A lawyer by education, Jatin Kampani has had nothing to do with it since he completed his education. A photographer who has made a name for himself in a relatively short span of time, Jatin's unique style has helped him stand apart in a growing crowd of photographers. In a freewheeling chat with Fotoflock.com, he shares his thoughts on photography, his career and also offers some advise.

How inspirational was your father?
In terms of my work, he has highly influenced my way of thinking. That’s the best way I can put it His stable approach to a lot of things have helped me made me much more patient and I keep implying those rules in my work and life; and I think its made a huge difference in the way I conduct myself. He’s not a photographer but a businessman; I learned about life from him. In that way, he’s helped me a lot. He’s been a business man and I’ve been a creative person so we didn’t share a common point but I still learned much about life.

Last year, you won second prize at the Black and White Spider awards. How was the feeling? What do awards mean to you?
The latest award I won was the PX3 in Paris and I’ve won in four different categories. Coming to actually whether awards mean anything, it helps because my work gets international recognition. It’s always nice to see people getting to know me through my work; and that to me, is more meritorious than the award itself.

You have a rich catalogue of work spanning advertising, editorial, books and even archive work. What kind of experience have you taken out of working with these diverse medium?
Well to me, the basic thing lies in the passion I have in what I’m doing; I get bored very easily with my subject so I keep changing it all the time. It keeps me diverse; I don’t wake up in the morning thinking I want to do advertising work everyday or something like that. The most interesting thing in my career is meeting a lot of people; the diversity of the subjects I choose helps me do that. I take a lot of time out to do my personal work pieces of information that speak a lot of words and send a message; I spend a lot of time refining my stuff.

Client wants products to sell so that’s the hero; they pay you huge amounts so you value that and breadwinning work is generally in advertising. I find a creative side to whatever I do. It takes a lot of time before clients come to you for a niche offering, value additions and initially you get treated as a technician.

Over time, clients have come to me asking ‘how can we change this?’ It’s become a part of me now. You have to be lucky your work is being appreciated in that manner.

You have a degree in law... Was it difficult making the transition to photography or was it something that was always on your mind?
Finishing academics was supposed to be something my family wanted me to do; I really had no interest, I never even went to pick up my degree! So I think it was something to fall back on; about 11 years back, we were not open with the idea of a diverse profession. Back then, there was a certain stability required but I was shooting when I was studying law as well.

Tell us what your very first professional assignment involved and how you went about it.
I don’t remember that first assignment because I never knew when the wheels started rolling. I had a lot of model friends and I used to shoot their photographs. We even improvised some photos and later they became editorials and covers and maybe seeing that, some assignments came by.

I’ve not tried to market myself ever in a conscious way; things just started happening. I guess you get a little more focused when you get experience. That’s maturity in the business; it takes you a while with people briefing you again and again and then you learn the ropes thereby making things happen.

The Internet has made it easier for the research but I believe my behavior and approach towards my work never changed.

What kind of investment is necessary for an individual to get up and running solo?
Fortunately, we live in a day and age where everything can be hired. When I started my career, things were different; no art director would come to you if you didn’t have a medium or a large format camera and there was no way to hire anything.

Now you can just click a button and get your gear; if someone needs to make a move, they only have to invest in a laptop and a mobile phone! This is the reality and I can give you a list of equipment but if you can hire it then what’s the point going and buying everything before you even make a name for yourself?

What advice do you have for photographers who want to get a foot into the industry?
Okay, I’ve been asked this question too many times but I’ll still say the same thing I’ve maintained before; no artist should ever see this as a business. It’s not to make an X amount of money; it’s unstable and you’ve to keep investing your time and energy into a ‘self-evolution’ process as I call it. Photography is not a formula.

Ask yourself the question; is this the right thing? Am I meant for to live an artist’s life? You may make it or not’; it’s not about work being good or not; it’s about whether you’re being appreciated or not. You need luck too and I’m a classic example of that! How do you get people to appreciate you work? You have a certain style and people may like it or not and not being liked is not reflective of your talent.

There are a lot of people who’re way ahead of their times but they won’t benefit from the current scenario; luck has a lot of play in your success.

Please share an oft-overlooked tip that can help users improve their photography skills.
I think you can’t improve your skills unless you keep clicking a lot. Sit and edit your work, figure your flaws and how to improve and don’t try to hard sell something. That’s my biggest advice right now.

Do you check out your contemporaries’ work? Name any photographer whose work you respect and admire.
Nick Knight for sure. And from the yesteryears, I’d say Jerry N. Uelsmann whose work I really like.

Photos by Jatin | Fotosocial.