Junior Sahiba Babra has been taking photos for several years now and after taking three semesters of Photography here at Urbana she has developed a great talent for the art. Her passion for capturing people and objects in unique ways has motivated her to continue producing her work.

HR: How long have you been taking photos?

Sahiba Babra: My parents bought me my camera in 8^th grade, that’s when I’d say I really got into it, so that’s about 4 years. I started liking it because it was cool and I barely needed any other materials other than my camera and the world around me.

HR: What camera is it that you are working with right now?

Babra: I have a Cannon 60d with an 18-135 mm.

HR: Do you have a certain style to your work?

Babra: Well I’m in Photography 3 so I had to pick a certain concentration to work with for [the semester] and I chose colored portraits. So basically I’m taking photos of people interacting with different colors; I’m using paints, different techniques of colored lighting. My next one I plan to use colored powder.

HR: What is your favorite piece that you’ve shot recently?

Babra: I went to Pittsburg over Spring Break and visited a bunch of different art museums and places like the Carnegie Museum of Art and Phipps Conservatory and I really liked all the pictures I took there.

HR: Do you have any specific photographer or artist that you are inspired by?

Babar: I love Andy Warhol’s work, whether it was his photography or his paintings, he’s work was very abstract in a good way and that’s something I’m inspired by.

HR: Did you have anyone else that inspired you personally?

Babra: I’ve always loved art but my middle school visual arts teacher, Ms. Foster, really is someone who helped me discover that more. She introduced me to Andy Warhol and taught me techniques that I still use to this day but yeah she’s another thing that got me started.

HR: Are you working on any projects at the moment?

Babra: I just finished all of them recently so no, but like I said before I have an idea for an upcoming one.

HR: If you could create any project what would it be?

Babar: Soon I want to do a project focusing on an issue in society today, like body image or racism.

HR: Is there any type of emotion or mood that you try to convey in your work?

Babra: I don’t have an overall message, for me it [varies] on project to project. With the “Pillowtalk” inspired one I wanted it to be very serious and yeah I don’t have a specific one that I like to focus on overall.

HR: What has been one of your biggest achievements with your photography?

Babra: I was selected to be a part of a VSCO’s Selects with honor for a picture I took of my grandmother, that’s basically where they pick their favorite photos that have been uploaded to the site over a certain period of time. So that was really nice to have my work shown like that.

HR: If you could go anywhere in the world to take photos where would you go?

Babra: I’m really into cities and photos of cityscapes so really I would go to any city, but if I had to pick one in specific I would say Tokyo because of all of the lights and it’s a very unique place.

HR: Lastly is there any advice that you have for someone trying to get into photography?

Babra: I would say to bring your camera around with you as much as possible; it’s really true when they say that the best photos are the candid ones.