Mangalore: Vivek Sequeira is India's Wedding Photographer of the Year

Media Release

Mangalore/Mumbai, Jul 10: After a record breaking 24,648 entries from all over India across 6 categories, many rounds of judging with a panel of an incredible 118 judges from all over the world, an exhilarating face-off challenge ensued in Mumbai for the 6 winners. Finally, Mangalore-based photographer, Vivek Sequeira was adjudged as the Canvera-Better Photography Wedding Photographer of the Year 2012.

Vivek was chosen by a panel comprising legendary wedding photographer Prakash Tilokani, famed editorial and documentary photographer Fawzan Hussain, and CEO of Percept Sports and Entertainment Aditya Motwane. 

Into its 4th edition, this contest is the biggest of its kind in India and amongst the biggest in the world.

What is, perhaps, quite amazing is that Vivek Sequira has been a winner in different categories in all four editions of the annually instated Better Photography Wedding photographer of The Year Awards so far, and has emerged the final winner both in the 2010 edition and this year, in the 2012 edition of the awards.

“It has been an incredible journey,” said Vivek Sequeira. “A wedding comes only once. Those special moments last for just a fraction of a second. I realize that I am here because I take my responsibility of capturing memories very seriously. Yet, this has also been an extremely humbling experience because I see the quality of work that has been submitted for these awards and they are all superbly good. I am so happy that Better Photography has created this platform for us. It gives wedding photographers from all over the country a chance to become known and be remembered, and to feel proud about the fact that our profession is important, unique and challenging.”

This was Viveks 4th National  Award in a row in Wedding Photographer of the Year contest. He has been nominated in 8 categories in 4 years and won in 4 different categories.

2009 - Winner in Couple portraiture category.
2010 - Winner in Bridal Portraiture & Wedding Photographer of the Year 2010.
2011 - Winner in Behind the scenes category.
2012 - Winner in Family & Friends & Wedding Photographer of the Year 2012.

Vinay Vincent Sequeira, younger brother of Vivek, was also nominated among the top 5 in photo series of a single wedding category this year.

Award winning pic

Face-off challenge entries

Senthil Kumar, a photographer with Amazon.com, was extremely excited to win the final award. As the grand prize, Senthil won a HTC One smartphone, among other exciting prizes and gifts.

The competition was organized by Better Photography, India’s leading photography magazine in close partnership with Canvera, India’s leading photobook publishing company. Also associated with Better Photography for the Awards were Photoquip, Wedding Vows, Tamrac, Taj Land End, weddingsutra.com and CNBC TV18. The glittering award night, where the winners were finally announced, and felicitated saw a large presence from both sides of the photography fraternity… senior photographers as well as the manufacturers.

An incredible 121 judges selected the winners this year

The Wedding Photographer of the year Awards is not just the only awards of its kind in the country, but also unique across the world. Participants were allowed free entry into one or more of 6 categories, which included a photoessay category as well. 

After several rounds of eliminations, 6 eminent validation judges (Founder, Dinodia Photo Agency, Jagdish Agarwal, industrial and commercial photographer Hari Mahidhar, renowned Wedding photographers Milind Ketkar and Bipin Mistry, Executive Editor of Mid-Day Sachin Kalbag, and Founder and Dean of Shari Academy Girish Mistry) were invited to go through every single image, both selected and those eliminated, to validate the final selection of entries to move into the next round.

Beyond this, the selected entries were shown to a panel of 112 judges from all over the world (which included eminent wedding photographers, photographers from other genres, newly-wed couples, parents of newly-wed couples, designers, stylists and wedding planners). This panel decided the nominees and winners across each of the 6 categories.

The six category winners were:

Category Family & Friends
Vivek Sequeira (a wedding photographer from Mangalore)

Category Bridal Portraiture
Tarun Chawla (a wedding photographer from New Delhi)

Category Couple Portraiture 
Chenthil Bharatimohan (a wedding photographer from Bangalore)

Category Emotions
Prasanta Singha (a wedding photographer from Kolkata)

Category Behind The Scenes
Riddhi Parekh (a wedding photographer from Mumbai)

Category Photoseries On A Single Wedding
Sutirtha Basu (a wedding photographer from Kolkata)

The chosen six winners were flown to Mumbai for a unique face-off challenge spread across three days of making some very creative pre-wedding photographs for a couple. Each photographer was given a time constraint of 4 hours to individually photograph a couple, and then the next 24 hours to choose, edit and submit a final selection of 15 images.

A panel of three judges - one of India’s biggest wedding photographers Prakash Tilokani, famed editorial and documentary photographer Fawzan Hussain, and CEO of Percept Sports and Entertainment Aditya Motwane, selected the winner based on a review of their portfolios, face-off submissions, and a panel interview with each of the six finalists. The panel eventually rested the title of Wedding Photographer of the Year 2012 on Vivek Sequeira.

According to Prakash Tilokani, “These awards are a great platform, not just for buidding talent but for professional wedding photographers all over the country. This is all the more so because this contest is free to participate. While all the finalists displayed excellent creativity, Vivek Sequeira edged over the competition because of his consistency in quality and his overall knowledge of the subject. A wedding photographer needs to be a quick thinker and must be able to deliver excellent results in situations that can be extremely physically and creatively demanding. Moreover, a wedding photographer also needs to be an able marketing person, must be able to carry himself or herself well, and make an impact.”

Better Photography editor, K Madhavan Pillai said “If you think about it, the pictures that are remembered and that last for generations are not the great works of art, but the ones close to our hearts, in very own our family and wedding albums. For decades, wedding photographers have been making these wonderful images, and it is time that the best amongst them deservingly be in the limelight. I am gratified that the platform we created has seen such a wonderful response from such fantastic memory makers. I am even more thrilled to know that these awards have also been instrumental in furthering the careers of each of the winners. I am already looking forward to the next years wedding photographer of the Year Awards.”

The contest was promoted on a large scale through television promotions on CNBC TV18, CNN IBN, Awaaz, CNN IBN, IBN Lokmat, magazine advertisements in Better Photography, Overdrive, T3, Chip, AV Max, Better Interiors, Entrepreneur, Burrp, Noise Factory along with banner ads across web18 sites including In.com , Moneycontrol.com , Ibnlive, Ibn khabar, Cricketnext.com  and e-mailers to the vast Network 18 database.

About Better Photography

Better Photography has been one of the leading photography magazines in India and South Asia for over sixteen years now. It is published by Network 18 Publishing, one of India’s leading publishing houses. The magazine’s primary audience includes serious enthusiasts and amateurs and covers a wide variety of content. Basic and advanced level techniques, reviews of latest cameras and photography gadgets along with interviews with the most reputed photographers from around the world forms the core of the content of Better Photography.