Beautiful secret

Beautiful Secret began during the stillness of the COVID pandemic, a time when the world slowed down and creative processes were forced to adapt to limitations. During this period of isolation, I began questioning my relationship with photography and the heavy reliance on digital tools that often shape the final image. I wanted to step away from screens and rediscover a more physical and personal way of creating photographs.

The portraits were photographed in my hometown, Mandvi in Surat, with a close friend. Instead of editing the images through digital software, I decided to experiment directly with the printed photographs. I printed the images and began altering them by hand. I asked my sister for her colors and started painting directly onto the prints, allowing chance and material to guide the process.

The early attempts were full of failure. The paper would absorb water, prints became soggy, and colors behaved unpredictably. Many experiments simply did not work. Nearly 300 to 400 prints were lost during this process of trial and error. Eventually, I discovered that black-and-white prints allowed the colors to interact more naturally, and slowly the images began to transform into something unexpected.

Once the physical pieces were complete, another challenge appeared: how to bring these altered prints back into the digital space without losing their authenticity. Using a simple cardboard box and a single flashlight, I re-photographed the prints, allowing light to reveal their textures, imperfections, and handmade qualities.

Beautiful Secret explores the quiet mysteries hidden within a human face—the emotion in the eyes, the stillness around the mouth, and the subtle reflections where viewers may begin to see something of themselves. At the same time, the project is about process: about slowing down, embracing failure, and allowing photography to evolve through physical experimentation rather than digital perfection.

Existing somewhere between photography, painting, and personal exploration, Beautiful Secret reveals how limitation, patience, and repeated failure can lead to a deeper and more intimate form of image-making.

Along with the final images, a few portraits from the original session with Arishna are included here—moments captured during the same shoot where Beautiful Secret began.