With input from Disha Arora, Senior Fellow, Banyan Impact Fellowship
In this blog, I share both my personal insights along with key takeaways from my conversation with my mentor, Disha. The bold italicized text shows the questions that I posed, while the italicized text displays Disha’s thoughtful responses. The standard text is reflective of my perspective.
As I begin to navigate a career filled with more creative pursuits, I spoke to Senior Fellow and feminist filmmaker, Disha Arora, about her experience striking the balance between personal enjoyment and professional growth in the communications sector. She has taken the time to share her valuable insights from her ongoing career in communications.
Exploring Personal Interests
I have been interested in photography my whole life. The idea of capturing personal moments, preserving family history, and creating scrapbooks of our memories strongly pulled me in. My relationship with photography throughout time is constantly changing. Sometimes, I use it purely as a medium to capture moments in time. Other times, I enjoy getting more experimental in the shots captured. When I reflect back on my various ventures into experimenting with photography as a kid, there are a number of one-off occasions that come to mind, such as receiving a small video camera for Christmas or using my savings in high school to purchase a DSLR. Despite not maintaining a consistent connection to growing these technical skills throughout my youth, it is an interest that I have continually come back to. Now, as an adult, with a longer attention span and more patience, I realize that this is a life-long interest. Over the past few years, I have since taken photography classes, gained more technical skills, and overall, spent more consistent time exploring this hobby.
Prior to going to school for journalism and mass communications, did you personally enjoy storytelling? In the same vein, did you personally enjoy photography/cinematography prior to making your film “Women and Religion in India”? How did these large scale professional endeavors affect your relationship with these mediums?
Disha Arora: Yes, I did enjoy storytelling. It’s one of those things that, now when I look back, I’ve enjoyed since a very young age. It was my high school English teacher who recommended that I pursue mass communications or journalism because of my interest in storytelling.
I think the documentary “Women and Religion in India” came out of my passion for the topic. Since my medium is film, I pursued it. If I were good at writing, I would have done that instead. But yes, I did enjoy the technical parts and learned along the way. I’m still not very good at technical skills, but I try not to let that stop me from doing what I want to do.
I think being driven by my goal helps me not feel overwhelmed by the technical parts. And somewhere in there, the joy of using this medium kicks in too, especially when you solve a technical problem or see the final product.
Mixing Personal Enjoyment and Professional Growth
For a number of reasons, there is value in the fact that now, I have both a personal interest in photography, and it directly relates to my career. It is enjoyable as a hobby, but there is the additional component that now, working in communications, having an eye for photography and visual expression is a part of my work. When my personal hobbies and my professional goals align, it creates a structure to keep me on track in developing more technical and artistic skills. While I greatly enjoy this creative work, there is also a part of me that worries that if I spend all my working hours on these tasks, I will start to enjoy them less in my personal time.
Has your career in filmmaking and communications ever led you to grow tired of thinking from this angle all the time? For example, do you ever wish your 9-5 could be more straightforward, and you could enjoy creative pursuits on your personal time?
DA: Honestly, not really. I genuinely love what I do, and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to turn my passion into a career especially in the social impact space. I know a lot of people don’t get the chance to make a living doing something they actually enjoy, so I don’t take that for granted. Sure, there are moments of frustration, like when deadlines pile up, or I feel like I’m not hitting the mark creatively, and yes, imposter syndrome can creep in sometimes. Even in those moments, the good far outweighs the bad.
The thing is, for me, there’s no hard line between my professional and personal creative pursuits. They kind of feed into each other. The skills I use at work help me grow creatively, and that growth spills over into my personal life, and vice versa. I think if I were to ever feel like my 9-5 was draining me, I’d take it as a sign that I need to reconnect with why I started in the first place: to tell stories, to create, and to make something meaningful.
It is inherently impossible to not focus on the outcome when you are using a skill for professional reasons. If you need several photos for a publication, it doesn’t matter whether you enjoyed the process or not. The amount of joy you experienced messing around with a camera simply cannot replace a necessary deliverable. In some ways, this naturally creates more stringent rules to work under. There is a certain pressure to deliver results which can cause stress, but guidelines and limits can also often inspire creativity. If I am casually clicking photos on my daily commute trying to capture a few random shots of the beauty of Delhi NCR, I may fall short of expressing this loose vision as there are no specific guidelines that I’m trying to find or story that I am trying to tell. However, if I was told to come back with a photo series on daily wage workers in Delhi, I would now have a specific goal and story that I am looking for ways to express. These parameters can create more room for imagination and inspire me to think outside of the box. Maybe then this would inspire me to start taking photographs of impromptu scenes of community around chai wala stands in my own free time.
