2021-04-19
1 小时 0 分钟Okay, so imagine this.
You're a young, rising photographer working to really stand out in a hyper competitive industry, and then you get a call one day from Iman and David Bowie asking you to shoot the COVID of Iman's next book after two covers shot by two of the world's top photographers had already been rejected.
Well, that is exactly what happened with my guest today, Indrani Palchauderi.
And she rose to the occasion and absolutely knocked it out of the park.
That moment would become an inciting incident, leading to ever more opportunities to deepen into her wildly imaginative and really compelling magical realism style, and launch years of award winning collaborations, image making and storytelling, with everyone from HBO, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Pepsi, Nike, and L'Oreal, to icons like Beyonce, Gaga, Bowie, Kate Winslet, Pharrell Williams, Eugene Brayrock, Jay Z, and just countless others.
And Njani's work is exhibited in museums worldwide, in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian.
And over time, she has integrated her love of image making and storytelling with this lifelong passion for service in the name of social justice and impact, and expanded from still images to film, including directing the powerful girl epidemic documentary about sex trafficking and slavery.
And beyond, directing advocacy has really taken a much more central role in her work and life, with positions as the co host of the Global People Summit at the United nations, the host of New York Live Arts Humanities Symposium, and co founder and executive director of Shakti Empowerment Education for Women and Children in India.
She also lectures at her alma mater, Princeton University, on mobilizing millions with art and film for human rights and social justice.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is good life project.
I know you were born in Calcutta, spent the first seven or so years there, and I guess your mom was british, working in service of Mother Teresa when you were a kid, so you were sort of around that whole ethos at the youngest of age?
Yes, I was part of the volunteering process because I translated from my mom my dad's indian.
And growing up bilingual with a mother who wasn't, it was very essential for her.
So from the age that I could translate for her, I did.
And so I was very much involved.
And at the home for the dying, the orphanages, it was a very intense environment, but I saw it as beautiful.
I mean, these were people were my friends, and I felt very useful.
You know, from a very young age, I felt needed, and that was incredibly empowering because, you know, just having someone to talk to for someone who's going through an end of life experience is incredibly powerful.
And particularly being a child, I think I was.