Photographer of the Month — Arpan Das — June 2019
I first encountered Arpan Das back in 2015. I so vividly remember the impression he left on me. There was something about the strong passion and inner drive he displayed. Not long after this he won his first major photography competition. Now, four years later, he has evolved into being a major force in landscape photography and is one of the most talented photographers in the genre.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I am an astrophysics research student by profession. Currently I am living in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, that is, Canada. Travelling, hiking, camping, photography, reading and watching movies are a few of my favorite hobbies. Whenever I get some free time I try to spend it on adventurous activities.
What made you start out with landscape photography?
Until the end of high school painting was one of my favorite hobbies and coincidentally I used to paint landscapes and nature only. However, at one point I had to decide whether I wanted to get a degree in art or science. I opted for science. There is nothing I love more than space science.
I used to still follow paintings and used to read book about painters. I had an understanding of light, compositions, blue-warm tone, layering, diffusion and so on way before I had a camera. During one of our family trips my father decided to buy a compact camera for the trip and I was really fascinated about the fact how much photographing a landscape is connected to my painting. I didn’t have much opportunity to travel during my school/college days. But, when I moved to Italy for the first time the landscapes literally blew my mind. So I decided to start landscape photography, and slowly it became one of my biggest passions in life. I want to thank my friend Ramit Dey. He has been a good support since the beginning when we started this journey together.
What do you want to communicate through your photos?
My aim is just not to capture beautiful places and present them to the viewers as they are. My goal is to show my viewers how I visualized a scene, and I want to connect my viewers to those scenes via my photography. So there is definitely lot of moderation I do to my photos. I still apply my painting knowledge during the post processing. I love to spend multiple days on a single photo just to make it perfect, and I am never satisfied with the result. It is always in my mind “it could have been lot better”, and that helps me to improve every time. However, I try to keep the scenery as real as possible; at least the elements in the image so that if someone goes to that same place he/she will at least see the same components.
What has photography done for you?
Photography has taught me a lot of things during the past few years. It has been one of the biggest excuses for me to travel which is great for me. Connecting to mother earth is always refreshing and healing. It has also created lot of amazing memories from different parts of the world. I am glad that I chose photography as one of my passions; otherwise I would have never traveled to some of the places I have visited. Other than that it has helped me to understand how fragile our nature is. If we are not careful the result will not be good in the upcoming years. Other than that photography has helped me to make a lot of good friends who mean a lot to me. So far photography had done mostly positive things for me and I hope it will continue like this in the future.
How would you describe your work, and how has it evolved since you started out?
Let me draw a nerd metaphor here. If my life is a computer then I am just creating different memory sectors through my journey. I know I am sounding very nerd here, but it is true. When I started photography I started shooting everything. Living in a big city I never thought landscape would be my only subject in the future. I used to shoot portraits, streets, macro and everything. My processing was horrible during the early stages; HDR, high contrast, bad looking results etc.
When I started shooting landscapes I quickly realized it was exactly the same as painting, just a digital version of it. Leading lines, separation, color harmony, layers, tonal balance, dark to bright/cool to warm transitions — everything I learned from my painting idols like Albert Bierstadt, Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Frederic Edwin Church and many more. I just had to connect them to my photography. I still have to improve a lot and that is the biggest challenge to myself. The day I think that I have mastered all the skills in photography my photography career will end at that very moment. I still look back on my old work and I see how much I have evolved in past couple of years and that is quite fascinating. One of the good or bad habits I have is totally disliking my own work. I will delete 5–6 days of hard work and go back to start editing it from scratch.
In summary I will describe my work as a visual impression of a particular place in an artistic way. It’s like if I was present in a painting of Albert Bierstadt, and I just captured what I saw in that painting.
I suppose most of us have periods when we seem to lose the fun of photography. Have you developed any strategies to keep the fire burning if this happens to you?