How do you find ways to maintain an exciting and fresh approach for working in a creative field?
DA: It’s definitely not always easy. Working in a creative field can be just as exhausting as it is rewarding because you’re constantly trying to push boundaries, avoid repetition, and keep things fresh. For me, I think the key is to stay curious and remain open to learning. I try not to get too comfortable in what I already know, so I’m always experimenting. This may look like trying new techniques, exploring new apps, or even just consuming different kinds of work. I spend time analyzing what resonates with people, what sticks with them emotionally, what they remember, and why. That process of learning and unlearning helps me avoid falling into creative monotony. Also, I follow the work of other creators, subscribe to niche newsletters, and have conversations with young and experienced people in the industry.
Another thing I’ve realized is that the context of the work matters a lot. It’s not just about making something beautiful or impactful. It’s about understanding where and how people will experience it. These days, the platform is just as important as the message, so I invest time in understanding where my work will be consumed. Whether it’s film, post, or other forms of content, I think about how it fits into the medium and how it’ll connect with the audience.
Maintaining Your Vision
Another benefit of enjoying photography both in and outside of the work place is that it allows me to refine and preserve my style. In a professional setting, there may be specific factors that are more important than my aesthetic preferences. At moments, this could be frustrating when you have a vision that cannot be executed in an on-going project; however, it is beneficial in the larger scheme as I am being pushed outside of my comfort zone. If I like the end result, I have a new tool in my belt for personal style. If it does not work for me, I can continue exploring my own style outside of the workplace.
How do you balance personal style in both your personal and professional endeavors while also exploring new techniques? As you are spending more time working with these skills, do you feel it allows you more time to think outside the box or does the professional work keep you working in “standardized” modes, only allowing for creativity in your personal hobbies?
DA: There’s definitely a certain level of standardization in professional work and it’s kind of inevitable, especially when you’re working within a brand or an organization. And honestly, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Standardization can be helpful for consistency and for building a recognizable identity. But for me, the fun/challenge lies in finding ways to experiment within those boundaries. I see it as a personal challenge to push myself creatively while still staying true to the brand or the project’s goals. It’s like a puzzle, and solving it is really satisfying.
As for my personal style, I think it naturally shows up in everything I do, whether it’s personal or professional. Even when I’m working within a specific framework, my perspective and creative voice find their way into the work. I don’t think it’s something you can really shut off. That being said, I do think personal projects give me more freedom to push boundaries and try things that feel riskier.
Additionally, working with a camera during the work day can make the hobby and exploratory time more fun. If you are doing an activity for a professional outcome, the parameters give direction; however, it can be fun when you’re allowed to think outside the box and do whatever you think looks the best in the moment.
Do you feel it is a gift to be able to develop skills such as photography, and then you can use this to better capture personal moments? Or do you not like to blur these lines and think in the same manner as you do for work when you are with friends and family?
DA: It’s absolutely a gift. I love that I get to use my skills to capture personal moments, it’s something I really value. Whether it’s taking a photo of my niece or candid pictures of my friends, it’s so special to be able to preserve those moments in a meaningful way. And yeah, it’s great for gifting too. It’s like giving them a piece of time.
That said, when I’m with friends and family, I don’t approach it with the same level of seriousness as I would for work. I’m not thinking about technical perfection or whether the framing is just right at all times. So many of the moments are about the experience we’re having together. Those photos aren’t meant to be “art”; they’re just meant to hold memories. And honestly, some of my favorite photos are the imperfect ones—the ones where someone is laughing too hard, or the lighting’s a bit off, but you can feel the moment when you look at it.
Looking Forward
I find myself simultaneously intimidated and excited at the prospect that I will continue exploring my personal hobby of photography alongside my journey of professional development; however, I feel greatly encouraged by the wisdom and mentorship of Disha. Our conversations on this subject provided me with an optimistic framework where I see that there can be a lot of joy and magic around hidden corners in this sector. We are stronger when we bring our collective knowledge together, and I am grateful for the opportunity to gain these insights. I strongly look forward to developing these skills both in and outside of the workplace, alongside a lifetime of learning.
