Captured

It all started as an argument one drunken night with two people I met at a friend’s house party.

“No dude, not everybody is photogenic.”, I claimed. “Everybody is photogenic, if their element is captured well.”, they argued. While this debate went on for quite some time, I had no idea they were photographers. They shoot for ads, documentaries, fashion magazines, et al.

I am not a very camera loving person. I enjoy clicking pictures but of other people and things around me. I’m just not into it when the camera is facing me. Primary reason — I am not photogenic. And by photogenic, I mean I look very different in pictures than what I see myself as. There are rare pictures that capture me well and make me look the way I am. I know this because I get clicked a lot. Almost every friend has a DSLR and every time, they click me, it’s just weird. Candid, to top it up, is absolutely not my forte.

Now I don’t mind being not photogenic. It works in my favour because people instantly like me more when they meet me personally. Coming back to the point, the entire time during the conversation, I argued taking my example. They understood my perception and promised me that someday if they get a chance, they would try to change my opinion.

The day happened to be today.

They were shooting for a project where they were supposed to capture people in their natural element. I was called and told to turn up. Of course, I denied. I didn’t want to spoil their shoot and waste their time. I am not skilled at it and I expected to suck. But a lot of convincing later and an offer of being given free wine, I went.

I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t absolute fun. My friend made me laugh the entire shoot because that happens to be “my element”. I wore a rigged jeans with a shiny black tube top covered by a long grey coloured robe like jacket for the first part of my shoot. My other element is apparently “freakishly sexy”. I literally laughed at that but ended up bringing it to life anyway. That’s the least amount of clothes I have ever worn in front of an unknown crowd of 12 people. No, it wasn’t a bikini. Instead, it was a translucent white tank-crop top and thigh-high denim shorts with a bindi. (I may consider getting bindis now given how pretty they look.) I was also later accompanied by a little kitten to capture my goofy-sexy side.

Now, I have absolutely no idea how the pictures have turned out. I didn’t see them. After this shoot, I have an image of myself that I don’t want to change. And if by any chance, the pictures have failed to do justice to my imagination, I would be disappointed. So, I didn’t see them at all. But I know how I looked, given that a part of the studio was filled with mirrors and I couldn’t get my eyes off myself. I was also quite seriously into it; something I didn’t expect out of myself at all. In terms of posing and playing different moods and moves, I really thought I would suck. But I didn’t and I’m quite proud of that. I did my moves and it came so naturally to me, I was genuinely surprised. (I am planning to take up pole dance classes. My moves today have led me to believe I would be super great at it.)

I’m yet to decipher how exactly this experience has managed to change my perception about cameras facing me, but I know for a fact that it has in some way. I feel different and this different feels like it existed inside me already. Whatever it is, I’m glad I could be jolly around a camera, even while it was facing me.