I like to command the situations on my photo shoots: Anwesha Mandal

In the elbow-nudging world of photography, women behind the lens are a rarity. Most established fashion photographers are men. It’s a given.

Take a typical shoot. The women on the sets are either pan-caked models, a female stylist and ‘maybe’ a female camera assistant — her job largely restricted to shifting heavy equipment from one corner of the room to another.

Anwesha Mandal, 23, a self-taught freelance photographer considers herself lucky to have been able to cut through the stereotype; she hasn’t assisted a big name in the industry and does not have the blessings of a “godfather”.

But within two years of stepping into the industry, she has clicked Kajol for a newspaper campaign, shot covers for the Avante Garde Life magazine with actors Sonakshi Sinha and model Deepti Gujral, done catalogue shoots for the Wills Fashion Week and the Wine Society of India and covered the Goa Fest 2009, among others. She also has no professional training in the medium.

Given the odds, the going has been tough for Mandal, what with the networking grind most freelancers have to go through followed by several rounds of ad agencies, and editorial meetings.

“I am a firm believer that opportunities don’t fall into your lap,” says Mandal on how fierce networking and smart marketing are vital, things she is now a pro at. All skills combined got her featured at the Jasmine Studio, London.

After a Bachelors degree in Mass Media, Mandal held a well-paying job as a creative executive at an event management company. And then, she decided to reinvent her life and become a photographer.

“One year into my job, when I completely stopped shooting, is when it hit me that photography was indeed my calling,” she says. So she let go of her 4MPCanon Powershot for a DLSR- Nikon D80.

Being self-taught, the trick to making things work, she says, is self-confidence. “I practically internalised photography by reading several photography journals. I would watch ten YouTube videos a day to understand the nuances of lighting or the honeycomb grid,” she says. Without the confidence, she would have been unable to tell off people who tried to dominate her on the sets because of her age or gender. “I like to command the situation on my shoots,” says the tattoo sporting Mandal, dressed in a tube top paired with a casual jacket.