She is just 22 years old, but Priya Tadinada has already visited 23 countries till date. And wherever she's been to, be it Italy, Japan, China or Australia, she has attempted to capture the beauty of each place on her trusty iPhone 7. But rather than just put them up on Facebook to get a few hundred likes, Tadinada shared these beautiful photos with the city of Hyderabad at her exhibition Where Next? on August 18, 19 and 20. The exhibition, which was held at Gallery 78 near HITEC City, showcased as many as 70 photos that were well-received by admirers.
Three themes ran throughout the photos that documented Tadinada's travels. One of them was 'Space and Void', where every picture had the sky as one of its key elements because, "I personally love playing with the sky in my pictures," gushes the Hyderabadi photographer. The second theme was 'Wander' which was all about, "random streets and places that I discovered while wandering," she explains, and finally 'Glimpse', which offered a quick glimpse of different places like a church and yet conveyed the crux of all that was happening. Tadinada also loves writing, so every photo at the exhibition was accompanied by a caption. While some were lyrics from her favourite songs like Wonderwall by Oasis, others were her own thoughts poured onto paper. As we talk to her, she describes a few of her photos, including one which is a top shot of a couple walking down a spiral staircase, and we start to imagine for ourselves the beauty she must have captured through her lens.
Despite covering that many countries, Tadinada only started travelling when in her second year of college, while she was pursuing Architecture at Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University. And she has been on the go since then. She started applying for summer courses outside India which took her to several places and taught her many lessons, like when she travelled to Japan for a research project on smart cities. "I feel that travelling teaches you a lot more than sitting inside a classroom does," says the avid traveller who has moved to Berlin but is back home for a short time.
Instagram soon became her canvas and she started uploading her photographs on it. And if you're thinking that nowadays, 'every person with a smartphone is a photographer', think again. "Photography being a creative field, perception of what is good varies, but it takes a lot of practise to be a good photographer. It is so much about composition, light and other elements. It's a skill that needs to be honed," she says, making it clear that everyone with a smartphone can take a photograph, but that doesn't mean they're a photographer.
"What next?" we eagerly ask Tadinada. "Nepal in October," she tells us excitedly. Just imagining those snow-clad mountains and monasteries, we can't wait for her next exhibition.
Some of her work:
For more on her work, click on instagram.com/prixelated
