Photography is passion. Photography is an art. Photography is capturing of moments around us with the creative input of the Photographer. Photographer visualizes, composes and captures the visualized composition into a frame called Photograph. Photograph is time captured forever. Every Photograph is unique as it is the vision of a Photographer.
Photographers across the globe are acclaimed for their valuable inputs to the society in some or the other form. They are rewarded in various forms of money and kind. One such prestigious reward is "IPA - Lucie Awards" equivalent to "Oscars of Photography".
Today we have one such participant of IPA who has successfully attained honorable mention in various categories for various photographs submitted by him. Let me introduce to you Mr. Mahipalsinh Vala, a Pune based fine art photographer, has won Honorable Mention Awards in 8 different professional level categories at IPA 2008. With this achievement, he follows up on his Honorable Mention Awards in 3 different nonprofessional categories at IPA 2007 and declares his presence in the world of fine art photography at the highest professional level.
Tarakash Josh! had a brief chat with him:
So Mr. Mahipal, How does it feel winning Honorable mention of this prestigious IPA Lucie Awards?
I feel soooo good.... Because this is one reassurance I was searching for that if I’m on the right track or not - in terms of my understanding of photography as art... I had kind of expected this result from the moment I submitted my entries.... So I’m very happy that the theorem I’m trying to prove is based on right assumptions :)
Can you please tell us the various categories that your photographs have won Honorable mention in IPA – 2008?
I’ve submitted in various categories at professional level as four separate entries containing series of four to five photographs each, I’m awarded Honorable Mention Awards in 8 separate categories as follows:
| Title
|
Category -
Sub category |
| My
TV, My Canvas -F1 |
FineArt
–Abstract
Special - Special Effects
|
| Tree
Art |
FineArt - Abstract
Nature -Trees
|
| Jantar
Mantar Architecture |
Architecture -Buildings
Architecture - Historic |
| The
Great Indian Wedding Sets |
Architecture -Interiors
People -Wedding
|
Wow! That’s wonderful! Achievement indeed commendable. So, tell me Mahipal, Is photography your hobby or career? If Career, than why did you choose this art as a career?
I would say, photography is my full time occupation right now. I am yet to make a career out of it. May be, I would never call it my career but it will always remain my passion and work... I had my career with corporate, but I was never satisfied completely... my soul was never satisfied.... it is the work that you believe in and the work that can give vent to your thoughts and ideas can only satisfy your soul.... I think that is why my chosen tool to express myself is photography!
So whom do you consider your guru in the field of Photography?
I have no guru.... I don't believe in following on anyone's footsteps but rather I believe in creating my own.... however, if you are referring to learning from someone, I have many gurus in this world.... so many that I cant even list here or else we will have no more space left.... I learn from everyone whom I come in contact with.... I also learn from the history of the subject, so one guru I have is "history of photography and art"... since, I have never formally learned photography, I can't even say that I had a formal guru.
What are your strengths & weakness in photography?
My strength is my ideas, my thoughts, my understanding - not only about the subject of photography but also about the world around me. That is what I try to represent in my work (though not in absolute form but more in abstract form). The same becomes my weakness when I feel weak inside.... there are moments when I m not at my creative or soulful best, even depressed or dejected... that is when my work is not good too.... Rest all I leave it to all the best critiques in the world to find whatever strength or weakness they could find in my work.... Frankly speaking, I don't care about it if they like my work!!! I am my biggest critique...
That’s impressive. I would like to be a-bit personal if you don’t mind. It is said that behind every successful man, there is a woman - do you agree?, who is that woman in your life who has brought about this success?
I somehow tend to agree that "behind every successful man, there is a woman - in either positive sense or negative :)" ……….. The same is the case with me - I can say that my collapsed married life has contributed a lot for me to search for an alternative to satisfy my soul. So I became photographer.... but then, there have been many women whom I met in my journey of life and each had a kind of influence on me because of which I am what I am right now..... Success is illusive thing.... so, u will only come to know when I die - whether women had positive or negative influence on my life :)
Hmmm… This answer has many a things to ponder upon! Since there is no specific woman behind your success Mahipal, we all would like to know that other than your own skills, whom would you like to give credit for your success in this field?
As I said earlier, success for me is illusive thing... so this milestone is not absolute success for me yet.... however, credits are due to so many people for helping me reach this far. Also.... especially one name that I will have to mention (because of this question here) is, DADA (Abhijit Chakrabarti), my big brother like friend who has always been with me in good or bad times, and has always been inspirational and protective... Because of him, I could be a little more innocent (which is very essential for my work).... I would love to have him around me always... there is so much more about my interactions with him that I can even write a book about it.... However, I prefer it to remain between two of us :)
Well! Well! Well! That was quite emotional! We might as well like to meet Mr. Abhijit (DADA) and get to know his views, but may be some other time. As time & space are running out, we would like to know one last thing as of now. What is your next goal?
I believe in taking one step at a time.... So my next step is that I’m looking forward to join NID for the post graduate certificate course in photography design for one year, and fill in the gaps that I have in terms of understanding the art of photography.... May be time has come for me to choose a guru, formally :).... And yes, I am looking forward to arrange some money for the course by selling my award winning work :)
Well! That was indeed a nice tête-à-tête with Mr. Mahipalsinh Vala. Thank you Mr. Mahipal for bieng with us and sharing your experiences. Mahipalsingh Vala is a person who evolved as photographer, proved himself worth a round of applause, in a very short span of time.
To know more about Mahipalsingh Vala and to view his photographs, you may visit his blog here .
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