Amita Talwar belongs to a rare breed. A journalist turned publisher turned documentary maker turned photographer, she has enjoyed every role that came her way to the core.

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A photographer with a different focus, Amita Talwar was recently in Chennai for her solo photography exhibition. ‘I love travelling. It is like a spiritual quest for something. Here I experience the creator and I can feel the magic,’ says a beaming Amita as she sits amongst her favorite snaps at Sarala’s Art World, Alwarpet. And these travels have given her unexpected wonders by way of nature and human beings. We begin to look at nature with renewed respect once we see her photographs in the prakrithi category. They seem to evoke some kind of mysticism in our minds. The photographs taken during her innumerable travels around the country tell us that she is a born photographer. Sri Nagar, Dal lake, Jaipur, Prayag mela at Allahabad, Chattisgarh, Leh, Ladakh and Bhutan come alive in her photographs. ‘I can see peace in all these pictures. whether it be a Buddhist or a Hindu or an Islamic symbol, they all mean the same to me,’ says Amita. Interestingly enough temples, rituals and human conditions dominate Amita’s work. ‘I don’t like city temples. They don’t have the beauty of village ones. We need to go to a village to discover the charm of old temples,’ she asserts. Amita inherited the art of photography from her father Dayakrishna Puri. Her childhood in Patiala was amongst thousands of black and white photographs clicked by her father, and thus the love for the medium grew upon her. The editor and publisher of Channel 6 , a monthly magazine published from Hyderabad and Secundarabad Amita has been seriously pursuing photography for the last six years. And now she has thousands of photographs to her credit. ‘ Video shooting demands that we wait for the programme and also needs huge amounts of money. Besides we need to take help of others. But photography is a one person activity and I enjoy it like anything,’ she says. A high mega pixel camera she uses ensures a 300 dpi resolution. Amita believes in upholding the ethics of her profession. She would never invade into other people’s privacy in the name of photography. ‘Prior permission should be obtained before one begins taking pictures. By god’s grace there is no need to take permission for nature photographs,’ she jokes. There is a larger cause behind her photo exhibitions. The funds so raised will finally contribute to building of schools for the handicapped in Hawaali village in Chattisgarh and Ludhiana in Punjab