Last year, Karan collaborated with makeup artist Nadira V Persaud on a personal project showcasing her makeup work (see this blog post). In April 2012, Karan once again worked with Nadira, and the resulting images play a central role in the new “Beauty” gallery on his website.

“I have been interested in this style of portraiture for a long time,” said Karan, “and have now given beauty photography a dedicated area on my website. Do take a look.”

The project began as a collaboration between Art Director Martin Yates and Nadira. Martin saw the previous beauty shoot and wanted to work together. He approached Karan and the project grew from there.

During the shoot, Karan and Nadira worked to a brief, concentrating on creating the three distinct looks you see here. “The three models each have their own brand of beauty and their own distinct style,” explained Karan, “and were perfectly suited to the three looks we worked towards. It was lovely working with Martin, who came up with come great ideas. The collaboration between myself, Martin and Nadira worked like a dream. We only had a few hours with each girl, but worked well together and managed to create some great stuff.”

The brief for the shoot included a “less is more” feel for skin and hair, with both Nadira and Karan working hard to create and capture luminosity and the natural beauty of skin.

Nadira V Persaud blogged about the shoot here. To see more of Karan’s beauty headshots and portraiture work, see his Beauty gallery on his website.

Art Director: Martin Yates
Makeup artist: Nadira V Persaud
Photographer: Karan Kapoor
Models: Cassandra at BMI, Keeley at nEVS, Shumi at Nevs
Retoucher: Sinisa Savic

Beauty photography and new gallery is a post from Karan Kapoor’s blog. His main website is here.

Although he is best-known as a successful commercial and editorial photographer, Karan has a keen interest in video and its use in multi-media projects. He was recently commissioned by Royal Caribbean Cruises, the high-end cruise company. As part of a big-budget advertising and awareness campaign, the Times Square shuttle in New York City was transformed into a cruise vacation experience throughout February 2012.

Karan’s input into project had two parts: video work, involving shooting interviews with passengers and staff of Royal Caribbean Cruises and and filming seacapes, and photographic work using seascapes and shots of the ship itself. The videos and images were then used to turn subway carriages into replicas of the cruise ship, as part of the innovative promotional project.

“I’ve done video work in the past,” said Karan. “These days I believe that all photographers should be able to do both, as most commercial jobs demand at least one short bit of video to go on the internet or alongside a banner ad. This was a bit of an unusual commission, though, as I was originally only asked to do the video but then ended up taking the photographs, too.”

Karan describes one particular high point of the shoot: “We needed to get aerial shots of the bay in Haiti,” he said. “In order to get the shot, the Art Director and I ended up on a parasail, which was great fun but a bit terrifying. We got the shot we needed, though!”

These images show snapshots of the resulting installation.

Photographer: Karan Kapoor
Client: Royal Caribbean
Agency: J Walter Thompson
Art Director: Carlos Fernandez
Art Buyer: Sara Clark

Royal Caribbean Cruises video project is a post from Karan Kapoor’s blog. His main website is here.

Commercial photography for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship

Just before Christmas, Karan was asked to shoot the promotional images for the HSBC-sponsored Abu Dhabi Golf Championships. It was a whirlwind job: Karan flew to Dubai on the Friday, shot on location at the Abu Dhabi golf course on the Sunday, spent part of Monday in a Dubai studio and was home doing post-production work late on Monday. The job was finished on Christmas Eve.

The tournament, which finished a few days ago on 29th January, is one of the biggest events on the PGA European Tour. This year’s event was won by Englishman Robert Rock, who held off giants of the game including Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods.

The brief given to Karan from Tristan, the Creative Director at JWT Dubai was “the giants are coming” and so the notion of giants formed the heart of this commercial brief. Each shot for the campaign needed a Gulliver’s Travels feel, to signal the arrival of golfing’s greatest. The images demonstrate gigantic versions of players and their kit with spectators and families looking up in awe as the sport’s finest gather to compete.

The campaign needed to not only encourage golf fans to come to the tournament but also had to appeal to families and couples who could have a nice day out on the golf course.

“I really enjoyed this job,” said Karan. “It was a joy to work with Tristan and Joseph at JWT, and all credit goes to Hikmat, the production manager from Magnet Photo Productions, who did a wonderful job of pulling everything together in such a short period of time.”

Agency: JWT Dubai
Creative Director: Tristan Fitzgerald
Art Director: Joseph Alipio
Retouching: Sinisa Savic
Production Manager : Hikmat Ghandour (Magnet Photo Productions)

Commercial photography for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship is a post from Karan Kapoor’s blog. His main website is here.

In November 2011, Karan was interviewed for a feature in Digital SLR Photography, the UK’s popular photography magazine. Features Editor Caroline Wilkinson wanted to find out about Karan’s work, particularly the extensive amount of underwater photography he’s done throughout his career, for clients including Atlantis Resorts in Dubai and Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant.

“For some reason, my work always tends to be about water,” says Karan. “So I was very happy to talk to Digital SLR Photography magazine about the challenges of underwater photography and the techniques I use.”

Many of Karan’s commercial and advertising commissions have had an aquatic element, needing him to work underwater as well as from dry land.obs where I need to go underwater as well as be on land. “I’ve always been connected to water,” he says, “so, in a way, it’s fate that my career took this focus. It’s just one aspect of what I do, but it does sum up my most iconic work. Underwater work has always been an important part of my portfolio and my profile.”

Karan, who used to swim and play water polo as a child, still swims several times a week. “I love being in the water,” he says, ” and my kids love it, too. My wife however prefers to watch us swimming from the warmth of a sun lounger on the beach!”

For more information about the techniques and kit Karan uses for underwater commissions, and details of some of his underwater projects, click on the images to read the article.

Did you see the interview in Digital SLR Photography magazine? What did you think?

Waterworks interview in Digital SLR magazine is a post from Karan Kapoor’s blog. His main website is here.

In October 2011, Karan collaborated with leading makeup artist Nadira V Persaud on a personal project which was a little different to his typical photography work.

“Nadira asked me to work with her on this personal project to showcase her makeup work,” Karan explains. “It was totally different to the type of photography I usually do, and we were both really pleased with how it turned out. The shoot had its challenges – it took a bit of time to find the right models – but the end result is great. The look is really interesting.”

Karan has done beauty photography in the past but, as he explains, it is usually character- or personality-driven, such as the shoot he did for Olay featuring Twiggy.

“This shoot was really enjoyable,” Karan says of the Nadira V Persaud project. “It wasn’t as action-packed and energy-driven as my usual stuff, but it was very calming. It was nice to be in the studio when it was cold outside! Usually I’m outdoors competing with the elements.”

Nadira blogged about the shoot here

Nadira’s blog
Nadira’s website

Models: Rose from Models One and Egle from Nevs Model Agency
Photographer: Karan Kapoor
Make up and hair: Nadira V Persaud
Retoucher: Sinisa Savic

Beauty shoot with Nadira V Persaud is a post from Karan Kapoor’s blog. His main website is here.