Coffee is the reason I happened to come across Atul's work and I absolutely almost instantly admired his work. Also he is easily one of the kindest and sweetest people I've come across on IG. I realized I loved and connected with the vibe of every picture on his page. It reminds me how to pause, enjoy the moment, take in everything around me. I wanted to know more about his work.
When I started working on the second season of my interview series, I hoped to also include Atul's story. Not only did he instantly agree, I'm starting the series with his story!
What I learned from Atul's story is when you have focus there is no place for fear. Focus guides you and motivates you and encourages you to evolve, get better. It paves way to explore your passion and leads to opportunities and possibilities. When you love everything about what you do, hurdles don't seem to matter much.
His story motivated me to proper my focus on what I really want to do and keep at it.
I hope his story inspires you on your journey.
P.S - If you love coffee, you'll absolutely love his work!
Q - Hi, please tell us a little bit about yourself
Hi Nikita! To begin - my name is Atul :) Based in Bangalore at the moment - I primarily work in marketing and help build brands via their online spaces using my skillset in photography and my ability to story tell and connect with a crowd to help build a community. Came to Bangalore about 4 years back to do my studies and now this city has become home.
Q - Was it always your dream to become an artist, if not how did you made the choice?
I've always been a creative person growing up - never intentionally thought of becoming an artist per se, but it's always been quite natural and eventually due my varied interests in a lot of things - I picked up photography and found a liking for it merely through my smartphone in the beginning, this is about 6 years back now. Photography or Videography or the act of documenting has become secondary to the person I am today - but more than photography, it's the ability to sort of convey my other interests that I'm truly passionate about through photography as a medium that excites me and enables me to keep documenting.
Q - who or what was your inspiration?
Not sure about inspiration exactly but someone that's helped me a lot has been this entrepreneur named Garyvee - I owe a lot to him and his approach - he's instilled a lot of self-awareness, empathy, patience, work ethic and just respect for everything in generally into me. I still continue to consume his content and have been for the last 5-6 years at this point.
Q - Please tell us about your milestone journey, especially the difficulty you faced?
I've been fortunate and blessed not to have faced a lot of difficulties - academically in its very stereotypical sense is one area I've struggled with growing up - I was raised in the UAE and was there for about 17 years, the transition to India happened in 2015 or so and that was primarily to redo my 11th-12th grade 😅 and then came about college, where I eventually dropped out - I did about 3 years but I was done with it after my first semester. So there were bumps and struggles with that but hindsight I'm so grateful for everything that's happened which has shaped so much of the person I am today.
Q - As an artist, what is your process like? How do you prefer to work? What projects/subjects are your favourite?
At any given point - I'm working with about 3-5 people or projects, it becomes very important for me to become personal with the project - understand the different nuances involved with the what, the why, for who and break it down so that the end consumer understands what's happening and what value we're adding to their lives, so taking my time to understand the client is of priority, which is the function. It is then followed by the form which is in the form of photography.
I don't constrain myself to a particular subject - love working with anything and everything, but I do enjoy work revolving around food the most!
Q - What was the best and the worst advice you received when you started your career?
Best advice has to be several from Garyvee - the one that comes to the top of my head is "Micro speed, Macro patience" - which essentially translates into giving your best everyday and going at it to your best ability on that given day and then think about it from a broader perspective and be patient about the long term,
The other good one is - Quality leads to quantity, often times in the pursuit of quality over quantity - artists restrict themselves in the disguise of perfection (which isn't a real thing)
So yes similar to practice makes perfect I guess :)
Worst advice - well there's plenty. 😂 Nothing worth remembering 😅
Q - At this point in your career, are you happy?
Very very happy - always been, by God's grace. Hopefully this is for the long run.
Q – What are your future plans regarding to work?
I've got a bunch of things down the pipeline revolving around investing time into myself and my own brand, but for now the complete focus is on clients and work at hand - who knows what the world has to offer tomorrow, I have my plan but I guess it'll be situational and contextual to what the world is tomorrow.
Q - If someone read your story and wanted to follow your footsteps being inspired by it, what advice would you give them?
Dabble with everything you think you like doing, through which you figure what you enjoy the most. Don't judge yourself too much, but be accountable and responsible. Be consistent, that'll take you the furthest.
Q - Do you believe in dreams?
Absolutely, every single day. Keeps things exciting that way :)
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