Life and Work with Anchita Tandon

Anchita, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I can’t say that I’ve always been interested in photography but I also can’t say that it just happened. I remember begging my parents for a small Nikon from Costco because the color appealed to me so much. That was at the age of 13. Upon getting the shiny, lavender, touchscreen camera, I made absolute no use of it, as it decayed in the corner of my room.

As I grew older and moved from Memphis, TN to Dallas, TX in the midst of my high school career in the summer of 2017, things were not the easiest. New city, new school, new people, new environment, new living standard, everything was new to put it simply. As school had begun, I was failing all my courses, attending tutorials, struggling to trust people in school, find friends, bring my grades up, socialize, maintain my health and stay happy. To lightly say, I developed symptoms of depression trying to adjust to a new way of life. Even though I was working harder than ever before, the results were worse and I began to repetitively tell myself “Even though it’s hard, don’t hate it. Even though it’s good, don’t love it.” and “Good things are not always good. Bad things are not always bad.”

Coping with my depression was of course, difficult with the results I was receiving through all my efforts but I knew that I could not give up. I was encouraged to try my best day by day regardless of the results and the album Verse 2 gave me that mindset. I was inspired to pick up that camera I was so desperate to have years earlier and I started to make use of it. I wandered around my neighborhood with my small camera capturing everything I wanted to while listening to Verse 2, knowing that I could be free. There were no boundaries, grades, comparisons or judgment. I found comfort and felt calm with my camera. Photography had allowed me to be myself, accept myself and create myself. I would take photos of flowers, roads, trees, lamps and go back home and edit them on Canva while adding music lyrics to them. These photographs would then become my laptop screensavers. I would change it daily to a new photograph with lyrics to inspire me to do my best for the day and motivate me to survive the day calmly.

Essentially, these daily changed screen savers allowed me to not hate myself every day and allowed me to accept who I was, what I was doing, all the results and efforts I was putting in school. As time progressed, I developed my mental health again through photography. After a year of making use of my lavender Nikon, I knew that I had to do something with my life that was more significant. I applied to a local newspaper internship application and got accepted as a photographer. The acceptance, of course, thrilled me, but I too knew that I had to get a professional camera and understand the world of photography professionally. I had absolutely no idea of the “categories” of photography such as landscape, events, portraits, etc., professional editing software, camera bodies, and lenses. It was all too overwhelming to understand the crazy technical world of photography and on top of that make my name into that industry. Upon receiving my first opportunity to shoot an event for the newspaper, my sister researched what camera I should invest in and today I use my precious Canon 6D with my 50 mm 1.8 and 24-105mm 4.0.

I began shooting local events and began working with a local photography business that specializes in weddings but none of it helped me become a better photographer or ever gave me the right to call myself a photographer. I was just clicking buttons trying to take pictures just to get them back to my superiors. It was a time of just doing work without progress or without feeling a sense of pride. After understanding that it was not fun doing events, I began to explore portraits and asked people in school if they were interested in photoshoots. Little by little I had enough portraiture shoots to build up my website. My website allowed me to have the courage to contact a few local models to further gain experience, exposure and diversify my portfolio.

At the beginning of attempting to build up my portfolio of portraits professionally, it was more a feeling of pressure, rather fun. One of the earliest supporters of my journey was Shravani Dangety, who supported me from the start at our first shoot and allowed me to find comfort and respect with photography on a professional level.

As time passed, I had set up my website, contacted models and built my portfolio, working hard to put my name out there, gain exposure and gain respect in the industry.

Now, I have created a portfolio I am incredibly satisfied with and comfortable to share with anyone saying this is who I am, my work and my skill level in photography. I specialize in portraits, fashion and street. I do happen to engage myself in events here and there for further exposure in the Dallas area and expand my business but I enjoy portraits above all. The precious experience of spending time with the people I work with, hearing their stories, their experiences and the whole beautiful journey of getting the opportunity to work with amazing people and meet amazing people you can trust and call your friends is inexpressible.

I got to where I am today by endless efforts of contacting people, being rejected and through a lot of experimenting.

I am wholly satisfied with where I am today in photography and am proud to identify myself as 100% self-taught.

Everything I know about photography and editing today is from watching YouTube videos and learning from Detroit based photographer Jessica Kobeissi.

I am able to identify myself as a professional photographer today unlike before.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Of course not, haha! Any successful story is incomplete without failure.

