Under Exposed: Ratul Debnath
Here’s a background that’s sure to inspire you. Let’s get to know recent Windsor resident and commercial photographer Ratul Debnath.
Ratul has a background in mechanical engineering and automotive manufacturing. From the onset of his photography career in 2008, he has looked to study and capture interaction. Interaction of subjects with their environment, interaction of light with shapes, and interaction of colours. This has led to a very diverse portfolio in photography. His visual story telling bares emphasis on colour, lighting and mood. Interaction being his primary focus has led him to excel in environmental portraiture with a drive to show the best in people. Five of his first years in professional photography were working for a luxury lifestyle magazine publication, where he found on-the-job schooling of how photographs and typography interact with graphic overlays and he learned to compose his shots with end use in mind.
Ratul spent his early childhood in Lagos, Nigeria, finished high school in India, and he then immigrated to Canada in the early 2000’s to study mechanical engineering. The need to adapt to drastically diverse environments in the early years was a recipe for creating not only a travelling photographer where he is often shooting on location, but also someone keenly interested in cultural diversity and adaptable to any social landscape. Following work with the magazine, he filmed two unpublished documentaries in BC. He also toured Canada with Juno award winning band Digging Roots as content creator as well as recording sound engineer for an album and walked the red carpet at the 2014 Junos for Indigenous album of the year nomination. More recently, he is working on his second short stop-motion film with his partner Catherine Hois as technical director and photographer. He has been commissioned and published in magazines, bill boards and websites globally, but in his free time, he likes to film and photograph fine art environmental portraits.
He has been fortunate to work with experienced creative teams of brands like Canada Goose, Harley Davidson, Manitobah Mukluks, W Hotels, Welcome Heritage Resort Group (ITC Group), BellStar Group for web, social media and billboards as well as publications like Vogue, Artells, 6x, Pie Magazine, Mob Journal, Untold, Agidel, Fienfh amongst others.
He also has a background in film media having worked as a cinematographer, editor and colourist in short documentaries, music videos and stop motion films.
You can find some more of his work on www.ratulphoto.com
