From the lens of Karamveer Sandhu

After tasting various fields, renowned photo-journalist Karamveer Sandhu finally followed his passion of becoming a photographer. Whenever you meet him, you find him so humble and down-to-earth. Working in journalism field since long, he doesn’t own any proud feeling and is always ready to help others. He often provides the classes to the budding photographers.

I met him at one of the art exhibitions in city where he too had displayed his flair of photography.

 ‘A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into’ believes city based aced lens-man Karamveer Sandhu. Capturing an ordinary man's life in an extraordinary way has always been a passion for him. This zeal and love for photography finally made him join the journalism field back in the year 1999. A science graduate, Sandhu never thought of pursuing his hobby of clicking photographs as a career option.

His two scintillating photographs are being exhibited in an on-going exhibition at city’s Virsa Vihar. About participating in this exhibition he says, “Exhibiting your clicks for the public gives you internal satisfaction. This is the moment where you can see the work of other talented artists and know about their life and experiences. My two clicks here reveal a different story. I have named these two as ‘Flowering in Flower and Flowering Blues.”

His life has taken several twists and turns. Starting his career in marketing, Sandhu has always aspired to become a software engineer. He then tried his hand in Army but the destiny had stored something else for him. Working as a marketer (pharmaceutical sales) for around three years, he was able to save the money in his pocket to buy a camera.

Without any purpose, he started clicking photographs with a little technical knowledge. Finally the time arrived when he realized his photography obsession in 1997 and left the marketing job. Sharing his further story Sandhu tells, “I went to one of the local dailies and asked them to issue me a Press Card so that I can work with them. I then shifted to Chandigarh, worked there, learnt what Journalism actually is (without any formal education) and carried on my marketing job to do away with my expenses.”

After coming back from Chandigarh next year, he painted his garage and opened a photography studio. This step took him away from his parents especially father. Telling about this he says, “My father didn’t support me for the photography. I told him that I want to learn journalism. He didn’t speak to me for quite a long time. But I remained on my words and decided to follow my dream. In 1999, I joined a Hindi Daily in the city as a photojournalist. The day I got the appointment, the shutters of my studio were closed down.”

In the year 2004, he came up with a solo exhibition with displaying his 80 stills in the city and got a huge appreciation. Since then, there was no looking back for him. He adds, “Whenever I click the photos, the connectivity with the environment automatically develops and pictures starts rolling in.” The pictures that he clicks are widely loved by the viewers especially at social networking sites. Besides, he too train the amateur photographers who want to step into this field.

For future, Sandhu is all prepared to come up with another solo exhibition where he will be displaying his around 60 photographs with a theme of ‘enlightenment’. Ask him what honors he own under his kitty he quips, “I don’t work to get rewards. I don’t have competition with anyone except myself. I joined Journalism to connect with the people and highlight their issues through my clicks. When you are satisfied from within, I guess, this is the best reward you fetch for yourself.”

For the budding photographers he advises, “It’s the right time for you guys to come into photography. Digital technology has broken all the boundaries and when boundaries are broken, you could come out with millions of ideas.” For those who can’t afford expensive cameras he says, “You don’t really acquire any expensive camera. If material is less, brain is needed” he concludes.

Note: The interview was originally published in The Times of India supplement, Jalandhar Times.