Hyderabad Street Photography by Sanjay Borra that captured different shades of the city in its simplest form, now lets fans watch the story as it unravel.
The amateur’s photography attempt that began five years ago, now shoots videos and the first one has already gone viral. The video of Ram ki Bandi, the famous street food joint in Nampally, currently has over one lakh hits across social networking sites.
With the focus currently on street food joints, Sanjay says he attempted this out of sheer curiosity. Other videos are on Mustafa restaurant in Secunderabad, kheema-roti breakfast at Paradise and interview with Garden Restaurant’s owner, Karim. “As it is a solo attempt, capturing videos is more challenging than photographs”, says Sanjay on his first step towards videography.
Caught up in a hectic IT job, Sanjay armed with his passion for photography and in pursuit of happiness, started the Hyderabad Street Photography in 2010. He quit his job and took up the role of a shutterbug and is now instrumental in reflecting the rapidly changing city.
“It is more of love and passion. I don’t do it with an agenda. I just carry a camera where ever I go”, says Sanjay. After archiving streets from Madhapur to Masab Tank, from Old City to Hitex in photographs, his focus is now on videos. “It is difficult to convey the whole story through a photograph and it needs to be sharp. I feel that videos convey the complete story”. Different phases of human emotions are his personal favourite. Videos on food joints include interviews of chefs who often stay behind the vessels.
Like his photographs that capture the city’s Numaish culture to the ‘coffee in mall’ culture, he plans to make videos that capture the changing dynamics of the city. Recently-uploaded video on vandalised art works by JNTU students is one such example.
According to Sanjay, the biggest challenge while shooting public on streets is to let them be their natural self. For this, he switched from a DSLR to a smaller Sony RX series camera. Being on job for the last five years, Sanjay has now mastered this art.
The photographer also observes that the city is changing by the day. With the Metro coming up, old buildings are being razed down. “I click today because tomorrow I may not be able to be there,” he shares on a parting note.
He is planning to concentrate more on videos and is hopeful that his new attempt can narrate stories uncut.
Hyderabad Street Photography can be accessed on Facebook and Instagram.