MRIDULA AMIN
PHOTOJOURNALIST
Mridula Amin is a photojournalist and reporter for the ABC.
Based in Sydney, her freelance work has been published by The New York Times, VICE, National Geographic and SBS. Proving she is a true all-rounder, she is also an admitted solicitor. An eloquent and self-professed perpetually optimistic person, she seeks to tell stories that move people. We chat about choosing a career path that drives you, chasing every opportunity and the importance of constantly reevaluating your goals.
How did you find school?
I was a really good student. Year 11 and 12 you start freaking out... I was going to be in a successful job and married by 24. Then you get to 24 and you’re like, ‘that’s ridiculous. I’m a baby.’
How did you find the process of ‘picking a career’ at high school?
I was ethnic, so my career guide was my parents *laughs* ... I had to go to tutoring, and I did maths and chemistry. For [my parents] it was like, you’re a doctor or you’re a lawyer. My real love was English and art. I could’ve done history and got a-friggin-hundred ATAR, but my parents just didn’t really take it seriously. So for me it was doctor or lawyer, no thought process really of why.
What did you study at uni?
I was drawn to law because of the social justice element. I wanted to make a difference.
You watch Law & Order and all those TV shows and you think...maybe that... I was good at English so that’s what I applied for. But I had in the back of my mind that I was going to be creative, so I really pushed to have a double degree. I told my parents ‘don’t worry, I’ll just mix it with writing’. I didn’t get into law the first time, so I did a writing course at UTS for 6 months before transferring to a combined law and media degree at Macquarie University.
What was your uni experience like?
The writing course at UTS was creative and interesting but campus culture was a bit dead. I liked the look of Macquarie [University] because it offered law and media together. I heard about an SBS media mentorship program for bilingual students and thought it looked really sick; I applied for it and got it – I really hit the ground running. It was a 3 year program where they tutor you and let you hang out. It was a dream come true really. I remember when I posted it to facebook it got 300 likes and I was like “this is CRAZY shit!’
My parents still didn’t know what the fuck I was doing...they were like ‘are you finishing your law degree?’
There was another thing called PACE, where the uni gives a subsidy for you to go overseas for a month. I was a first year and it was only for second years, but I was annoying. I called up every day. They finally let me do an application, and then I got an interview.
So you just persisted and asked for what you wanted?
I think the ‘why not’ question is something that always really goes off in my mind. I know how to apply pressure. I’m very good at arguing when something makes no sense.
Did you feel like you had to justify the arts component of your degree?
Yes! You’re so young and you haven’t ever had full ownership of your decisions. I think you’ll always listen to that part of you that’s like I’m going to still fight for who I am. So that’s how I manoeuvred it, I was like... I’ll just do more. So then I could tick the box with the expectations from my parents. In some ways, knowing that I’m an admitted lawyer is kind of a flex. The law edge is such a dick on the table, it’s great. I actually didn’t even call myself a photojournalist until recently.
Why do you think that is?
It’s hard to own. I think it’s a really difficult thing until you feel like you’ve earned it or that other people accept you.
I learned very quickly that you can’t wait for permission. The New York times didn’t call me up and say ‘you’re on assignment and now you’re a photojournalist’.
How did you make the switch to photojournalism?
I kind of just looked at what I was googling in my free time at work – photojournalists.
At the time, I was studying the Rohingya crisis so I wrote to this Getty Images photographer and said ‘Hey I really like your work, how did you get into doing this?’ and he said he had a contact inside this refugee camp if I wanted to go.
I was already planning to go to Myanmar with a friend to travel, so I thought fuck it and invested $5.5K into a camera that I didn’t know how to use. Everyone definitely thought I was crazy. My parents were just like ‘you’re messing up your life.’
How pivotal was that trip to your career?
Inside the camp, a woman took my hand and wanted me to come and see her home. I couldn’t communicate with her but I have a muslim face (my family is from Bangladesh which is close to Myanmar), so I think she kind of trusted me. They don’t really have female photojournalists, let alone a woman of colour, so it was a very different experience. Even though I don’t think I was getting any good photos, just being there was super rewarding – I really felt like this was what my life’s work was.
I went back to the law firm and was like ‘this isn’t it.’
Were there times you thought the work/study load was too much?
I was quite serious about being a human rights lawyer. I knew that was my purpose. I went on a trip to India, it was my first time overseas by myself and it opened my eyes to working with youth development. I came back and started my mentorship at SBS, worked for Dateline... but I was really tired. I would do uni during the day and then a lot of SBS was at night, working on the shows.
By my 4th year at university I had done 3 years at SBS and was also working there as a production assistant and researcher. I was working so hard and it was killing me, but not finishing law school just wasn’t an option for me – I knew I just had to push through.
You’re a photojournalist as well as a journalist, tell us how this came about –
When I was at SBS I was never a photojournalist. It was really hard because no one was seeing my skills there. I was a news librarian which meant I would go through footage all day. Though, I did see how to navigate a news room which is probably why I have two careers melded together – I’m a reporter for the ABC but I’m also a photojournalist there and hold international clients across the world. If I hadn’t worked so hard I wouldn’t have been able to construct my life with such depth I don’t think.
Every time I walk into a photojournalism meeting I know I have a different life experience than everyone in that room. I didn’t come from a ~cool~ artistic family or pick up a camera at a really young age. I did the really weird thing – I became a lawyer because it was expected, and I loved it. It taught me how to hustle in a different environment.
Much of your work is reporting stories with really heavy and emotional subject matter. What impact does this have on your mental health and worldview?
I have a weirdly optimistic personality that allows me to continually find hope; if I didn’t have that I don’t think I’d last very long. You wouldn’t last a day in storytelling and journalism if you couldn’t find some light or hope for humanity.
