There are some images that don’t just stay with you, they stop you. They interrupt your scrolling, your walking, your thinking. For Prashant Godbole, an art director and visual artist, that moment of pause is everything. It is the difference between looking and seeing, between making an image and finding one. And for decades now, he has been chasing that fleeting, almost addictive high, the moment when a frame feels truly alive.
From Uncertainty to Art: The Early Life of Prashant Godbole
Born in Hyderabad and raised in Aurangabad, a city steeped in history, architecture and art, Godbole’s journey into the creative field was anything but linear. By his own admission, he was “not good at studies,” a concern that pushed his father to notice his inclination towards drawing and steer him toward art school.
What followed was not a romantic calling, but a pragmatic decision that slowly transformed into passion. After studying at an art school in Aurangabad, he moved to Mumbai and entered the world of advertising, an industry that would shape not just his career, but his way of seeing.
The Advertising Years: Learning by Doing
Godbole went on to work with some of India’s most prominent advertising agencies, including Lintas, Ogilvy, Rediffusion and Contract, as an art director. His career placed him at the intersection of ideas, execution and collaboration.
He was part of iconic campaigns such as Hamara Bajaj, contributing to work that became embedded in public memory. Advertising, for him, was less about selling products and more about understanding people, their desires, insecurities, aspirations and behaviour.
It was also an education unlike any other. Working with photographers, illustrators, musicians and filmmakers, he found himself constantly learning. “You become a jack of all trades,” he says, but in that process, you absorb ways of thinking across disciplines.
An Accidental Photographer: On Street Photography as an Art Director
Photography, however, was not the original plan. It entered Prashant Godbole’s life almost by accident.
As an art director, Godbole frequently collaborated with well-known photographers like Prabuddha Dasgupta and others. Observing their process and visual language sparked a curiosity in him. Eventually, when an Airtel campaign required him to step in and shoot himself, he did and the work went on to win multiple awards.
That moment changed things. What began as necessity became practice and then passion.
In the years that followed, especially with the rise of platforms like Instagram, he turned increasingly towards street photography carrying his camera on walks, observing everyday life and slowly building a body of work that was both spontaneous and intentional.
Between Control and Chaos
Prashant Godbole’s approach to photography is deeply shaped by his background in advertising. While advertising is meticulously planned, every frame controlled, every element intentional, street photography operates in the opposite way.
“You are trying to create realism in advertising,” he explains, “and in street photography, you are capturing reality itself.”
His images reflect this duality. They are simple yet layered, composed yet organic. He focuses on stripping away noise and directing attention to a story, a gesture or a moment that might otherwise go unnoticed.
For him, a good photograph evolves over time. Early on, it is about technical correctness, exposure, composition, light. But with experience, the focus shifts to storytelling. “What is the image saying?” becomes more important than how it is made.
The Ethics of the Street
Street photography often raises questions of consent and intrusion, something Godbole acknowledges with nuance.
Most of the time, he says, people don’t object. When they do, he respects it. A smile, a quick acknowledgment or even showing the photograph can bridge that gap. But he also emphasises awareness of gender dynamics, of context and of boundaries.
“It’s an insight into people’s lives,” he says, but one that must be handled with sensitivity.
The Search for Originality
In a world saturated with images, Godbole believes the real challenge is not access, but originality.
He is wary of over-reliance on inspiration drawn from others’ work. While exposure to great art is important, he insists that true growth comes from observation of life, of people, of one’s own responses.
“Eventually, you have to stop looking at others and start listening to your own voice,” he says.
This is particularly relevant in today’s digital culture, where trends dominate and homogenise creative expression. For younger creators, the temptation to follow the herd is strong. But Godbole sees that as a phase one that must be consciously outgrown.
On AI, Attention and the ‘Thumb Stopper’
As an art director, Godbole is pragmatic about the rise of AI. Rather than viewing it as a threat, he sees it as a tool, one that still depends on human input, knowledge and intent.
At the same time, he acknowledges the shrinking attention spans of audiences. In such an environment, the role of the image becomes even more critical. It must stop the viewer, what he calls a “thumb stopper.”
Whether in advertising or photography, the principle remains the same: create something that interrupts, intrigues or provokes. Something that makes people pause.
The Discipline Behind Creativity
Despite the romanticism often associated with creative work, Godbole is clear-eyed about its demands. Creativity, for him, is not about waiting for inspiration, it is about showing up, consistently.
Advertising, in particular, leaves little room for creative blocks. Deadlines remain, regardless of how one feels. The process, then, involves generating multiple ideas, discarding most, and refining the few that work.
Failure is constant. But so is learning.
Over the years, Prashant Godbole has won several awards. Last year, he won major international awards for “The Great Indian Dunk” campaign for NBA India (Leo Burnett Dubai), including a Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions 2024, six Pencils at the D&AD Awards 2025, and two Gold Pencils at The One Show 2025. The campaign, celebrating Indian children emulating NBA dunks, was lauded for its authentic black-and-white, documentary-style photography.
The High of Creation
What keeps him going, even after decades, is simple: the pursuit of that one perfect moment.
“It’s like a high,” he says, the feeling of capturing something that feels new, unexpected and complete. It doesn’t happen every day. In fact, it rarely does. But the possibility of it is enough to keep him returning, camera in hand.
A Note to the Next Generation
For younger creators navigating an overwhelming digital landscape, Godbole’s advice is both simple and demanding:
Be your own critic.
Don’t chase validation, chase honesty in your work.
Practice relentlessly.
And most importantly, find your own way of seeing.
Talent, he believes, can be innate, but it is practice that sustains it. And originality is not something you stumble upon; it is something you arrive at, slowly, after years of unlearning and rediscovery.
In the end, it is not about the camera, the platform or even the medium. It is about the eye and the courage to trust it.
