About 2 years ago, my aunt (also a counsellor to children and adults alike) reached out to me to photograph a young girl named Tanvi. Her parents were keen on making some portraits of her.
My interest in portraits drew me towards the project and I immediately agreed. Before we set a date I also requested to know if there was a particular reason the parents wanted her portraits because it would help me plan the shoot. The parents said that Tanvi simply enjoyed dressing and loved to pose. They also wanted to use the photos for her modeling portfolio.
Tanvi, is a child with down syndrome. I had only very recently taken up photography full time as a passion from hobby and was keen on portraits while not having shot much of them. Knowing how special this child was, I decided not to pre plan and just go with the flow for this one.
Finally, one pleasant morning in July we decided to get together and shoot at a local park in Bangalore. Little Tanvi arrived with her parents, we soon got talking and broke the ice. She had this big beaming smile on her face which I can never forget. We just walked around the park and as Tanvi chased butterflies and rustled some leaves I took some shots and couldn’t have asked for a better setting. We quickly made some shots with different outfits and within an hour we were done.
The photos were shared with a very excited Tanvi ang her parents shortly thereafter.
My two cents on what I learned from this shoot with little Tanvi:
1. Please take children to parks so that they can connect with nature. It also becomes a good bonding time with parents. It is a surreal feeling.
2. Unconditional love.
3. She turned a lot of moments in to beaming love and laughter. Irreplacable moments.
4. Her parents said that “sometimes we wonder how to get through the day but she smiles and laughs and it all seems worth it.”
5. The word ‘sunshine’ truly applied to her.
6. Smallest humans sometimes have the biggest personalities.
This shoot is still fresh in my memory. An experience I will never forget.
