Simplicity at its best: Subtle Elixir
Instagram: @subtle_elixir
A self taught, published and exhibited street photographer, who aims at bringing out various flavors from different aspects of street as well nature, could be the best introduction for this man. He who values compassion for his camera over any other emotion, who believes photography isn’t just about clicking the shutter to capture a moment, but, it is freezing the right second that yields a desired moment under favorable conditions and this to him is the true essence of life.
Debratna Ghosh, the name behind the much talked about instagram page @shuttersofkolkata and @subtle_elixir chose Photography as his career path after the completion of bachelor’s degree in engineering. He started off just like all other amateur photographers, struggling, working hard on self improvement, not waiting for right opportunities, because the word “right” can be never be predetermined to some extent as you have to grab hold of every opportunities that will come towards you and you have to make it right because once you have made one right, the doors towards the next level of progress at your career path going to be visible and then pickings will be much easier then with increased experiences, is what Deb always believes in.
As a professional, he holds confidence in a fact that one needs to be touched in with the whole genre of photography before going into any specific zones of specialization as there are no cherry pickings and you need to eat up the entire cake. But what is in specific to debs interests is traveling, he has found that somewhere within, his travel instincts for further ventures get boosted up every time he explores any new place, hence he does keep a sheer interest in doing a hardcore travel photo journalism or unlikely towards travel cinematography in future.
To the explorations down the lane, Debratna loves travelling both the ways may it be a solo or group venture as when he is travelling solo; he is up to on his own implementations of predetermined vs instant notions which become more challenging though he also loves doing it. But when in a group, his inclinations are more on to the learning process well the overall challenges are lesser there.
Coming to inspirations, he believes in absorbing the knowhows from ones who inspires him just by their work. He manages to use them in his own stream of self learning and implementing it through his own perception and insights while capturing a frame.
Apart from being a traveler who loves documenting lives , he always keeps a strong desire in exploring the world of industrial photography while also maintaining and incorporating an essence of streets and society into it while shaping his ‘ passion into profession’ thing in more sound ways.
Back to the roots of his potential, he still embraces the memories of being a calm observer of moments when he was a school kid. Amidst the daily life chaos and flow, he spent more time in visualizing and extracting the vibes out of the seconds that got froze in front of his eyes which consist of some bizarre and wonderful aspects of nature as well as society around where he lived in. From witnessing the drawings of first nectar by a butterfly to the supercilious smile of a boy at a rooftop while winning a kite flying battle, paused had paused his sensory vision every time which further played a lead role in building an urge for capturing moments which in turn helped in his learning process.
He believes in the fact that for any form of art, it can’t be learned or excelled until and unless it comes from within. And through his journey of education , being from an engineering background, he chose photography over the technical know-hows only because he had this ‘inner call’ since childhood and well enjoying the struggle towards reaching the goal, which is indeed the most important factor while you pursue any domain in life.
Currently he is working with on his own project named ‘life on roads’ a collection of soul’s stories which emphasize to taste some intense and abandoned aspects of life, besides freelancing along with some mentoring and side ventures
Moreover in the streets, the aspect of photography which really fascinates him is portraiture, mainly when it comes down to the street encounters with strangers where the interaction being made to anonymous souls. Yes, for raising up the bonds between you and your subject, mixing with the people is really the first and most important step in getting into the comfort zone of your ability in discovering them in depth and their locality in more effective and impactful ways.
Debratna shared with us many of his out of box experiences; the most touching among them was while he was shooting a mechanic at some vintage lane of the city, Kolkata. At start the mechanic was a little uncomfortable with the camera encounter, but when he finally got comfortable because of the obvious nature of Debratna, he told Deb about how he wanted his works to be known to many and asked him to capture his daily routine. And he was so overwhelmed with his work that he invited Deb into his nearly shattered shelter, made food for with whatever minimum he could arrange and blessed him up with some beautiful words which still are trapped in the memory lane of Deb.
“Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached. -by Swami Vivekananda “is one of the key ideology that I’ve invoked in my life, as you can’t believe in God until you believe in yourself. Sheer self belief is very needed in any competitive field. Apart from the commercialization, my own satisfaction is counted up the most, but yes it’s always a surreal experience when it’s appreciated and encouraged by all. All I would want to say the aspirers is to be yourself first, take inspirations but avoid imitating others as they can’t be you and vice versa, everyone has got unique potentials, search into your depths, then replicate out at the best version of you at highest possible way, keep patience, be consistent and be determined about what you’re doing because if you know ” Why ” you can easily get the “how” to reach your own unique identity that no one can take away from you.
