Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Brunch
THE BIG SHOT Joseph Radhik shares his tips
Three key elements for a quintessential Joseph Radhik wedding photo? Love, good light, and a lot of spontaneity! What is the most important equipment in a wedding photographer’s kit? Empathy. The ability to feel what your subjects are feeling. The second most important is a comfy pair of shoes, because you are gonna be on your feet a LOT! Three tips for the bride and the groom for a great wedding album? 1. Stay in the moment! Soak in every detail of your wedding, and leave the documenting part to the photographers and filmers. 2. Stop planning your wedding during the event. Let go. Mistakes will happen, enjoy the ride. 3. And finally, put that phone away. Your favourite anecdote from a wedding shoot? At a wedding at a heritage property in Jaipur, I wanted to make a dramatic portrait of the bride and her bridesmaids—12 of them in one shot amidst some beautiful marble arches. My lens wasn’t wide enough, so I had to step back and climb on the edge of the fountain behind. Just when I clicked the shutter, the edge gave in under me, and I plonked into the fountain, bruising my knee so badly that the bride nearly fainted seeing the blood. The wedding designer [Devika Narain] was nearby and she took me to the hospital. She was helpful and sorta cute. And that, kids, is how I met your grandmother!
of the emotions they capture. If you check, you will find a lot of imperfections,” he reveals.
“Getting the perfect moment is more important than creating a technically perfect picture. Photography is five per cent skill, five per cent your gear and 90 per cent being there. And for wedding photography, it is not enough to just be there physically, you need to completely be there emotionally,” Radhik explains.
Origin story
Becoming a professional photographer had never been part of Radhik’s career plan. He grew up as a typical Hyderabad boy who, after finishing engineering, went to a business school, and post an IIM degree joined a corporate job.
“Photography was always a hobby. I had got my first digital camera when I was still doing my engineering. It was a gift from my dad. I would only photograph sunsets and insects!” he laughs.
But when his parents made him responsible for finding a wedding photographer for his sister’s wedding, a universe opened to him.
“It was December 2008. I had been in love with photography for eight years, but I had not even heard of a genre called wedding photography!” Radhik shakes his head.
He clicked a few shots at his sister’s wedding, but being the brother of the bride was the full-time job. However, this piqued his interest in the genre. “Between 2008 and 2009, I would go to my day job and spend the first two hours sitting in my cubicle looking up wedding photography. I was addicted!” says the nerd.
Then, in December 2009, Radhik shot an image at a friend’s wedding and put it on his Flickr page. This single shot landed him his first wedding shoot. And this was to become his turning point.
The shooting star!
Radhik quit his day job in October 2010 to become a professional photographer. Fifteen days later, his story was on CNN IBN. The press coverage led to him sharing his story and vision at various seminars, and during one such conference, he met a friend of Allu Arjun's, who invited him to shoot the Telugu heartthrob’s wedding.
“It was in March 2011. Even being a Telugu boy, I had no idea how big Bunny was; I had not watched any of his movies!” laughs Radhik, who then went on to shoot another wedding in the extended family, that of actor Ram Charan Teja, Allu Arjun’s first cousin and son of Telugu superstar, Chiranjeevi.
Radhik convinced his brother, two years his senior and with business school qualifications, to join him. Together, they formed Stories. It was December 2012. By then Radhik had shot four of the biggest weddings of the year. But Joseph Radhik images became a household name only five years later.
“In December 2017, we shot Virat and Anushka’s wedding, and we became a mainstream brand of sorts. Everyone in India had seen those Virat-anushka images, there was no escaping them!” he laughs.
“GETTING THE PERFECT MOMENT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CREATING A TECHNICALLY PERFECT PICTURE" —JOSEPH RADHIK