Meet Ahmad Shah ALI JANI | Photographer & Videographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ahmad Shah ALI JANI and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ahmad Shah, why did you pursue a creative career?
My name is Ahmad Shah ALI JANI. I am 22 years old. I was born and raised Afghanistan. I moved to Pakistan in 2016 because of the war and political problems. I finished my high school in Pakistan in 2019. I couldn’t continue my University there because I didn’t have a Pakistani identity card. I had to search for a job, A friend of mine was working in a photography studio and he introduced me to a studio. I started my part time job as a wedding photographer without being paid for almost year and a half. That’s when my career in photography started. Then I moved to Paris in March 2021 because my dad was in France for almost 7 years and got accepted as a refugee then invited us here, which was the covid time. I couldn’t speak French, and I didn’t have a camera to continue what I love. I tried to reach out some photographer to work for them as an assistant for free, which I did, and their method of work was completely different and professional than what I have learnt in Pakistan. I started learning French in order to find a part time job to afford a camera. At the same time I decided to take Photos with my old phone Oppo A5 and start my instagram page. I started my part time job in a McDonald in 2022. I bought an iPhone 13 with first salary to shoot better pictures with my phone. My page started to grow. I was doing street photography, taking photos of the couples and using the concept of “Paris the city of love”. After 1 year of shooting with my phone, I had about 3K followers at that time. I finally decided to buy my first digital camera which I bought it in December 2022. I had my first professional project in March 2023 which ended up shooting for an influencer and traveling to Germany in a private Jet. I got paid 3000€ for 3 days being with them. That was the moment I realised I have to turn my passion into a professional brand. and I changed my style to shoot mostly luxuries lifestyle. Since then I had some cool projects like in Monaco Yacht show, Rallyes and more.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I guess what I like the more about my art is the ability to capture a moment, the ability to stop time because sometimes moments can get too big for us. I guess I just like having the ability to just pause a moment forever in the hopes of the impossibility of just getting back to it, Doing it over. What sets us apart is the passion we have about our craft. No matter how many rejections we get. But still we analyse and learn what we did wrong, fix it and get back to it. and we do that over again.
It took me 5 years to where I am today. I came from nothing and self-made. It wasn’t easy at all but I enjoyed the process. There’s always more to achieve. Any craft the we’re passionate about is like a black hole, there’s no end for it. but enjoying the process is the fun part. I made mistakes, i learned and redo it again. that’s how I got here now.
In order to overcome challenges we need to be optimistic. Whenever I wanted to have a project that I was wishing for I was already imagining myself being in that project. and after a week that project was happening. being optimist about your craft will lead you to the right direction. Or whenever something was wrong or a project didn’t go well as expected, I always was looking to it from a perspective what I can learn from this, in order to not repeat it again for the future projects.
I learned wherever in life if I need to make a choice, I have to choose my craft over everything. it’s my identity, that’s how everyone knows me. and that’s why everyone respects me. Nothing can ever replace the feeling of pursuing what you’re passionate about or your craft.
I had a choice between a simple, calm life without risks or an adventures life with a ton of risks and I chose the 2nd one.
I want the world to know about my story in order to learn how to think rationally when and where it’s needed. Also I want them to know whenever they see my brand they see my passion behind my craft.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Since I live in Paris I would say the best time to visit the city is the blue hours, that’s when you will see the beauty of the city with lights, love and the Eiffel Tower. The best time for a drink is to have a coffee in a Parisian cafe during the summer morning. Or in order to have a hangout with friends vibe, it’s better to have a drink in an open bar during the blue hour, which is perfect. In order to experience the beauty of Paris, you have to visit it like the local, like having drinks and small hangouts.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Basically I want to shoutout to my friends for always being there for me and trusting on what I am doing. and also my best friends Dimitri Toko, Mushtaq Mahmoodi and Zabih Bakhtiari. They helped me from the first place.

Website: https://ahmadshahalijanid24a.myportfolio.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamahmadalijani/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmad-shah-ali-jani-602900225/

Other: https://legitmarketings.com