The visual arts, such as photography, videography, picture manipulation, and video editing, are more appealing to young people nowadays. One becomes involved and engaged with visual media. In fact, it is among the finest ways for young people to deal with stress, despair, and loneliness.
There have been observations made across the world that students, particularly young people, who are less interested in their academic courses, are more interested in visual imagery. Their lifestyles gradually incorporate photography and cameras as a source of joy. Additionally, young people are becoming increasingly interested in comprehending and learning the technology and art of these visual mediums. As a result, these visual mediums are regarded as skill-developmental mediums globally.
Creative Hut Institute of Photography has always taken essential steps to provide its students with all the advanced facilities, latest technologies, infrastructure, library, classrooms, editing room, cameras, and equipment. Along with these, the extra facilities and infrastructure offered here make Creative Hut different from other media colleges.
It is situated in Kerala, commonly referred to as ‘God’s Own Country,’ in a village called Mattakkara of the Kottayam district. The Institute is renowned for its distinctive educational approach based on the traditional Gurukul and is recognised as India’s first photography-specific residential school or Gurukul. The Institute was founded in 2007 and has shown to be the best option for advancing one’s passion into a potential career in professional photography.
The institute, which is surrounded by nature, combines contemporary learning methods with the traditional Gurukul method of teaching photography. The students and their gurus or faculties stay on the same campus, sharing their photography knowledge and experiences.
High-end Infrastructural Facilities
Creative Hut Institute of Photography ensures to always offer the quality education needed for leadership in this rapidly changing as well as competitive world. The institute here gives more importance to the structured advanced curriculum to impart aesthetic and practical knowledge both in photography and cinematography.
Studio Floor
Creative Hut Studio is an excellent studio floor for photography and film production. It also has Nature Photography Studio and Food Photography Studio with Kitchen. Creative Hut Institute of Photography features a well-equipped studio with year-round indoor illumination that can accommodate roughly 8 to 10 studio setups at once. Convenient aerial or top-view shooting is now possible in the studio.
Sound Studio
A sound recording studio with high-quality equipment for music albums, dubbing, and other projects, etc., is one other facility provided to its students. Creative Hut offers hands-on education as well as in-class recording sessions.
Green Screen Studio facility
A chroma key green screen background for video production and photography is provided on the campus, complete with cutting-edge equipment, where you can easily bring your creativity to the forefront.
Gear Room
Creative Hut’s gear room is a well-equipped and organised equipment storage facility with lots of photography and filmmaking accessories.
Organic Farm
Organic natural farming at Creative Hut encourages student initiative to cultivate plants. Spices, vegetables, and fruits are grown on an organic farm employing sustainable, traditional methods of farming without hurting the lives. Also, an organic garden with natural and fresh vegetables and fruits is grown on campus. Students also understand the importance of it cultivating and growing various types of vegetable plants and fruit trees in the institute’s organic garden.
Hostel
The college has both boys’ and girls’ dormitories. More than 40 students live on campus and benefit from the campus’s beautiful facilities. The college has a wide range of comfortable and secure accommodation.
Cafeteria
The college campus canteen’s goal here is to protect by reducing the risk of foodborne illness and preventing contaminated food. And provide the food to its students, faculties, and staff with hygiene, that provides a taste of home with nourishing, freshly cooked cuisine.
Butterfly Park
There is a renowned facility here called Butterfly Park. The opportunity for photography and videography in this beautiful setting is a bonus for the students learning here. Here, you may find almost 28 different kinds of butterflies and other insects. Numerous birds make this place their home, although few qualify as migratory species. In this butterfly park, students primarily work on their macro photography and bird photography sessions.
The Gurukul way of learning, which provides food and residential facilities separate for boys, girls, and faculties on the campus itself, is an important facility here. This enables the extra facility of 24×7 faculty guidance, morning and evening practical sessions. It significantly reduces transportation time and costs for both students and faculty.
Creative Hut offers its students and alums a platform to showcase their portfolios through the online media www.creativehut.org, where one can view various articles, works, and portfolios with their name and location.
Meet the Trailblazer
The education system in the media industry is only partially satisfied by attending a college with a city lifestyle.
