How did your journey in mobile photography begin?
My journey into mobile photography started quite casually. I didn't have access to professional camera gear, so my phone became the tool I always had with me. What began as simple documentation of everyday scenes gradually turned into a way of observing the world more closely. Over time, I became fascinated by how ordinary subjects could transform into something more evocative. Mobile photography gave me the freedom to experiment without overthinking the technical side. Eventually, I started exploring monochrome, abstract imagery, and intentional camera movement, using photography as a way to express ideas about memory, identity, and urban life. What I love most is that mobile photography proves that compelling images come more from seeing than from the equipment itself. The phone simply became my sketchbook for visual storytelling.
When was the first time you experimented with ICM (Intentional Camera Movement)?
I came to know about this form from Instagram, and what captivated me immediately was how much different it was both technically and in impact from traditional documentary photography. How much more evocative, painterly, and in a way, psychological everyday scenes and objects could become. I was hooked, and started experimenting and honing myself.
How has your experience with ICM evolved over the years?
Well, I'm still relatively new to it, and continuously experimenting and chasing that perfect shot—the shot that could capture not just what I see, but what it makes me feel. Because I believe in the end, that's what we chase as artists: the ability to show others what we feel, and hopefully, make them feel something as well. So, yes, I'm still experimenting with various forms and techniques, still learning, and still continuing to evolve.
What draws you to mobile photography over traditional cameras?
The easy accessibility—the fact that in our current day and time, our mobile phone is something we almost always have with us. Also, it helps me avoid the traps of gear mania and focus on just what I see.
What photo best represents your ICM style, and what's the story behind it?
This image, which I titled "Ephemeral Crossings," is particularly interesting to me in the way it made me think of how even fleeting meetings between people can leave an impact on our lives, maybe not always in profound ways, but in subtle manners.
Walk us through a shot that shows the movement and flow in your ICM work.
The flower was pretty, but amongst all the others blooming, it was lost in the crowd, in a manner of speaking. I wanted to bring it into focus and provide it with the so-called main character energy. I believe that we all could do to view ourselves in this light once in a while. Because lost in the crowd, even we feel we're nothing special at times; this image spoke to me as a visual metaphor for that, as a metaphor for how we could all shine, even when the world is spinning into chaos.
Share a series of ICM images that tell a visual story, and explain the feeling behind it.
This series transforms ordinary urban scenes into fragments of memory. These photographs suggest that urban life is experienced not as a sequence of clear moments but as fleeting impressions. People pass. Streets blur into one another. Light overwhelms detail. What remains are emotional residues. Almost as if we are drifting through the city, unable to hold onto people, places, or moments as they continually dissolve into memory.
Show us a before-and-after edit of one of your ICM photos, and describe your editing process.
I just cropped the scene to reduce the empty foreground and gave it a black and white treatment to strip away the colors and leave only the sense of urgency and speed, the act of going somewhere where this man needed to reach.
Tell us about a photo where you experimented with colors or light using ICM, and why you chose that subject.
This photograph demonstrates my fascination with the interplay of light and shadow, and how it can transform a mundane, overlooked object—an AC vent in our office in this case—into something entirely different and otherworldly.
What challenges did you face while capturing the video showing your ICM technique?
Well, as you can see, the final photograph is not very clear in the video; also, these movements which I use to gain a painterly effect are very random and not really reproducible or imitable. It's all about experimenting and trying various movements and taking multiple shots till you find one which you like.
Contact and Follow
Email: ikishan2007@gmail.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debdipmaitra/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debdip.maitra1
