When you turn your passion into your profession, it reflects in your work, and photographer duo Ricken and Sonal Desai’s work is a perfect example of that. What drives them primarily is the challenge each photoshoot brings with it.
Their travels across the country and their quest for learning from each experience keep them at the top of their game. For them, it is all about having the spirit to capture, create, and express thoughts through their lens. For this edition of A&l, we chose to interview the duo and get their perspective on photography, its importance for architects and interiors, and what motivates them to learn more every day.
How important is photography for Architects and Interior Designers?
We all access libraries in colleges. These libraries are based on documented works and theories. For an Architect, photo documentation is about preparing his journey in design. No story would be as interesting as one’s professional journey. Here photo documentation makes it possible. For an Architect who applies oneself to a project and gets them to grow to perfection, here we need a professional photographer to capture all your thoughts in one click. It’s all about design philosophy, material, textures, light, and more importantly, the feel of spaces.
Which city or state has potential for architecture and interior designing according to your experience?
In a broader perspective, we think creativity and design is not limited to one city, state, or country. Good design creates an impact everywhere. But with recent times and the pandemic, it’s amazing to see our city Hyderabad taking a big leap forward in terms of growth and design.
Can you share your views about the experience you inherit from your profession?
We truly believe that every Architect and Interior Designer brings something unique to the table. We love the variance and we have shot more than 700 projects in the last 5-6 years, it’s learning from each one of them. It truly does feel magical when our efforts into capturing a space is appreciated and valued. The result stays dedicated to the design philosophy and one of our primary goals is to stay true to the design that we are capturing.
While shooting a project, what do you like to cover the most in your photoshoot for an Architect or an Interior Designer?
Our key concern while shooting a project is acquiring Justice to the Design’. We must capture the true essence of the space as per the brief we are provided. We do strongly believe in the surroundings and the area being clean, all set for documentation. Every detail matters and this helps us to be more creative and add that extra essence to the outcome.
What other things you both are fond of other than photography?
We both love traveling, good design, and music. We love to ride our motorcycle. Travel is close to the heart because we get to meet interesting and at times inspiring people. The last 5 years have changed our outlook towards life a lot because of the people we meet. By exchange of dialogue, we also get to know about the varied places, cultures, food preferences, etc., that are perceived in our country.
Architect and Interior design photography vs. trekking and ride up?
Architecture and Interior photography are the main factors for our life. Biking, trekking, and everything else is something that comes out of our interests. We love what we do, and we get to do everything else because of that.
What day made you both “The Ricken and Sonal Desai"?
’25th December 2005′. It’s that simple!
What tips you would give to next-generation photographer?
Here are a few pointers that helped us in our journey,
- Work with passion and money will become a by-product
- Stay humble and be the hardest worker in the room
- Slowly is the fastest way to get anywhere
What are your views about the magazine?
Firstly, thank you for featuring us in the very first issue. Greatly humbled. We think it’s an amazing initiative. A definite need of the hour for a growing city like Hyderabad. It would be great to see a wonderful talent Hyderabad has to offer. It’s always a great pleasure to see great designs in print. We certainly needed a dedicated magazine for Architecture & Interior for Hyderabad.
Do you think is it a good platform for Merchant, Architects, and Interior designers of Hyderabad?
Absolutely! Sharing is caring. It’s always great to see creatives, merchants and the fraternity interact on a platform like this.
We wish you a great journey ahead.
Director, Arch Int Publications Pvt Ltd.,