“The need to change your perspective of life often comes from strange circumstances,” says Ronicka Kandhari, whose photographic essays on glamourous Indian weddings have become the talking point among India’s swish set.
Delhi-based Ronicka has specialised in wedding photography and is known for her artwork albums in which she captures the best moments of every ritual associated with a wedding. Her creative inputs and detailed descriptions make the ‘wedding book’ a valuable possession of the families of both the bride as well as the bridegroom.
“The best reward of my profession is that I work with people during their happiest days,” Ronicka says.
“Weddings are all about family reunions, and children add a sense of completeness to the group. Everyone is dressed in their best and the mood is upbeat. I’ve had the privilege of capturing some of the grandest weddings in India in recent times, such as the wedding of Praful Patel’s daughter, Vilasrao Deshmukh’s son and of children from the Mittal, Munjal, Jindal and Goenka clans,” she says.
Ronicka has put together nine coffee table books on Indian weddings.
“My own wedding to film maker/author Vikram Mahajan was a low-key ceremony in a Gurudwara and the pictures were taken by a friend who learnt photography in the same class as me. I do have some fun pictures of zany events of the day after the wedding. The one that particularly stands out is a theme party that I shot called ‘Fantasy ’n Fetish’, where everybody was dressed in the most outlandish and kinky costumes possible,” she says with a chuckle.
But the idea of special photography assignments for weddings dawned upon Ronicka when her sister got married.
“We, as a family, had planned several themed events for my sister but when the photographs of the wedding were out, we were disappointed that none of them reflected the fun and excitement that marked the wedding,” she says.
“As a student of photography, I realised that a photographer must invest plenty of time and energy if he/ she hopes to capture the joy, the emotions and the fanfare of an Indian wedding,” she adds.
Revealing the secret behind her success, she says: “When I accept an assignment, I establish a rapport with the client. This rapport helps me to compile a bouquet of candid and exciting moments. I do the pictures myself with just one assistant to manage the equipment. I truly enjoy my work and I guess the results are there for all to see,” she says.
