PHOTOSHOOT WITH A BICYCLE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AWARENESS

After my maiden and a successful photoshoot on my birthday with a bicycle in September 2022, I am back again with another one. This time the content is more intriguing and has a global appeal for climate change.

I partnered with Sachin Jaiswal, my school friend who is a photographer and runs a studio at Juhu in Mumbai. Sachin does outdoor and indoor photography that includes personal portfolios, product shoots, business photography etc. He also does video editing and some of his clients are e-commerce websites and edutech companies.

Concept:

The central fashion theme of this photo shoot is “Monotone” look. Monotone fashion is all about wearing the same color tone from head to toe.

I opted to go for four monotone sub themes –

• All brown look that represents soil
• Complete green look which depicts plants and trees
• Full blue attire for sky and water
• Black outfit for the carbon fumes and air pollution

The idea is to use colors based on the elements of nature, raise issues related to soil, water, and air pollution; and communicate the message of climate change via using cycling and fashion as a force for good.

A Bicycle is clearly one of the best tools to negate the effects of global warming. Hence, a bicycle stood out as my undisputed and the chief prop for this photo shoot. I used my Trek FX3 hybrid bicycle for this photoshoot.

Look One: Save the Soil

My brown attire has an instant connect with the ‘Save the Soil’ campaign started by Sadhguru Adi Yogi of Isha Foundation.

“Save Soil is a global movement launched by Sadhguru, to address the soil crisis by bringing together people from around the world to stand up for soil health, and supporting leaders of all nations to institute national policies and actions towards increasing the organic content in cultivable soil” states their website conciousplanet.org

“If you want to have food, conserve the soil dude.”

To highlight this issue, I wore an earthy brown jacket, with mud brown trousers, coffee coloured shirt, brown boots, and mixed it up with wayfarer glasses, a neck scarf and a brick shade tie with a waistcoat.

Presenting my top photos from this theme:

Look Two: Rally for Rivers

Rally for Rivers is another campaign initiated by Sadhguru of Isha Foundation. This campaign combines consciousness and meditation to transform our rivers.

The website isha.foundation.org explains “Rally for Rivers is a movement to save India’s lifeline. Drawing thousands of people at over 180 public events, the Rally became the largest public endorsed, mass awareness campaign in history and continues to take practical measures and offer solutions.”

“Time to care before streams are bare”.

Since the color blue also represents sky, I opted for an all-blue fashion look. I slipped into a stonewash jeans, sky blue shirt, classic blue denim jacket, a navy blue tie, brown boots and paired it up with sun glasses to compliment the theme.

Introducing a few photos from this look:

Look Three: Save Trees and plant more Trees

Save Trees is a universal campaign taken up by almost every society, school children, college students, business houses, global leaders, NGO’s, environment activists and a sizable population on this planet.

Several cycling groups in Mumbai have conducted tree plantation rides and ‘seed bombing rides’ in which they make seed balls and throw them in the bushes at the beginning of the monsoon season. Rest, nature shows its magic.

It is a known fact that planting more trees will also add to the earth’s natural beauty. Trees fight water pollution and prevent soil erosion. They prevent pollutants from flowing into water sources. The easiest way we can defend climate change, global warming and environmental pollution is by saving and planting trees.

“Don’t make trees rare, keep them with care.”

This look was completed with a green trouser, green shirt, camouflage jacket, leaf green muffler, mat finish green tie, and a camouflage pouch.

Revealing the best photographs from all green and natural look:

Look Four: Air Pollutants

Air pollution is a common problem faced by most urban cities in the world. The deteriorating air quality is a major concern causing health issues to millions of people. Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai are some of the most polluted Indian cities in the world according to the world health organization.

“Stop being mean and keep the air clean.”

To highlight this problem, my fashion theme is all black with a little bit of grey which signifies smoke, fumes and carbon emissions. I opted to wear black bottoms, black shirt, black and grey jackets, black hat, black glasses and used a bicycle as a symbol of clean and clear air which we all need for our good health and well-being.

Enjoy the last lot of the photos from this theme:

I hope you all enjoyed reading this article and liked the photographs. What I expect you to do is join the movement of sustainability. The easiest way is to purchase a bicycle and start riding. Plus there are many other ways through which you can be a climate change warrior. Simply join the local community and get into action.

I am thankful to Sachin Jaiswal for his awesome photography, for his approval to accommodate my bicycle in his studio, for his editing; and listening to me with patience while I met him for briefing sessions.

Finally, don’t restrict yourself and share your feedback in the comments section below. It will help me to come up with new and disruptive ideas in my future blogs.

Photo credits: Sachin Jaiswal. You can contact him for photography +91 98199 29962

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Author: Vijay Malhotra, Mumbai