Abhinav Chandel loves to describe himself as a writer who happened to pick up the camera. The 27-year-old solo traveller and photographer writes poetry and short stories to accompany his delicately framed pictures, and that has become the USP of the young photographer’s works. “I had been writing way before I started with photography,” reveals Abhinav. “As my photography improved, I felt the need to tell stories from the moment the pictures were taken, or the kind of thoughts the scenes would invoke in my mind. Presently, I connect these two parts of my personality, and that gives someone looking at these pictures a little bit more than a usual experience of viewing images.”
Highway on my cuppa
Born in Rishikesh, and brought up in a small Uttarakhand town, Abhinav says he did not consider taking up photography as a career option. But this was before he moved to New Delhi in 2012. “After college, I decided to take up writing and travelling, which eventually led me to become a solo traveller. This is when I felt the need to move away from the city and live in the mountains,” explains the photographer who is now based in McLeodganj.
In deep conversations
“One reason I made the shift was because I really liked the positive and progressive vibe of the community here,” says Abhinav who moved to the quaint Himachal Pradesh city for an independent project as a writer. “I was the writer and was accompanied by a photographer. He later left, and I picked up the camera to continue working on the project,” he says with a smile. And that is when Abhinav purchased his first DSLR camera, after having spent years working with a point-and-shoot.
Letters from above
Natural viewpoint
“I soon started documenting Kangra district’s hidden gems and released a series of picture postcards with my work. Those weren’t my best pictures, but the reception they received made me consider photography as a full-time option.” The photographer explains that he earlier preferred to limit his subjects to nature, and not include humans in the frame. “I started by clicking mountains, of course, and I really enjoyed clicking water bodies. I concentrated mostly on nature and stayed away from human subjects. But during the last one year, I’ve been experimenting with portraits a lot.”
The yellow den
Interestingly, when most traditional photographers shy away from using the digital medium, Abhinav prefers to exhibit his work on Instagram extensively. “It was meant to be on an experimentation basis earlier, and it worked for me,” he says.
Bridge to the other side
Crossing paths
“At this point in time, I want to invest in a well made website to showcase my work, but Instagram remains my preferred choice. I now have a decent amount of following, and I know that a lot of people are already checking my work there. I like the digital medium because I get immediate feedback and it gives me a chance to reach out to a wider set of audiences. But I regularly release my set of prints, and exhibit my work in a traditional manner.”
