Thomas Merton rightly said,  “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” With this, Barun Bordoloi from Assam who describes himself as an introvert and an awkward 21-year-old found comfort in a world where the art of photography and graphic designing enabled him to re-create, re-imagine, and repaint a world of his own.

We chat with this young creative talent – Barun Bordoloi, a self-taught photographer and a colorful graphic designer with dreams that are larger than life – just like his colorful works of art.

• Hi Barun, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hi, I’m Barun Bordoloi from Guwahati, Assam. I am 21 years old and currently an undergrad student (B. com) I love to invest my time in learning and perfecting my photography skills, and also graphic designing. 

• What do you do full-time? and tell us more about your hobby.

I am a full-time student and also a freelance graphic designer for Karate Association of India. I love to CREATE. I love playing with pictures and creating a different world to it. I spend a lot of time creating animatic presentations, motion graphics, matte painting, and digital paintings. I also like using Adobe Photoshop to re-create my photographs. Photography was a hobby I picked up when I was in my late teenage years and

“I mastered adobe photoshop and I slowly incorporated that into pictures I click to give it my personal touch. I also like to draw about social issues happening in our country. “

Barun Bordoloi’s art highlights the issue of the Assam floods, where the floodwaters proved to be deadlier than poachers for the rare one-horned rhinos

“I love to CREATE. I love playing with pictures and creating a different world through my sketches and drawings. This is one thing I love so whenever I am free I make sure to practice and fiddle around with new ideas and subjects. It gives me solace – a different kind of peace I wouldn’t find anywhere else”

• Where do you take inspiration from?

It’s a competitive world and people do expect a lot from you, so it is very important to work hard and be passionate about whatever you do. Talking about inspiration, honestly, I never really had one. It’s just self-motivation I guess. But, of course, I do have good friends from whom I expect sound advice whenever I need any. They also provide a lot of inspiration and positive vibes – which are really important to me; it’s the people close to me who are often my muses.

• What kind of theme or aesthetic that you usually follow?

You can see on my Instagram feed- my posts are mainly about my love for editing and Photoshop. This is where I am able to focus with passion, and also get to show what’s going on in my mind. Using and creating my own sets of presets, I make my pictures colorful.

“I love colors, varieties and new ideas. I am still working on new ideas on how to create and make a picture more like fictional creations. My other art account is where I share my illustrations and graphic artwork. It’s all over the place and I am still learning. I hope to be where I want to be someday soon.”

When a sit-down with friends at the library are as colorful as the world inside the books. Art by Barun

Barun turns Guwahati Junction railway station into a sci-fi set

• What do you hope people take away from your work?

I hope to inspire people to dream. I started from scratch and we all start somewhere – but I have learned so much on the way, and met so many well-wishers. I hope that people see something in my work that will help them see through their own dreams and believe in themselves. With the progress I make in my work, I want people to also take a step forward toward their own dreams.

• Beautiful. So tell us about your latest work/ project.

The recent project that I just finished a few days ago was about branding a karate tournament. The whole designing section was my job so I had to make the prospectus, create logos for different clubs, and design creatives. I am currently working on illustrating portraits, hopefully, I can start commission work soon too.

Follow Barun Bordoloi on Instagram to see his beautiful creations of his Photography and artwork!