A novel idea in the manner of learning was required, along with high-quality instruction, to overcome this. Abin Alex, the creator of Creative Hut, gained a better understanding of the ‘Gurukul’ system of traditional education in India. Gurukul served as the Acharya’s residence, the hub of learning, and the place where they completed their education. As a result of the teacher and student sharing the same premises, everyone was treated equally. Here at Creative Hut Gurukul, students stay and study with their mentors. It’s the first of its kind in the media industry around the world. This unique ideology has acclaimed Creative Hut Gurukul as the first photography residential school in the world.
Abin Alex is a photo mentor and photojournalist from Kerala, India. Being a post-graduate with a Master’s in Design (MDes), MBA (Design Management), and MSc in Visual Communication, he is rewarded with many awards for his contribution to photography. Awarded with Visionary Leader Award for education and the best photo mentor award, he is the recipient of the Limca Book of Records, India Book of Records, Asia Book of Records, National Book of Records and many more. He is honoured with an Honorary Doctorate by World Record University for Photography. He is known for his Street and Portrait photography, Travel and Architecture photography.
Educational Initiatives
Abin Alex, who has a deep love for photography, established the Creative Hut Institute of Photography in 2007. He obtained the credentials of India’s first professional photography institute based in Gurukulam. He appreciates the chance he had to view the photographs taken by thousands of kids from around the world. Additionally, he is pleased with all of his pupils’ successes, honours, and records in photography, videography, and photo design.
Abin Alex, an inspired photographer, instils in his students a passion and determination that transcend words. One could find him with his students in the institute’s classrooms, studio, corridor, open space, and on campus every day, sharing his experiences in the field and cheering up his students.
Abin Alex has taken the initiative in the photography course curriculum and has been a vital part in the development of the ‘KGTE Photography Course’ for the Technical Education of the Kerala State Government.
Social Initiatives
Abin Alex is known for his work and contribution to the prisoners, by teaching them about photography and sharing his own experiences with them at the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on the occasion of World Photography Day on August 19, 2012. He also led one-month workshops for prisoners, which he rates as his best accomplishment and which, in turn, inspired his student photographers to use their photography talents to benefit society. Many prestigious newspapers and periodicals supported and encouraged his endeavours.
One of the most well-known photographers and educators, Abin Alex, is the founder and chairman of the non-profitable Trust Near Foundation (National Education and Research Foundation). The Trust, founded in 2014, aims to promote art and skill development programs, education, and research.
He was the Green Pilgrimage program’s media coordinator at Sabarimala Pilgrims in Erumely, an attempt to encourage the use of natural colours that are eco-friendly for cultural events.
Photography Ventures
Abin Alex is a traveller too and has been visiting different places such as interior parts, wildlife locations, architecture, and documentary photography-oriented places, capturing the best from them. Various magazines and newspapers have covered him and published his works. He has carried out product photography projects for various national and international companies. He has conducted his solo photography exhibitions and group exhibitions several times in Kerala and Gujarat.
He has been a visiting faculty member at MICA (Mudra Communication), BRDS, INIFD, and other institutions, and has given workshops at Nirma University, IIT Gandhinagar, Chaudhari Institute, Rotary Club of Gujarat, St. Thomas College in Kerala, and other institutions. He has been invited to serve on a jury to adjudicate various photography contests, competitions, and workshops at different colleges, universities, and other campuses. His articles on photography have been covered in various newspapers and magazines.
Documentary
A documentary named ‘Hoofs among the Wheels’ shows the life of Camel in the City
Documentary ‘Christianity and Kathakali, a Personal Quest’ shows the relationship between Christianity and Kathakali.
Personal Photography Projects
- Stopover at Pushkar – Travel and portrait photography at Pushkar Camel Fair, Rajasthan.
- Sabarimala Pilgrims – Beliefs and Culture, carried out from Erumely, Kerala.
- Sundarbans – Journey through Nature’s Wonder, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Kathakali – Indian classical art form of Storytelling, carried out from different locations in Kerala.
- Champaner Beckons – The historical architecture of Gujarat.
Abin Alex’s keen interest in developing the concept into still images and moving images has always made him more attached to art, culture, and photography. He believes, “It’s not how long you lived, but what counts is how you lived. You spend your whole life acquiring more and more, but what you have achieved at the end will be the way of life you have lived.” “Knowledge is endless, but your knowledge gets meaningful when you share it with others,” he adds.
