ABOUT ME
My name is Harsh Agrawal and I am a Mechanical Engineer by education, a Classical Percussionist by training, a Product Designer by profession, and a Black & White Landscape Fine Art Photographer by passion. I am based in Portland, Oregon.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Photography and I found each other early. I was nine years old when I made my first picture with a Polaroid instant camera—an object that felt like magic in my hands. My father, a scientist with a deep love for photographing people, filled our home with the quiet hum of cameras: a Rolleiflex TLR, a Contaflex, a Minolta SR-T 101. Surrounded by these instruments of wonder, I caught the photography bug before I even knew what it meant to “make a photograph.” That spark has grown steadily, relentlessly, and with every passing year, my passion continues to multiply.
Across several decades, my journey has taken me through a lineage of cameras—35mm, medium format, large format, film and digital. Each system has taught me something essential. But it was 4x5 large format film that shaped me most deeply. Ground-glass focusing, movements, slow deliberate composition—this discipline formed the backbone of my craft. Even today, working with a state-of-the-art medium format digital system, my process remains fully manual and fully intentional.
Photography, for me, has never been a means to fame or commercial success. It is an act of self-discovery—an ongoing meditation on who I am and how I see the world. The camera is the instrument through which I reflect, question, understand. The work is personal because the journey is personal.
My images are guided by a set of principles that also define who I strive to be: Purity. Perfection. Authenticity. Simplicity. Quality over quantity. Excellence.
Above all, photography is about the Print. The final, physical object—something one can hold, study, live with. A print is the culmination of attention, discipline, and presence. It is the only destination that matters.
What you see in my work is a distilled selection of my finest images—photographs that embody these values, crafted as film-like digital fine art prints made to be owned, shared with others, and cherished.
PHILOSOPHY & PROCESS
I approach photography as a purist, dedicated to creating images with integrity and technical excellence. My goal is to capture light and composition as faithfully as possible in-camera, employing only the finest optics and exercising meticulous control over exposure and focus. Post-processing is minimal, intended solely to preserve the authenticity of the captured scene rather than to alter or embellish it.
Heavy digital manipulation is not a part of my workflow. If the ideal conditions do not materialize, I accept the limitations of the moment. Patience, discipline, and respect for the natural world are fundamental to my practice. I am often willing to remain in one location for extended periods, awaiting the precise light nature may offer. Should it not appear, I walk away without compromise, preferring authenticity over fabrication.
As a matter of principle, I refrain from upscaling images to create artificial resolution. I print only at true native size at 300 dpi, preserving the integrity of the original capture.
Through a restrained, film-informed workflow, I strive to produce digital photographs that embody clarity, honesty, and timelessness.