Ayanava Sil

I was in the third year of my college with no clarity in life and I was struggling to find out something that could give me an identity of mine. My family used to have a camera whose features were fascinating to me and I started exploring more about it. One day I found a video on YouTube, where for the first time I got to know about a genre of photography called ”street photography”, and that was the day when destiny opened a new path for me.

I started roaming the streets with my camera capturing moments but things were not that easy. I was completely focused on photography and decided to join a photography school called Pathshala. I tried hard to convince my parents but they refused and with a broken heart, I enrolled for MBA.

Although my commitment to photography was intact and with my studies, I continued my photography on weekends, and with my savings, I bought a DSLR, and with that, I started capturing street photos rigorously and created my portfolio which got me a breakthrough in 2016 when CNN travel approached me and it was a dream come true and also my work got published on the National Geographic website. And from there I never looked back, I completed my MBA, got a job, and supported my passion. In 2019, I got selected to represent India in a competition organized by Russia and UNESCO in Moscow and I was the first Indian to win the category award. After that, I got too many recognitions and awards Nationally and Internationally.

Now today when I look at myself, I feel that photography helped me in my personal development, it helped me to become a better version of myself, and now I have found a balance between my full-day job and photography.

But the path that I have traveled to reach here was full of sacrifices. In my initial days, I faced resistance from my family members, there were days when I felt hopeless and I have no idea about my future. But in those hard days, it was my obsession with photography that pushed me. Photography taught me to handle tough times, it made me a calm, patient, and diverse person. And today this interest of mine which I worked on all my life with passion is now my obsession and I believe that this is something for which I want to be remembered.

Total Work Experience : 5 Years (Amazon Finops Analyst)