san francisco bay area maternity, child and family photographer »

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bio

Born in Mumbai, Alpana grew up in the era of black and white television, Rolling Stone Magazine and Bollywood Cinema. Her love affair  with people and spaces formed as she walked the streets of Mumbai. As the city pulsated with the chaos and the crowd, she learned to see human relationship emerge in the most unusual spots. Under a tree, on a rainy day, two strangers huddle together, at the  beach, the squabble  between the vendors selling tea and his customers. Through her lenses, she could capture those simple yet momentous instances in separate frameworks.

After graduating with her BFA in design and photography, Alpana worked for award-winning ad agencies in India. She continued her education by earning a Masters in Communication in the US. Her passion for taking photos that started in college, and her 35 mm film camera stayed with her as she explored various artistic endeavors over the years.

Henri Cartier Bresson is one of her early inspirations, followed closely by Annie Lebovitz, Sally Maan, and Salvador Dali. In the recent years, Alpana has been drawn to works of Ketaki Shah and Alec Soth. In 2013, she had the opportunity to attend a Magnum workshop with the esteemed photojournalist Raghu Rai. He taught her to look for a story inside a story.

Alpana use a variety of cameras to see the world. Besides her digital Nikon SLR, she enjoys using myriad of  film cameras that include medium format and toy cameras, such as Holga. Her favorite camera is Contax medium format camera.

Alpana’s work has been published online and in-print in various publications including Lenscratch, Mozi Magazine, Unnamed Toy Camera Magazine, Style Me Pretty, Let the Kids, Lemonades and Lenses, Little Bellows, Bloom. She is also a contributor and mentor on Bloom. Some of her images printed by fine art printmaker Art Press are on display at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in Dublin, CA. Most recently, one of her images won the Director’s award in the juried Family exhibition at the Center of Fine Art in Fort Collins, CO.

Alpana was recently interviewed by a popular photography website Clickin Moms. Her thoughts on her business, giving back to the community at large, creating heirloom products for clients and shooting film can be found here.