User:PHILIP RAJ SUNDER/sandbox

Philip Raj Sundar Photography Two of my great passions in life are travel and photography. Through my photography, I have tried to convey these feelings of wonder and passion to the viewers. I seek to give a sense of place and time by letting the viewer see through the images as much as I saw myself, and experience the same emotions. To do so, I carefully select and interpret visually the subjects so that their essence is revealed, often going to a great deal of effort just to create a single image. I never would have believed that wedding photography could be so involving, demanding and rewarding. All of my friends who got married before I did never said much about their wedding photos, and after looking through their wedding albums I didn’t think too much about their photos, either. There was always a collection of group photos, the cake cutting, exchanging garlands, and a photo of the kiss. But it seemed something was missing… My early interests in photography had nothing to do with the traditional concept of wedding photography that is certain! Though originally trained as an Accountant, I have been involved in photography since childhood. For years I pursued photography as avocation alongside my other careers, but when you love something enough, it has a way of catching up with you. My photographic career began in 1994 in Madras while on assignment with my Guru in a wedding. Then followed many occasions - weddings, poojas, functions etc. The camera never left my shoulder. The beauty of those trips was in their spontaneity. It was then that I formulated my photo philosophy: take the moment as it comes and do not dare to interrupt! There is something to be said about wedding photography being involving, for it immediately makes you a part of somebody’s life; being demanding, for it demands of you to be creative, yet unobtrusive; being rewarding, for those 500 images have just summed up a day of real feelings and un-scripted emotions.

I view the art of photography as a subtractive process, a distilling of reality into a personal vision. As such I often use the tools of modern photography – different film stocks, filters, digital enhancement – to try to capture in an image the emotions I felt at the moment I tripped the camera's shutter. I specialize in wedding and all kinds of photography and my work includes subjects ranging from panoramic landscapes to people and local culture to abstracts. I also specialize in close up shots creating large format and panoramic images. I shoot with both with digital SLR, and video camera. Inspired by many movies, in summer of 2000, I headed off to film industry and joined as an Assistant Cinematographer, with Mr. R.D. Rajasekar, The Best Cinematographer in Tamil Film Industry, Chennai. I experienced a renewed enthusiasm and appreciation for Cinematography after taking a basic course in animation in Photography, with Arena Multimedia in Chennai, made me enter into the film world. I worked around twenty films with Mr. R. D. Rajasekar, some of them are box-office hit including Manmadan, Kaka-kaka, Gajini, Jillun oru Kadal, Beema, Billa 2, etc., I worked as a Associate Cameraman for Mahesh Saranya Mattrum Palar, Pidichiiruku, in 2008. Having gained experience as an associate given me a confidence to work as a full fledged Cinematographer for a Tamil Movie Rattinam, with Mr.Thangasamy., using a Red  camera. Recently, I completed a project with a well-known director Mr.Chakri Toleti. The short film named “UNREAD” is expected it’s release by end of this month. At present I have two projects in pipeline, and work is going on with full swing. Simultaneously I also rent out RED EPIC cameras to film production. This is completely backed by Mr. Rajesh Nair, who used to be my school buddy! Through my photography I seek to document my own personal experiences, to capture scenes and events as I see them and to share with others the beauty and diversity of the world I've seen.