You said that before becoming a wedding photographer, you were vehemently opposed to weddings. Why was this?

I have always seen weddings as primarily religious events rather than social events. As an avowed atheist from a very young age, I preferred to stay as far away as possible from religious gatherings. That includes my own sister’s wedding. But then, life took some strange turns, and I became a photographer, going on to shoot over a hundred weddings all over India. Today, I’m able to channelise my energy into something more productive using photography to address all facets of society.

I like that you approach your clients without any prior knowledge of their background. So what is your base for creating the narrative? What do you look at to derive inspiration?

Actually, I’m interested in them as people and what life decisions may have brought them to this point. I like to crash into a wedding and be totally surprised by everything. It’s the same as how a great street photographer like Bruce Gilden can walk out into the streets of Manhattan, as he’s been doing for decades, and still feel as if it’s his first time there.

A lot of the time, weddings can be visually ordinary. A photographer’s job is to pull out the extraordinary from thin air. My inspiration comes from subjective documentary photographers, for example, Martin Parr who excels at this seemingly magical act. Besides photography, I get my inspiration from the genre of stand-up comedy——Seinfeld, Russel Peters, Louis C.K. These guys have the remarkable genius to present a most bizarre and surprising dimension to our otherwise ordinary world.

Do you face this dilemma of photographing your version of the wedding as opposed to what the bride and groom want? How do you maintain a balance in this regard?

There is no dilemma. I experience the same situations as everyone else. But I experience those situations differently from everyone else due to the nature of who I am as an individual. I’m hired by couples who are excited by a refreshingly different perspective to their wedding day.

Is there a schedule or procedure that you follow when you go for a wedding assignment? I ask this because Indian weddings are massive. So how do you manage to spread yourself at the location? Since you are the only one shooting, it is impossible for you to appear at all places at once.

In India, all too often, a wedding is an opportunity for parents to live their dreams and show their might in society! I’m not competing with traditional photographers who are out to serve the parents’ ego. My role at any wedding is ‘personal photographer to the bride and groom’, so I’m never too far away from the most interesting bits of action. I experience everything I can with curiosity, make pertinent observations, and put together a compelling visual story.

Since you have shot over a 100 weddings, have you had a particular subject who you have found difficult to photograph? Or a subject that you haven't been able to photograph enough?

Every wedding I shoot is a snapshot of contemporary Indian society which should serve as a historical reference many years later. There are certain pictures that I dream of getting, but they remain elusive. For example, a bride smoking a cigarette. I would like this to happen in the natural course of events. I think the Indian wedding is still an oppressive environment steeped in patriarchy. I need to do more to find images that are hiding in the crevices.