The ad advantage
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Adarsh Anand makes art of his advertising and product photographs
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Industrial photography is very demanding and hazardous.
LIGHT POWER One of Adarsh Anand’ industrial photographs.
“I never shoot for myself”, he adds, “I always shoot for a client.” This assertion can come only from an industrial and advertising photographer. Adarsh Anand imbues inanimate objects with a personality. In his
pictures for advertisements he makes the flabby Ambassador car aerodynamic. Ugly factory landscapes of dirt and grime are transformed into surreal scenes of light and power with his camera. Furniture is made mysterious with his light painting technique. His clients include Alfa Romeo, BMW, Hero Honda and Nestle, to name a few.
Anand recently mounted an exhibition of his photographs “Stills that Move” at the Academy of Photographic Excellence. Having worked in India and abroad for over 30 years this was his first exhibition. His shyness has kept him away from the foray, he says.
Transformation power
With consulting engineers and PSUs as his clients, Anand has had to transform power stations and thermal plants into the lyrical. He says that industrial photography is “very demanding and hazardous”. In his long career, the veteran has been electrocuted fifteen times and has broken equipment worth rupees 13 lakhs. To make the grubby Panipat thermal power plant attractive, Anand had to scale a precarious 120 feet chimney. He elaborates, “I am mortally afraid of geckoes. And the chimney was swarming with them. I was worried about the lizards, the wind and, most of all, my equipment.” Surveying the exhibition from the entrance, the viewer realises that these are commercial photographs. The photographs aim to sell products. But the speciality is that Anand achieves this commercial purpose through art.
With the clutter of ads, he says that he tries to make his pictures eye catching, focusing on composition and colour. He reveals, “It should have that mysterious quality that tickles.” The mysterious quality is essentially due to his clever lighting techniques, multiple exposures and technological acumen. “It’s like makeup on a woman,” he says, “the bare minimum makes her beautiful, excess will make her look like an illustration.”
On one hand, his photographs are pristine and free of digital manipulations. On the other hand, he has also succeeded in creating complete digital solutions.
A beautiful red Alfa Romeo car zips down a green highway.
This photo is unique because the car, the environment and the sense of movement have all been created digitally.
The naked eye cannot perceive that this is a cyber creation.
This technique helps to save costs for international automobile giants.
NANDINI NAIR
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