Yes, it is hard, it is secondhand pain, but the purpose of my work is to be there and to have it together – I don’t have any business bringing more emotion into the situation. I’m here to do a job. I’m here to make sure I can find some truth and justice.
Sometimes it affects you a lot but you don’t really realise until about three weeks later. It subconsciously affects your personal life in different ways. The hardest time I’ve had was working on the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings – being in that newsroom and having to watch the footage with my colleagues next to me. You just go into the robotics of what your job is. But then later you feel dread.
I’ve seen so much goodness in the shittest places, from bad people who I don’t even agree with. It’s the privilege of my job. I gain little glimmers of what humanity is overall – never all bad or good, but a very ambiguous in-between. That’s my worldview.
That’s something quite unique to your field…
Yeah, I was really scared that if I ever showed that something affected me that I would lose my work – one being a woman, two being a woman of colour, three being as young as I am.
But then I just realised it was affecting me – I was so exhausted, I was always getting teary-eyed when I thought about people.
How does it feel when a story you’ve risked so much for and put so much work into finally gets published? For example your piece on Nauru.
Well, I came home and nearly got fired for what I’d done. I was a lawyer of the supreme court, so didn’t know if that was jeopardised.
There’s a big wait to see if your work has actually achieved anything. At some point it’s just not your story anymore – you just let it go and you see. You just have to try your best and give it your all. With me it’s both writing and photography, I trust that my photography has a universal element to it, while the writing is the context that gives it further meaning.
How did you manage to cover so many stories whilst studying full time at university?
For me uni was really about using each opportunity, seeping as much out of it as I could. At uni In Australia we have 3 months off every year – it’s messed up, you could never get that as an adult. On those big breaks I would self-assign and do more photojournalism work. That’s kind of how I developed my career. My friends barely saw me, I think I was just really following my instinct.
While I was in New York in 2017, the Black Lives Matter protests were happening; the next was the Indian coal mining. I’d seen this open-cut coal mine in a town called Jharia, which had been on fire for 100 years due to the impacts of coal mining.
I don’t even know how I got through those years, how much I worked. It’s crazy to me. But I had a lot of fun too.
Lots of people feel they can’t start their career because they can’t find a job. It sounds like instead of trying to find a job as a photojournalist, you just started being a photojournalist.
Yeah. At uni I had this great contrast [between degrees] of the way people were spoken to and it really irritated me. You sit in law lectures and you feel like you have this credibility – you feel smart, people are kissing your ass. Whereas in media classes it was like ‘yeah, no one’s getting a job here’.
What they should be teaching is ‘this degree is not everything’. Because, getting your degree isn’t going to get you the job. No way. That’s looking at education wrong.
Uni is teaching you a work ethic and a way of thinking, it’s not teaching you who you are. HD’s don’t make you successful.
I wished the lecturers had been like ‘Hey. Dream big. Figure out what you’re looking for. This is just one element of it. You do need to do well at this but then utilise it’.
Did you feel pressure to get ‘the job’ straight out of uni?
Getting ‘the job’ doesn’t define how good you are. That used to really ruin me. I do have law friends who are in those amazing
high-earning jobs and they don’t get a break at all – but if that was their goal, that’s cool.
Sometimes you can get lost in this narrative of working in the arts. Like you’ll be a poor journalist, and that’s all there is for you. I went in thinking ‘I’m not going to be a photojournalist and be poor. No way! I gave up being a lawyer – I’m going to be earning a good salary!’
Do you have any tips for success?
I’m a really big goal-setter. I always had lists going for each year of my life – long and short term goals. Sometimes I’d achieve some, and sometimes those goals became things I no longer wanted. You’ve got to constantly re-examine what’s driving you.
I accepted a job at the ABC because I wanted to be grounded and I wanted to be trained. That’s important to me right now.
What are your thoughts and advice for building a good work ethic?
I think sometimes people get too worried about their title. If you can learn to see the opportunities in each little thing without getting too lost in expectations or ego, you’ll do really well. I initially took a lower level social media job at the ABC. I’d interviewed for something else but it was the only job they had in the newsroom. I thought ‘why would i apply for this job when I want to be a journalist?’
But then I just put all that ego shit to the side and worked really hard. I think if you’re valuable to a company there’s a good chance they’ll make space.
Being so multidisciplinary, how do you sell yourself effectively?
Doubt doesn’t go away. I’m a social media person but a writer and also a photojournalist, also a lawyer as well... it’s such a mouthful. You just have to manage that and own it. Getting your elevator pitch down is hard and I change it for each person I meet. Mentors can help you figure out that story. I have a bit of a problem with rambling, but you should always rehearse.
There was a United Nations human rights law course that came up in New York, and I was like … I need that. I didn’t get High Distinctions on everything – I was more of a Credit–Distinction kind of gal. But I just thought – how do I get this? What are my strengths? I wrote the most killer cover letter and really pushed what I’m about.
I don’t think you necessarily need the highest grades if you can master what your story is.
I feel like I’m a weird wildcard, and I just decided to own it. I was never going to fit in with the others. I don’t sit down and study criminal law. I don’t have the time – I’m working five thousand jobs. ‘This is how I’m different’ – that’s the biggest flip.
What are your future goals?
I want to become the best storyteller that I can. I really want to improve my skills in photojournalism, reportage and film – there’s a world of documentaries and film that I really want to explore. But this is the thing, the job that I want to keep moving towards I don’t think exists yet. That’s exactly how I want to be at all times – so fluid that anything can happen in the world and I can just meld.
All I know is that I’ll always be involved in trying to move people and get an emotional response from my storytelling.
