When Artists Interact: how my journey as a fashion photographer led me to Adil Ahmad’s magnificent home
When you go to a city (that your family calls hometown) for a fashion project, you don’t expect a celebrated interior designer to invite you to stay at his place. But, as they say, it’s the most unexpected things in life that end up being the best.
When Adil Ahmad invited me to his family residence in the heart of Lucknow, I assumed I knew what Lucknow’s architecture stood for. Turns out, I didn’t! The whimsical, opulent property was the most perfect manifestation of its owner's creative sensibilities: warm, cultured, and all-encompassing. What stood out most for me was how Adil had incorporated the colonial heritage of his city with the history of his own life and family, evident in photographs and collectables dotted all around the home. Nothing stimulates my photographer tendencies like an environment that transports me to another world altogether, and that's precisely what I felt in my week-long stay in this place.
My experience was amplified by the hospitality and grace of the people of the city: if the home's textures were warm and soft, the ones of the city’s people were twice as much. It made sense that such a vibrant property would exist in a city as stately as Lucknow.
Being an artist myself, living in his home felt like an opening into the mind of another artist that I respect wholeheartedly. Not only did I get to photograph the effortlessly luxurious spaces of his home, I got an opportunity to know this incredible man and his life a whole lot better, and this is something I will forever be grateful for.
One afternoon, post the completion of my project, I thought of preserving the memories of this majestic home in my photos as a return ticket. I did so to honour Adil and Lucknow’s generosity and warmth, and to have the chance of reliving these memories again.
I sincerely hope that I can do this piece of art the justice that it deserves. Here’s to Lucknow, to Adil, and to the feeling of home they gave me!
