professional editor who understands your vision and makes life easy for you, because as a photographer, you don't want to be stuck behind a screen for hours, you want to get back out on set asap!

Can you tell us about the most difficult photographic challenge you've ever had, including lighting, unexpected situations, and how you managed the issues on set?

Fortunately, I've always followed my mantra of 'never turn up for a shoot with a backup of anything without which you cannot complete that shoot' Cameras, lenses, batteries, flashes, triggers - they're all electronic items and they will fail you sometime, just have another one handy and ready to go. But the one thing I still struggle and sometimes even dread is a model who is unable to strike her poses. I can direct them, show them the pose, adjust the ambience, all of it, but I cannot physically make them strike the exact pose and facial expressions that me or the client need. And there simply is no fix to this, unfortunately. Though this is a trend I've noticed that has come around lately, with too many modelling agencies springing up in the past 5 years that do not vet their models before signing them on. On bigger ticket shoots I insist the client spend on auditions so that the main shoot day does not have any surprises, but in the current nature of the industry, where time and budgets are scarce, it's getting difficult.

What are your top tips for aspiring photographers on skill development and finding their own creative voice? How did you develop yours?

There is no shortcut for skill development. None at all. It's like wanting to become a pilot, you have to put in the hours behind the camera. Over and over again, till it becomes second nature to you. When you can blindly operate the buttons on your camera without looking at your body and stumbling through your menus, is when you can actually be present with your subjects while shooting them. Studying the work of other photographers and reading books too, are very helpful to gain knowledge, but all of it is only theory. Until you put in the hours behind the camera, experimenting and implementing the new knowledge you learned, it will not be of any help to you when you're out in the field.I developed mine the same way, no shortcuts. When I was learning photography I shot a lot of weddings, which meant unlimited subjects and time to practice directing people, understanding natural light, contrast and colours, learning how to use strobes - and I never leave home without my camera, I'm practically attached at the hip to mine.

What is your favorite piece of work you've ever shot?

- because I'm constantly critiquing myself, I don't think I have a favourite project yet, so I'm going to skip this question.

Can you tell me about an upcoming project you're working on and the idea behind it?

There are two personal projects that I'm working on right now. One is called 'Monday Blues' which is a fun project documenting real life people and their struggle to get to work on a Monday morning. It's a light take on people not wanting the weekend to end, and finding it hard to drag themselves out of home and back to work on Mondays, especially after 2-3 years of working from home due to the pandemic. The second project is called 'Melancholy' - it is a darker, more existential take on the current state of hyperconnectivity that we are all living. As someone born in the 80's I have witnessed connectivity move from landlines, to pagers, to early mobile phones and to the current dependency of people to their screens 24/7. Melancholy is about people all around us in a state of 'just existing' and not really living, not really being present. Everyone is constantly connected to everyone else online, but they also don't really feel like they are connected to anyone outside of their social media apps.It's a fresh take on being a social lone wolf!

Where can we view more of your work and connect with you?

Instagram: instagram.com/adityarajfilms

Website: 42fpsproductions.com

Pub & Photo: @42fpsproductions

Retoucher: @atharva_sukale

Assistant: @joelivar

Assistant: @ishita.singh.arts

Cr Dir & Photo: @adityarajfilms

MUA: @neha.parmar_

Stylist: @nikishaaaa