Ankit’s mother with relatives at their home in Raghubir Nagar in West Delhi on Friday. (Express Photo/Praveen Khanna)
Ankit Saxena (23) never enrolled himself in a professional photography course. Instead, he learnt the art of taking shots, judging the light and framing his pictures from YouTube videos. He then applied to a professional studio and learnt drone photography — the current rage at weddings.
“He used to spend hours learning how to take photos from a drone. Amateur photographers like us earn our income from wedding assignments. During his last assignment, he managed to get some good shots from a drone,” Aman, Ankit’s childhood friend, said.
After he finished Class XII from a local school in Ashok Nagar, his family said he joined the arts stream from Delhi University’s School of Open Learning. “He decided to become a photographer right after graduation. He had started out with small assignments before he landed a few modelling shoots,” said his aunt, Kusum.
With his death, relatives said the family lost their only earning member. “His father, Yashpal, took to running his electronic parts business from home after a heart attack two years ago. His mother, Kamlesh, had recently undergone a surgery. He was their only support,” his aunt said.
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Ankit’s family said he also worked at a sales marketing office in the locality. He earned Rs 20,000 a month and made extra money by taking up outstation assignments. His colleagues at the studio said Ankit was assigned to wedding shoots in Ludhiana, Jhansi, Punjab and Rajasthan. “His last outstation assignment was in Agra around two months ago”, a colleague said.
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His friends, meanwhile, are still confused by claims that he was in a relationship with a woman from a minority community. “Ankit and the woman were my best friends. They were close… if they were in a relationship, I would have known,” Aman said. With his death, his mother said: “The son is supposed to be the pallbearer at his father’s funeral, not the other way around.”
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