Interview with Narain Jashanmal

Bio

Narain is the founder and editor of theblowup.

In this interview he talks about how he first got into photography, what his sources of inspiration are and what equipment he uses to shoot and edit. 

When not photographing or editing, his day job is the Director of E-commerce Partnerships at Facebook and Instagram.

To see more of his work, follow him on Instagram for occasional updated or join his iCloud Photo Stream for the full firehose. 

Interview

theblowup 

How did you first get into photography?

Narain

My family business, which turned 100 last year, started as a chain of department stores. When I was a kid, the main shop in Kuwait, where I grew up, had a photography section and even a darkroom. We sold Yashica and Contax cameras. I was drawn to this part of the shop and started to play with the cameras and ask questions about them, and photography more generally to the sales staff that worked there. We also always had a few cameras lying around at home - notably a fully manual Yashica FX-3, which was a gold plated anniversary edition and which I wasn’t allowed to touch. Eventually I got my own FX-3 and that’s what I started out with.

theblowup 

Which photographers did and do you draw inspiration from? Who are your photographic heroes?

Narain

So many and so many different ones. The first photographer I remember getting excited about was Bill Brandt, whose work I discovered at a retrospective at the V&A museum in London. Another early memorable one was Guy Bourdin, also from a V&A retrospective, I think. From school, and a comprehensive retrospective at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, Cindy Sherman. More recently, as I got back into photography, Francois Halard, Saul Leiter, Gregory Crewdson, Harry Gruyaert, Luigi Ghirri are all photographers whose work speaks to me in some way. Instagram, of course, is also home to many great contemporary photographers including Marguerite Bornhauser, who’s work I discovered at the MEP in Paris. I’d be remiss in not highlighting the early photography of Stanley Kubrick, who is of course much more famous as a filmmaker, but his photography is great as well - my good friend and former screenwriting partner got me a book of Kubrick’s photography for my birthday last year, to which I’m eternally grateful to him for.

theblowup

Beyond photography, where do you draw your inspiration from?

Narain

I studied film at university, so an obvious answer is cinema. But, more than that: cities, urban environments. Photowalks are my main way of unwinding and this almost demands that you take inspiration from your environment, which for me is inevitably a city. They offer a huge amount of visual variety, concentrated in a small area. Which means that you can revisit the same streets multiple times - everyday even - and discover something new each time. Simple techniques like exploring the same street with a different lens or camera opens up new possibilities, even if the location is a familiar one.

theblowup

Which genres of photography do you shoot?

Narain

• Architecture
  
• Fine Art (highly aspirational)
  
• Street (I wish there were a better name for it)
  

theblowup

Street photography is a controversial genre, not in the least because of its increasing ubiquity, which has led to a perceived decrease in quality. What’s your view about its continued validity as genre?

Narain

While that’s true, it’s likely always been the case. People worried about the societal consequences of cameras when they were first introduced, and I imagine there was a similar response when point and shoots were broadly adopted. That doesn’t mean as a photographer you should be an aggressive jerk and stick your camera in someone’s face when they don’t expect or want it (this is probably the most controversial sub-genre of street photography). But, the validity of street photography tends to reveal itself in retrospect, as a document of a specific time and place - a snapshot of the vernacular fashion and technology of a given era.

theblowup

Which was your first camera?

Narain

The Yashica FX-3. It was a great one to start with because it was fully manual. I replaced it with the Contax S2, essentially the same camera but built out of titanium rather than plastic and with a more sophisticated light meter.

theblowup

How do you think about photography equipment? For some photographers it’s merely a set of tools, a means to an end. For others, the capabilities of the equipment help define what’s possible. 

Narain

I’m very much into it and put real time into choosing the camera, accessories and editing setup I’m going to work with. There is a difference between a camera like the Sony A9 series, which has the best autofocus and the ability to shoot blackout free 20 frames per second with subject tracking and autoexposure compared something like the Leica M Monochrom (yes, I’m making an extreme comparison) which, while digital, shoots only in black and white and offers basic manual focus and metering. You can, of course, use a manual focus lens on the Sony A9 and convert the images it produces to black and white, but why would you? That’s not what it’s for, using it for that does it a disservice. Whereas, the Leica M Monochrom’s constraints force you into a slower, more thoughtful style of shooting that leads you to explore techniques like zone focusing and, because it’s black and white only, to think more about exposure: light and shadow. I’ve owned and loved both, but they’re for totally different types of work.

theblowup

What’s the main equipment you use today?

Narain

Based on my previous answer, it’s not going to come as a surprise to know that I change equipment frequently. Until recently, I’was pretty heavily invested in the L-mount, which offers a lot of choice and flexibility in terms of bodies and lenses, but have moved on a bit from this. I’ve got the Leica SL2 and recently sold a Leica TL2 that I’d had for a long time, a Sony RX1R II and the newly released Panasonic S5 when the opportunity to get a lightly used Leica Q2 at a great price presented itself. I also pruned my range of L-mount lenses down to a single zoom (the Panasonic 24-105mm f/4) and a couple prime lenses that cover the range of focal lengths and use cases; my favourite is probably the Sigma 50mm f/1.4, even if it’s big and heavy. I generally like to have a compact, fixed lens camera to complement an ILC and the Q2 replaced the Sony for that. But, I was left without a lighter ILC and a camera for shooting fast moving action, nor one with focus stacking built in - roles that the TL2 and S2 respectively had fulfilled - and just got a Canon M6 II to address these gaps. The Q2 and M6 II (with a Sigma 56mm f/1.4) make for a great walking around combo - their combined weight is about the same as the SL2 with 24-105 or the 50mm! They’re both perfect for the jobs I’ve hired them to do.  I’ve started to dabble with film again (though something tells me I won’t stick with it) and have a Nikon FM3a with a 50mm f/1.4D lens glued to it. In terms of accessories, I don’t use much beyond a Manfrotto LED that slots into the hot/cold shoe or can be mounted onto a tripod (for which I have a Manfrotto table top one). I rarely use a tripod, but have been very happy with the aluminium version of the Peak Design one - it’s the tripod for photographers who hate tripods! For editing, I love the combination of power and portability of the iPad Pro 12.9 offers, on which I mostly use Lightroom. For more specialised work, I recently got the 2020 iMac which, in addition to Lightroom, has Luminar and Photoshop on it - I use the latter two rarely.

theblowup

Any recent photography books that you’d like to highlight?

Narain

I’ve got a bunch and have recently gone deep on Francois Halard’s work and his “2” is incredible. However, the one I’d really like to highlight is David Campany’s “On Photographs” which takes a fresh approach to the survey of great photographs from great photographers - it casts the net wider and sequences them in a way I’ve never seen before. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Lastly, I got my hands on a copy of Bill Brandt’s “The English at Home” (having read about it in “On Photographs”) and it’s really wonderful.

theblowup

Lastly, what guidance would you give to people starting out with photography today? 

Narain

It’s about exploring and discovering what kind of a photographer you want to be. This necessarily means trying different approaches, techniques and equipment. Like with everything, getting good at something means investing time, into both shooting and editing, as well as research - immersing yourself in the work of others. One thing I’ve found in my own work is that, even when I’ve reached what I think of as a new plateau, when I look back at that work 6 or 12 months later, I see all of the ways it could’ve been better and how I’ve improved in that time, while also accepting that, when I look back at the work I’m doing now in 6 or 12 months, I’ll feel exactly the same way.

Narain’s Work