Through My Own Lens - Pratibha Gihar

Self-photography or self filming has always been with us—artists, seekers, wanderers turning the gaze inward. But why are we drawn to make ourselves both the subject and the witness? Perhaps it is an ancient instinct: to preserve, to understand, to hold a mirror up not to vanity, but to existence itself.

I have been creating self-portraits for years, almost searching for the answer in each frame. I can’t fully explain why I take them—only that something alchemical happens afterwards. The beginning, the process, the end—it feels like ritual: part therapy, part play, part proof that I belong to myself. 

Maybe it’s just fun, maybe it’s creation for creation’s sake, a thing made by me, of me, for me—wholly mine.


I was thirteen when it began. My first camera—a Yashica, a little Japanese brand—loaded with fragile Kodak reels where every shot felt precious, the weight of not wasting a single negative pressing down. Compared to that, life feels easy now.


Since then, each picture has been a small story I’ve curated. A story that will live longer than the moment. Because when I am old, I want to look back—not at perfection, but at memory itself—and smile at the life I shaped through my own lens.


Happy Clicking 😊 

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