Of course I do. It’s one of the biggest challenges. My ideas of working hard and pushing hard are completely two different things which people misunderstand most of the time. Working hard is always good for any art form, but pushing hard will never help to produce amazing results. If at any point I can see I am not enjoying taking photos I will rather enjoy nature itself. I will go on a nice camping in the woods enjoying some nice sunrise/sunset, or just enjoy a campfire by a lake. If I don’t enjoy processing an image I will stop working on it and process something else or totally stop processing images, or maybe read a nice book or watch some good movies. Coming back after a few days always helps a lot. We are not machines so that we can just randomly iterate until we get satisfied. However, I hardly get bored of shooting photos — this issue is mostly related to processing.
Have you ever been severely criticized for your work? And in that case how did you handle it?
Yes, during the early stages. Honestly, I get mad sometimes if people criticize my work but I have learned that criticism is the greatest way to improve. It doesn’t matter whether it is constructive or destructive criticism. Sometimes when I receive destructive criticism I become mad, but later I ask myself: ‘What if that person is correct — but his way of providing feedback was just rude?’ I have close friends who will always give me honest opinions and I will ask them if that criticism was correct or not. That has helped me a lot over the years. I am still working on not getting mad at criticism, but definitely, criticism is really important. The movie “Whiplash” is the biggest example of how destructive criticism can sometimes be helpful as well. I personally think “I don’t care about what others have to say” is a pretty negative attitude towards art. Every opinion counts.
Have you any hobbies besides photography?
Yes many actually. Reading is one of my biggest hobbies, especially fantasy, science fiction and thrillers. Watching movies and tv-series (including foreign languages) is another big hobby. Both of the latter have also helped me a lot about understanding compositions, especially the Lord of the Rings series. Besides these hobbies I have a great desire for cooking different cuisines, listening to music, camping and hiking.
What is the greatest challenge for you personally when it comes to landscape photography? For instance, has it been difficult to combine studies with photography?
Not much. I like to keep it balanced. Even though I love travelling, I don’t want to travel 12 months a year. But I must admit that sometimes it is frustrating to know that I cannot travel for 3–4 months since I have to spend time on research and work on deadlines. But so far I have managed to find a good balance between my studies and photography — and I would love to keep it that way.
In which direction do you believe landscape photography is heading?
It’s a great area to debate. I think there are both positive and negative sides. Photographers like Paul Nicklen, Cristina Mittermeier and many more are doing amazing jobs when it comes to bringing awareness among people about nature through their photography and social platforms. But, on the other hand a lot of places are getting overcrowded for social exposure. It’s terrifying to see how much the crowd has increased in places like Patagonia, Iceland, Dolomites and many more over the past years. Honestly, I don’t know if this issue will ever be solved.
What is the most amazing place you have visited? Is it possible for you to articulate why it made such a huge impression on you?
Canadian Rockies in winter. Just when I saw it for the first time I realized why it is called the “Winter Wonderland”. That place is absolutely heaven. Even if I am not getting any good images I honestly don’t care. Just being present in those places is another feeling which I can not express in words. I am in love with chilly mornings with frozen lakes, hoarfrost, trees full of snows, streams and everything. Other than that Utah, California, Glacier National Park and Dolomites are a few of my favorite places I have visited so far.
What inspires you?
Other photographers such as Marc Adamus, Ted Gore, Ryan Dyar, Max Rive, Erin Babnik, Daniel Kordan andPaul Zizka. Movies such as Lord of the rings and Avatar. Video games like Skyrim (one of the best for understanding mood and tonality). But most of my inspiration comes from painters like Albert Bierstadt, Van Gough, Paul Cézanne, Frederic Edwin Church, Caspar David Friedrich andJohn Constable.
Do you have a piece of advice for young aspiring landscape photographers?
Don’t follow the number games. It will affect your art. If you are a good artist people will automatically follow you. Try to be inspired from others and not copy them. Try to improvise, remember there are thousands of photographers out there so you need to ask yourself “why will people follow me”. Also enjoy nature, don’t spend the whole sunset looking through a viewfinder. Mother nature is much more beautiful when just using our eyes. There will always be failure, don’t get disappointed by that; it’s natural. And finally, the first and foremost thing is whether you are enjoying whatever you are doing. There will be images which thousands of people will like but you will not be happy with them and vice versa. Also try to help grow the community, it is not a Olympic marathon — help others as much as you can.
