New year new career
Tariq Zaidi
Tariq is a freelance photographer based out of London. In 2014 he gave up an executive management position to pursue his passion for capturing people. His photography focuses on documenting social issues, inequality, traditions and endangered communities around the world. Visit www.tariqzaidi.com or follow him on Instagram @ tariqzaidiphoto or Facebook @tariqzaidiphotography
SIX YEARS ago Tariq Zaidi was working in the corporate world, and it was squeezing the life out of him. ‘I thought I was going to die,’ he recalls. ‘I needed to stop, to live and to do what I love.’ At this point Tariq didn’t have a computer or a ‘proper’ camera, but what he did have was a passion for travel and a desire to share the unique stories of the people he met along the way. As a result, he decided to give freelance photography a go. ‘A friend of mine who is a professional photographer in London said to me, “Do you know how hard it is? Here alone there is something like 22,000 photographers trying to make a living”,’ recalls Tariq. ‘He told me to make sure I had enough money to survive three to five years, because basically nothing was going to happen in that time.’ But Tariq needn’t have
