How to Become a Celebrity Wedding Photographer – An Exclusive Interview with Joshua Karthik

Get to know insider information on the best ways to become a celebrity wedding photographer and what actually makes a difference. Read to know everything.

Often there are behind the scenes technicians and experts who make a wedding a big success. The memorable videos and photos that we see are often not tagged with the name of the photographers. They are the secrets who make the whole wedding memorable for years to come. Especially when it comes to celebrity weddings, the photographers are often missed out. We only remember and see their art in the news articles. Let’s meet Mr. Joshua Karthik who is one of the leaders in the industry of photography and brings us critical insights into the business. 

Introduction by Mitali: Hello to everyone, today we have in our studio Mr. Joshua Kartik who is the co-founder of a wedding photography firm based out of Mumbai. The Company is named ‘Stories by Joseph Radhik’. Ofcourse, Joshua and Joseph are working together in this wedding photography firm to make it a huge success. They have made it very popular across the globe. The company has done over 480 wedding photoshoots as per the statistics that we have. And it has not only acquired great success by covering celebrity weddings but it has also been nurturing young minds to understand how the business and profession works. I am really really thankful to Joshua for joining us today and sharing his intricate information about photography and wedding photoshoots etc. with our audiences today. I am sure our viewers at The Capital Post are going to absolutely love what he is going to share today.

Mitali: Tell me something about ‘Stories by Joseph Radhik’.

Joshua: Stories by Joseph Radhik is a wedding photography firm based out of Mumbai. We have had the privilege of being in this space for the last 10 years. We are turning 10 in a couple of months. We have had the opportunity to travel the world and really be a part of people’s special moments, on their biggest day, for most people its their wedding day. And I think we have just about finished nearly our 480th wedding in 13 countries around the world so far.

Mitali: So, when did you realize that you wanted to become a photographer? What was the inspiration behind it?

Joshua: My brother Joseph started wedding photography 12 years ago.Through the 10 years prior, 20 years prior, it was very clear that we were looking for ways to express ourselves creatively whether it is through music or through art or through writing or in this case wedding photography and when we found something that we truly wanted to do, we decided to actually make a big step, take a break from our careers and really do this professionally full time.

Mitali: Just you know our curious side, we were just going through your feed and everything and we saw that you know you have taken pictures of Vicky and Kat’s wedding also, so was that project done by you guys?

Joshua: Yes, we shot that wedding. Yeah. We have had the privilege of being a part of some really interesting weddings for the last decade. You must have seen our work. A lot of people might not know we exist or not, or even know our names but they have seen our work somewhere in the press somewhere.

Mitali: Right, right and so are there any kind of other wedding shoots that you have done that are of celebrities or important people that you would like to mention here?

Joshua: I think most people would have at least seen our work at Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma’s wedding. Those images are really what took the country by a storm. That was us 6 years ago. Post that, we have the opportunity to be a part of Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas’s wedding. So that was good. That was really interesting and that actually got us a lot of visibility because then our work ended up on, you know, the photos that we shot were on Jimmy Kimmel, they were on James Gordon. They even made to Oprah because of that one wedding. Post that we have shot Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal’s wedding. Last year we were part of the Rajkumar Rao’s wedding as well. Varun Dhawan’s wedding and a bunch of people from cricket and bollywood and you might have heard of some names from the Telugu Film Industry now that are popular nationally. People like Allu Arjun, people like Ramcharan. We have had an opportunity to be a part of their weddings as well, back in the day.

Mitali: So, you have shot the whole wedding or just some parts of it? 

Joshua: No, the whole wedding.

Mitali: And how does that make you feel. I mean to say being a part of that kind of an audience. 

Joshua: The clear answer is that you shouldn’t actually look at these as separate from any other wedding that we shoot. All weddings are important for the people that are actually married, for the families that are a part of it. So, it makes no sense to have a different mindset for a celebrity wedding and for something where the bride groom are not that well known. It doesn’t matter to us at all. Like I said, the real opportunity, the real privilege is that we are being part of close to 500 weddings in the last 10 years. And each and every one of them is just as important as the next. 

Mitali: Give us some information about your favourite cameras or lenses or just something for our audience to look upon like if they just want to become a photographer some day. Like should they be looking forward to? . 

Joshua: I think the simple answer is that there is no such thing and there should be no such thing as a favourite gear or stuff like this. It may be personal to you but it cant be something I recommend that tells you that this, if you pick this up then you will be a better photographer. I think the real joy in photography as with any other form of it is in the practice, in the trial, in its failing and picking yourself up and learning something from it and trying to better yourself on an every day basis. And that journey will take years and that journey would take you through a bunch of equipment and gear. Right? There is also joy in just spending time with the equipment. The other day, some of our photographers and I, we were travelling through Chandigarh. Last week I think, we were shooting Yuvraj Singh in fact and on the way back we were discussing about how you can have people who just love talking about gear and spending time with the gear. And there is nothing wrong with that. You could love cameras for what they are. You could love technology for what it is. But then if you want to be a photographer and make your name with the art that you are creating. You can’t stop with the gear, you have to go way past it and when you go past it and start spending a lot of time just perfecting your art and your craft, you realise that the gear typically does not matter and you should be able to create art with any sort of equipment that you are given.

