subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 9 May 2020 37
then working in one of the
leading radio stations in India,
but I felt I had a bigger calling.
So, I quit. A few months after, I
randomly walked into this NGO
I used to volunteer at and asked
them if I could do a ten-day
summer workshop for the
specially-abled kids there. That
was when I discovered these
people had a serious talent for
photography.’ Mohit started
teaching photography at the
NGO three days a week, and
within just a few months, some
of the students started landing
professional assignments.
‘Shaishav, then my youngest
student, got his first assignment
to shoot a Harley-Davidson
showroom launch and we were
overwhelmed. Imagine, 200
bikers standing there and
applauding this kid with Down’s
Syndrome. His parents were also
called up on stage and a wad of
cash handed over. It was amazing.’
Being an ex-advertising pro,
Mohit came up with a snappy
name for his new project –
KnowDisability.org. ‘It was a
lesson for me for life, and also
sounds exactly like “No
Disability”. Today, seven of my
students are full-time
professional photographers,
shooting assignments and
making me proud every day.’Removing society’s labels
As you can imagine, however,
the challenges involved in
getting Mohit’s students to this
level were not insubstantial.
‘When we started it was a
mammoth task to convince the
parents that their boys were
capable of much more than
folding envelopes or baking
cakes. I’m not saying doing these
things is any lesser a skill, but we
needed to open our eyes to the
world out there and the plethora
of opportunities waiting to be
seized. Convincing the parents
to buy cameras was a big
challenge, and even today, this
can be difficult. The moment a
kid is diagnosed with disability,
everyone in our society starts
showing the impossibilities to
the parents and soon after, theyend up expecting less from their
kids. But the moment you
remove labels from a person, you
can see how limitless they can
be. That’s what I’ve learnt from
my students.’
As for the future, Mohit is keen
to keep on developing
KnowDisability.org. ‘We want to
break a lot more stereotypes,
train a lot more superhumans in
the art of photography and see
the students land more
assignments. We’ve already
started this with
#OneSpecialShoot where you
can gift a shoot by the
superhumans to loved ones.’
We also asked Mohit about the
insurance cover he is able to get
for his gear, and that of his
students. ‘Insurance here is still
a very tricky affair. We do have
some insurance companies
talking about specialist camera
insurance but from what I’ve
heard and experienced a couple
of times, it’s not too dependable.
So, we are more or less at the
mercy of warranties, or just
hoping to stay lucky.’Working with
big names
THE HARLEY-DAVIDSON
showroom assignment was
the first big commission
landed by the
photographers at
KnowDisability.org.
‘After that, the boys
started getting calls to
cover events, shoot
products and for
e-commerce jobs,’ Mohit
explains. ‘About a year
later, I had a conversation
with Panasonic and we
came up with the idea of
celebrating World
Photography Day with a
film and an exhibition.
Soon, Beyond Frames was
shot and my students
Vikas, Shaishav, Tarit,
Tanmay, Bharat, Shiva and
Siddharth got featured in
the film. Next, Panasonic
Lumix sponsored their first
official exhibition, see the
YouTube video at bit.ly/
youtubemohit.’