Five visual artists celebrating their authentic selves on social media

These image-makers share what it takes to be real on social media

Social media has transformed from a platform to share the small moments of your life to creating a business out of it. Given that most of our feeds are filled with sponsored content from influencers and content creators, a bevy of Indian stylists, creative directors and visual artists are a breath of fresh air when it comes to curating an account that is exceedingly unique, visually appealing and authentically true to their identity.

Naveli Choyal (@navelichoyal)

Naveli Choyal’s 15,000 followers love her for sharing a glimpse into the local and rural life of India. Scroll through the comments section of her posts and you’ll find lots of heart emojis in appreciation of the mundanity, normality and beauty of life that we tend to overlook. “I like to use still images as my medium to narrate stories of everyday life and talk about the relevance of age-old objects in today’s fast-paced lifestyles,” says Choyal, a photographer, stylist and art director who shuttles between New Delhi and Ajmer. Having grown up in the small town of Ajmer, Choyal has developed an understanding of local cultural elements which she tries to capture in her images, whether it’s a carousel of local women adorning their hair with flowers or buffalos taking a dip in the river during hot summers. “I was surrounded by people who were still connected to their roots and had a deeper understanding and respect for the traditions, land and people,” she says. Having previously worked as a designer at Raw Mango, Choyal’s background in fashion and textile has led her to work with some of the most underrated artisanal brands from India, such as Hemper, Tigra Tigra and House of Wandering Silks and international labels like Loq and Dear Abigael, to which she lends the lenses of what reflects India in technicolour. “My idea is to share everyday life from my culture, my home and my travel experiences,” she explains.

Nidhi Jacob (@thehiddenbutton)

In her Instagram bio, Nidhi Jacob describes herself as “granny gangster/always enjoying like anything” to her 11,900 followers. Her Instagram is an intimate reflection of the simple everyday things, to which she adds a melancholic touch by zooming in the lenses on reality. “I have had poor eyesight for most of my life; when I started taking photographs I used whichever form of camera I had at hand to go as close as possible to the subject. There's magic in transmuting the sense of loss into wonder as the camera creates a whole new landscape simply by zooming in,” explains Jacob. As a stylist and a creative director, Jacob has worked in the fashion industry for over a decade now and has dabbled with multiple forms of visual content, from blogging and photography to advertising and films. These experiences have helped her express herself in a way that feels most authentic to her, regardless of how many followers she has on Instagram. “My value system is different in the sense that I don't believe influence has to do with just numbers. Just because someone has three followers doesn't dilute the power of their voice in my eyes. Recognising my unique lived experience and operating from that has been my greatest lesson,” she says. As a self-aware creative visual artist, Jacob believes that social media needs to be seen as reactive and impermanent, and as an indicator of the time it exists in. “There is great creativity to be had in limitations (like not having the latest phone or a cloudy day when you need sunlight) and combining them with your individual experiences to develop your voice,” she says. “And while you're at it, try not to fall into the trap of idolising people you admire; there is no such thing as the ‘perfect’ or ‘right’ path to self-discovery and expression,” she concludes.

Rin Jajo (@rinjajo)

Fashion, food and friends are the three things that inspire Rin Jajo, a stylist and a creative consultant who hails from a small town called Ukhrul in Manipur. A scroll through his Instagram account will give you a glimpse of not just his work, but also snippets of his life in Manipur as well as his travels. “I don’t put in too much thought or effort into curating my feed. But I didn’t want my profile to be just about my work since that’s not what defines me as a person,” says Jajo. From photo dumps of his meals to pictures of flora and fauna, his account is a scenic exploration of a whimsical world, away from the bustle of the city. “My interests keep changing so it is quite a mish-mash of visuals, and I realise that has somewhat made it a very colourful feed,” he says. Although he has been working in the fashion industry for 15 years now, it’s only recently that he started feeling a deeper connection to his roots. “I like how it gives me a unique perspective in terms of culture and lived experience and I try and translate that to my work too,” Jajo explains. In the times when social media platforms can get saturated, the key to remain authentic, according to Jajo, is simply to not take it seriously. “We can choose to show a side of ourselves that we want to and can be in control of that and set boundaries about what to share. Once you’re comfortable with that idea and you allow yourself to be genuine about how you present yourself without overthinking, it starts to become easier, less stressful and more authentic,” he says.

Prabhleen Kaur (@thesologirl)

Prabhleen Kaur went from being @thesologirl to “that mehendi girl” after her unique henna art gained popularity on social media. “It’s a medium of art that has been used for centuries, in a particular way. I always wanted a particular motif whenever I wanted to apply mehendi, so I started applying and trying it on my hands by creating different shapes and forms,” says Kaur, who has single-handedly changed the way we see henna now with her geometric, floral and abstract designs. Henna has been considered as an ornamentation for brides for years, but the idea of it becoming ‘cool’ was due to the westernisation of it at music festivals as tattoos. “It’s upsetting to see traditional art like mehendi becoming cool after it gets a nod of approval from the West. My idea was to own the richness of our past traditions. I’ve worked in a lot of parallel streams of design, whether its product design or multimedia accessory design. I’ve played around with different materials as a form of self-expression and mehendi stemmed out of this, just like any other medium of design I enjoyed,” explains Kaur. Her mehendi art has led her to collaborate with some leading editorial publications and designers like Masaba Gupta.

Kaur’s Instagram account not just chronicles the art of mehendi, but is also a visual demonstration of her absolute authentic self. Apart from her creative and art direction collaborations, she puts spotlight on the people and objects that you’d otherwise not notice, such as a local women from Andhra Pradesh clad in bright sarees, selling vegetables or her grandmother's silver long hair. As a visual artist on Instagram, Kaur believes in spontaneity and intuition when it comes to building her audience, especially in the times when social media is taken over by influencers who carefully curate their grids. “Artists shouldn’t be subjected to being in these container-like situations, that you have to post a certain way, that you have to make grids for your profile, that you have to coordinate your previous post to the next one, or follow a colour theme, or even algorithms for that matter. It’s not fruitful for anyone to compartmentalise the thought process of how you go through when creating and projecting your art,” says the artist who has amassed a following of over 23,000 people on Instagram by being her authentic self.

Chandni Bahri (@chandnibahri111)

Born in the arid lands of Jaipur, Chandni Bahri is a self-taught multi-disciplinary artist. In her Instagram bio she calls herself a fashion stylist, consultant, creative director, photographer and a beauty devotee. While much of her ‘grid’ is about her work, there are glimpses of life that she captures through her colourful lenses, whether it’s women clad in sarees enjoying the beach or showing off the one-of-a-kind typography in South India. “I treat my posts as my space for experimentation and unencumbered expression, like a personal and creative journal. I like to keep it imperfect, messy and real, yet with a hint of magic in the mundane. It is a quintessential expression of how I see the world. I like having the ability to control the way I tell my stories through my posts,” says Bahri, who also started ‘A Great Harvest,’ an Instagram account that she describes as “chronicles of self-exploration-emancipation of a brown girl.” While she commenced her career as a stylist, creative direction and photography were her means to experiment and explore femininity and its myriad forms, sometimes studying herself as a subject in a series of self-portraits. “My work is based on the premise of bringing out one’s inherent unique light and beauty,” she explains. “Authenticity has been a cornerstone of most of my work, a perpetual ongoing personal project. I use Instagram as an independent artist and not an influencer, so my goal is to share with the world my authentic perspective as an artist.”

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