Joshua: I would recommend a bunch of experimentation. I would actually say that one of the big revolutions that have happened in our own lifetimes, in the last couple of decades, has been the rise of the smartphone as a capable competent camera. I would suggest that anyone who wants to become a photographer should start with first trying to figure out how their smartphone can be used as a good camera and then graduate from there to the next level and then to the next level. But make it part of your experimentation process right. If you are going to be the kind of person who waits till the day you buy a DSLR so your photography experimentation can begin, I’ ll tell that there are a bunch of people who are going to get ahead of you just with a smartphone in their hands and that holds true for most things in life. You should truly love the art, the tools will come second if you are truly in love with the art itself. 

Mitali: Tell me something about this show that you guys were featured in on Netflix. I saw it on your website and I got really curious about it.

Joshua: I think a couple of years ago, just before the pandemic, Vogue and Netflix wanted to actually work on our show that really showcased the grandeur of the big fat Indian wedding really. And not in a way that is boastful or full of pride but it is about the real moments that actually underpin all of these stories right. If you get to attend a big fat Indian wedding or as they say or you actually get to see the balances and the fireworks and all of this stuff. Behind this, it’s always a story of two people meeting, falling in love or two families meeting and wanting to actually build a life together. So, that bit typically keeps getting missed out. Also, another background to each of these larger than life weddings which is all the people who make it special, the wedding designer, the decor designer, the wedding photographer, the people who create the looks for the bride and the groom. The people who are actually working on the entertainment, all of that stuff. So, Conde Nast which is Vogue’s parent company, they actually wanted to build a show that went into these nuances rather than just to say that the typical big fat Indian wedding is larger than life. 

Mitali: So, the YouTube Channel that you have mentioned on your website, what is that all about? I mean – Where the Heart is?

Joshua: There is a show called ‘Where the Heart is’ that we work on. Which takes you into the homes of celebrities around the country in fact now that we are potentially going abroad as well. The idea is that we all want to know a little more about the people we see on stage. Who are these people, who is the real person behind the persona. So, we have had the opportunity over the last 5 years to meet very interesting people from several walks of life. People that are household names for all of us. People from bollywood, you know other, not every but bollywood and southern films for sure. There is music, there are people from sports and from Fashion as well. And its very interesting to see how they spend their day at home so that what ‘Where the Heart is’ about and its a project that we work on, in association with Asian Paints. 

Mitali: What do you think? Wedding photography was the idea from the beginning or you guys tried with other kinds of photography also to see if that works? 

Joshua: Interesting question. Yeah, was wedding photography the thing we started with or is it something we landed on after trying 10 different types of photography. Well, I mean the short answer is that it is literally what we set out to do. We started because we wanted to do wedding photography. We wanted to do it in a way that we hadn’t seen before and if you turn back the pages of time and you go to 2012 when we began. Most of the things that we take for granted today in terms of the process, in terms of the way wedding photography brands are seen or how social media presence is dealt with. There were no yardsticks, there were no measures for success. And we wanted to do something structured, we wanted to bring in all our lessons and learnings that we had gotten from, everything from business schools to the companies that we worked at before we started and we both wanted to make something of this and thats where we found ourselves 10 years from now. And it was definitely not that we tried 5 or 6 different things and we landed on wedding photography. In fact, when you get successful at something, there is always the temptation to diversify and try 20 different things. And we have tried to not stray and not be tempted that way. We really wanted to perfect this one thing, this one journey that we are on in search of that one perfect wedding photograph. And that has taken us through nearly 480 weddings in 36 countries so far. And that journey is not done yet. We don’t think we are done. There is definitely 10 more years of this. Potentially 20 more years of this. And we will try not to be tempted and try to do 20 different other things. Wedding photography what we started with and see where this journey leads us.

Mitali: I am sure, being a perfect person or a perfect team in a kind of line is something that will take you places. Of Course you are already doing celebrity weddings and everything.

Mitali: Thank you so much for being here. And, if you have anything to say, then the closing remarks can be yours. 

Joshua: So, if you want to be amazing at the work that you are doing, I think we need to get to a place where we are willing to put ourselves out there and keep trying new things on a daily basis. I think old ideas will only take us so far. To be able to experiment, to be able to try new things over and over again, make that part of your daily life. To be able to deal with the failure of an experimental idea. A lot of people don’t know how to do that. If you are able to figure that part out you might think that you want to become a photographer today. Tomorrow you might think you want to be somebody else. But, if you figure out how to come back to the table with fresh ideas on a daily basis, I think you will go further than you ever thought possible. That’s what I want to leave the audience with. Thank you, this was a great opportunity. Thank you so much.