It is not easy putting yourself out there artistically. There are people that either hate what you do or love what you do. One of the first difficulties I faced was trying to create an identity for myself with photography. What was it I wanted to do? I explored landscape, events, and portraits. Upon experiencing various categories of photography I decided to stick with portraits and specialize in portraiture. When I was doing events early on, working with a local photography business, I experienced a lot of disconnection between those who hired us as a crew. We were treated as inferior, worked without a break for hours and not offered something as simple as water. Those invited to the event rightfully demanded photos from us and lacked respect in considering us as humans. It was sort of treatment in a difference of status at the event. Being a photographer at that event meant disrespect.

I wasn’t able to experiment and grow artistically working under agencies and as an intern.

When I decided to create my own business and specialize with portraits, it was a blank slate with no clear direction of where to begin.  I contacted a few people at school if they were interested in a photo shoot and several people rejected me and put me down, disregarding me as a human. I faced a lot of insults for trying photography and attempting to create my portfolio and start a business and the few that had wanted a photoshoot treated me as trash.

The endless journey of contacting people, being rejected, insulted and disregarded was difficult to cope with and make progress.

While collaborating, models would arrive 30-45 minutes late, cancel the shoot the day of, demand raw photos, control the shoot, tell me how to do my work, not credit me and just use me for a free photoshoot labeling it as a “collaboration.” It became tiring trying to create my portfolio, gain respect and be paid for all I did.

It is ironic now that the people I had  initially contacted to build my portfolio or those who had disrespected me initially, now are desperate to work with me.

There is a lack of knowledge into what goes on into photography. First, it’s not a click of a button.

There are angles, lighting, editing, planning, etc. into making a shoot happen and the editing process is not the use of filters.

The amount of hours it takes to edit a single photo is not easy or simple.

The amount of storage needed for photography and editing software is not small.

That editing software is not free and storage is not free as well, so not being credited as the photographer or being disrespected for what I do is difficult.

Additionally, people find it alright to add filters on top of the photos I have edited.

The photography industry is not easy. The art industry is not easy.

Putting your creative identity open to the world makes you feel vulnerable.

Gaining exposure and respect is not easy. It is still something I am working hard to achieve.

For those attempting to set forth in the art industry, take it slow, take it easy, step by step.

For those setting forth into the photography or modeling industry, never forgot who you are and your roots. Stay true to yourself and don’t rush your journey. If things are not going as planned or if things are hard, take that time to understand how you can do better and take it as moments of experience to learn from and improve. Of course, things are not going to be perfect from the start, nor are they going to be perfect when you feel accomplished. It comes down to self-judgment of where you started and how far you have come along your journey.

Everyone is different and understanding our own special and unique qualities allow us to create our identity, our story in the art industry.

Understanding who you are and what you can provide creates opportunities for growth and self-acknowledgment.

Please tell us about your work.
I am a photographer based in Dallas, TX. I specialize in portraits, fashion, and street. I have been in this industry for close to four months but the progress I have made, the experience I have and portfolio I have created are strong and something I am proud to associate myself with. I let my website speak for me.

The journey of photography is beautiful. I am given the opportunity to meet amazing people and connect with people all around Dallas.

When working with people or being hired, I want my clients to feel comfortable in investing their time and money in me and trusting me with being their photographer. When the people I work with feel comfortable working with me and trust me, I gain energy to do better and provide them with the best I can possibly do.

I work efficiently and send final edited photos within 48 hours to seven days.

I do not create ordinary or basic photos but always do my best to be creative and deliver the best I can, in collaborations and in paid shoots.

I am most proud of my portfolio and growth in such a short time span.

I am confident in the work I produce and thankful for all the opportunities I have been given.

I believe I am comfortable and professional to work with, yet friendly and very fun, haha!

During my shoots, I tend to crack jokes and listen to music to create a light, fun and comfortable environment to work in!

Who have you been inspired by?
In photography, I have drawn all my knowledge and inspiration from Jessica Kobeissi.

In life, I have gained support to do better in photography from my teachers and close friends.

Additionally, as for inspiration in my life, I am thankful for all the haters and men out there who have put me down and discouraged and criticized me for what I do. That hate and discouragement allowed me to become stronger and strive higher.

I have gained a lot of inspiration and support from the album Verse 2 and artists Jackson Wang, Samuel Seo and Loopy.

I want to take this platform to thank some special people I have worked with in the past.

Thank you Shravani Dangety, Kamakshi Sharma, Shaksi Sharma, Mursal Naimi and Hailey Wilkins for giving me amazing opportunities and supporting me, thus far.