Twenty-five years of
South Asian weddings.

Khurram never planned to become a photographer. In 2000 a cousin saw that he had an eye for pictures and steered him toward a camera, which happened to be his father's. His father photographed as a hobby, and he became Khurram's only teacher, starting with how a camera works and moving on to everything after the shutter: developing, printing, drying and assembling albums by hand.

He learned on 35mm film, where a roll had to be finished and then sat at the lab for days. With no screen to check, he kept a notebook of every frame, the settings he used and what he expected to see. When the prints came back, he compared them to his notes and figured out where he had gone wrong.

There were no online tutorials or courses to lean on. He gave himself problems to solve and worked at them until the image matched the one in his head. A quarter of a century later, he still says every wedding teaches him something new.

Weddings became his focus, and he finds them calming, which surprises people. Most couples have never done this before and have no idea where to stand or what to do with their hands. His favorite part is taking that worry away and guiding them through the day, so they get to enjoy their own wedding instead of managing it.

He thinks that is why couples keep recommending him. Styles in wedding photography change every few years, but what he learned on film, where every wasted frame cost money, was about getting it right rather than following a trend. Couples he photographed twenty years ago still love their albums, and that is the only test he cares about.

The rest he learned in the rooms themselves. He studied the traditions as well as the shot lists: not just how to film a nikkah, but what the words of acceptance mean; not just where to stand during the Anand Karaj, but why the laavan unfold the way they do. None of those moments can be staged a second time, and the studio grew because couples told each other that this team already knew their traditions.