One of the biggest names in photography in India, Rafique Sayed shares some of his memorable experiences with Fotoflock.

I have had so many interesting shoots in my life as a photographer, but the ones closest to my heart are the campaigns I shot for Boeing International for FCB Ulka, Chicago & Delhi, and Tata Sierra & Safari and the MTDC campaigns for Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai.

The MTDC campaign won international awards. I did their ad campaigns for 3 years in succession and it was very special for me. I feel deeply about this campaign. We traveled extensively all over Maharashtra trying to capture the beauty of the State. Shooting nature can be so energizing! It was an amazing experience. We would wake up at 3 in the morning and return to Pune after 11 at night, traveling for nearly 18 hours a day. We got sun-burnt and were always sleep-deprived. I am from Konkan and I found the belt fascinating not having had a chance before to view it from a photographer’s eye. The sheer rawness of the place had its own beauty and was amazing. One of the problems I faced was food since I am a vegetarian and in all of Konkan, you get only fish.

The Boeing International campaign was special in a different way. We traveled from Ladakh to the backwaters in Kerala, from New Delhi to Kolkata and back at Mumbai. The idea was to capture a local flavor with local people - real people doing real things. Pre-production went on for close to a month and a crew of 22 traveled from city to city, quite large for a photo shoot.

Another memorable shoot was in the rough terrains of Karnataka & Tamil Nadu for the Tata SUVs Safari & Sierra. We had a really good driver who took it up as a challenge to reach the unreachable places, with all of us struggling to follow suit. The entire campaign was done in camera. No cut-paste or merging of images. I loved it!

More Photos by Rafique Sayed / Fotosocial