Sanjay Ramchandran: Crafting Visual Feasts through Food and Interior Photography

Showcase is an effort by 58Miles to bring beautiful journeys of some of the amazing photographers of India & aboard . You will read about their journey , techniques , style and can see the outcome of their art in stunning frames. We asked them some questions to deep dive in to space and here we are....

Introducing 58Miles showcase photographer Sanjay Ramchandran  from Gurgoan 

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you got started in photography?

Started photography way back in 1995, was assisting a photographer for 5 years then started off on my own in 2000.
Started of by doing food, interiors, fashion & industrial. Later as the years went by I narrowed it on to f&b related shoots, which is food and interiors
Finished BSc maths in Malabar Christian college, Kozhikode, Kerala { bsc maths collage drop out}.

What inspires your photography, and how do you choose your subjects or themes?

Passionate about food, that is the main inspiration. most of my assignments includes food plating and food styling also. We don’t use any external food stylist ever. So, all pictures I take is a combined effort of chefs and my self
Since I do for hotels, it has to be close to what goes to the guest, so the primary challenge is to make the food look very good. We take brief from client and execute as per what’s bin told.
Client, I choose. Last 4 years I select my clients.
In the case of cookery books, we have total liberty to choose the crockery unlike hotels we have to stick to the hotel crockery
Wildlife is hobby, which I do a lot in India & abroad.

What has been your most memorable photography project or shoot, or any inspiring story around it, and why?

That’s difficult to pinpoint. All the assignment are special because I pick what I want to shoot as told earlier.

How ever shooting with chefs like Vineet Bhatia, Ritu Dalmia, Alfred prasad, Arzooman Irani, Abhijit saha and some of my cookbooks have bin special from the rest.

What is your photography kit ? or we would say, what is in your camera bag?

Camera - { Eos 1d, Eos 1dx mark II}
Lens – commercial - {10-20, 24-105, macro - 105, 70-300}
Lens – wildlife – {300 f2.8, 100-400}
Lights – 2 lights each where I shoot the maximum { Mumbai, New Delhi, Patna, Singapore}

What advice would you give to photographers who are just starting out and looking to make a name for themselves?

Start with what you can afford and peruse it well, give time for photography
One should not get hassled about the gear in the beginning. Get assignment and slowly build on as and when you progress in life. These days since most of the requirements is for web and social media, one get time by default to build on the equipment’s.
Important clients
Ritu Dalmia
The Oberoi hotels
Trident hotels
St regis
Taj group of hotels
Cook books – 12 , biography – 02 , in the pipe line – 02
Operate out of Mumbai, new delhi, patna, singapore

You can find Sanjay Ramchandran on :

Instagram : sanjayramchandran