No flash in the pan

Photographer Nadir Firoz Khan on LSA win and why he has pivoted more towards fashion photography

KARACHI:

As photographer Nadir Firoz Khan gains ground, he continues to prove he’s here to stay. He may hold moments still through his photographs but his career has been anything but that. Having bagged the ‘Best Fashion Photographer’ award for NFK Photography at this year’s Lux Style Awards, he seems to have developed a growing penchant for this genre. He speaks to The Express Tribune about his LSA win and why he has pivoted more towards fashion photography.

Nadir was nothing short of surprised over his LSA win. “Honestly, Maha Burney [his wife and business partner] and I did not see this coming. We were not expecting to win. It came as a complete surprise to us,” he says.

Amid growing competition in the fledgling fashion industry at large and with names, such as Ayaz Anis and Rizwanul Haq in the running for the award, Nadir feels bagging the prize was no easy feat. Expressing awe for the works of his fellow photographers, he says of who he thought was his toughest competition, “Guddu Shani had a great portfolio this year and Rizwanul Haq takes the award home every other year.”

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Among the multitude of photo shoots he has to his credit, he feels a number contributed to his success the most. “We keep working on different things. From the scale of the set to styling for the shoot of Bonanza’s winter collection in 2013, this was the most memorable of my works,” he shares. “The winter-inspired set with effects of snow has never been done in the industry before.” He also mentions the size of the studio where it was shot as one of the reasons why his team was able to capture the right effects.

From Nadir’s portfolio. PHOTO COURTESY: NFK PHOTOGRAPHY

Initially, Nadir took a fondness towards corporate shoots, which were simpler and basic as far as selling a product is concerned. “At first, I used to focus on doing corporate shoots, but Maha pushed me to do fashion photography so I engaged in that,” he states. “Fashion shoots are very creative and we do more of those as compared to commercial shoots,” he adds.

Nadir prefers fashion shoots over commercial ones as he feels it is more “challenging and creative.” He further says, “The guidelines to commercial shoots are conservative. Their [commercial] selling strategy as a whole is very different.”

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Currently on a break from work, partially because his wife recently gave birth to their first-born, a boy, Nadir has been occupied with relocating his studio. On a personal note, Nadir joyfully talks about the baby boy, born to him and Maha, stating “Fatherhood is great, it is definitely an amazing feeling and something one needs to experience it to really understand it. I am overjoyed with this new feeling and relationship.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2015.

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