Revolutionising the Field
The youth require a learning style that helps them become more intelligent and skilled, a teaching strategy that equips students with the ability to think critically and approach problems in their daily lives. The mission of Creative Hut is to create a space and environment where the next generation may learn creatively in order to further their professional careers and sustain their quality of life. A setting and method for learning in which students develop their capacity for learning, generate novel concepts, develop the bravery to take calculated risks to advance their skills, perform previously unheard-of tasks, and thereby transform challenges into possibilities.
Creative Hut Gurukul concept is an initiative to solve the major problems that today’s generation is facing. And at the same time, evolve them by building up their character as well as developing their skills with a career-oriented course programme in media and entertainment.
Creative Hut Gurukul follows this traditional education system where the students stay with the teachers on the same premises and learn the basics of life as well as the professional career-oriented field of visual media. It is based on a ‘back to basics’ or ‘home school’ concept, where student and teacher communication is simple and effective.
The Creative Hut Gurukul concept is an initiative based on the traditional education system in India, where students would stay with their gurus at their residences and learn things literally. Indian educational practises from long ago had a bigger influence on students’ growth in terms of their abilities, pursuits, conduct, and inventiveness. Additionally, it made it possible for them to live sustainable lives.
A professional training programme is a crucial component in achieving sustainability and a better livelihood in one’s life. It is not simply about education; rather, it is about raising skilled children. Therefore, the best option for today’s youngsters to help them become talented individuals who can actually help them obtain a better profession is a skill development programme. The digital visual media programme based on photography, cinematography, and editing is hence the programme that Creative Hut Gurukul has implemented in this project.
Awards for Exceptional Work
The growth of the institution since its establishment is noteworthy, and it has persistently provided quality media education. Institute initiates and encourages its students to undergo different research projects and media projects in photography and media. The most known and remarkable contribution was the invention of the world’s first photography history calendar, the world’s first unique and the biggest photography wheel, and the world’s first and biggest photography board game.
These inventions have won 40+ various glorious awards for the students, faculties, and the institute.
There are various awards and achievements received by the Creative Hut Institute of Photography, which are:
Commendation Certificate awarded by Office of Additional DG and IG Prisons, Gujarat State, Appreciating for Conducting a Photography workshop for Jail Inmates at Historical Sabarmati Center Jail, Ahmedabad. And Commendation Certificate from the Technical Education Department of Kerala, State Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research for contribution to developing the curriculum of Photography.
The Entrepreneurs Council of India presented the Most Admired Photographer award at the Indian Business Congress 2018, as well as the Indian Star Best Photo Mentor Award, the Vidya Shiromani Educational Excellence Awards, the Visionary Leader Awards for Excellence in Education from Career Options at the 3rd Higher Education Summit, Asian World Records for the World’s First Photography Gurukul (Residential School), and the Champions Book of World Records.
Learning Makes One Perfect
The key to living a successful life is education. It is the essential component that, when acquired, opens up a world of opportunities. Applying what one has learned to improve the value of one’s education is a constant process. The development of the critical thinking skills required to evaluate one’s strengths and pinpoint areas for development, as well as critically examine one’s weaknesses and come up with solutions, is the hallmark of a well-rounded education.
Both the film industry and commercial photography and videography businesses are on the lookout for talented and skilled individuals. Young and aspiring photographers and cinematographers who want to have a significant impact on this industry must undoubtedly take an organised route. Enhance the inner talent and skills, acquire proper knowledge and training, work on a regular basis, update individual portfolios, approach new projects, and execute the same with full dedication.
A Place for Future Lensmen
Creative Hut Institute of Photography intends to continue providing a platform for aspiring photographers and cinematographers to gain adequate aesthetic and creative knowledge of the field in accordance with current trends and technology. At the same time, provide the space and environment to achieve the same in the most innovative way. Growing alongside nature has always been encouraged at Creative Hut. Furthermore, the entire Creative Hut website is designed and maintained for the same purpose.
The Vintage Camera Museum being constructed on the grounds of Creative Hut Institute of Photography will undoubtedly allow students to experience both the past and present of the camera and photography industries. In addition, an exhibition gallery is being built in the college to allow students to display their best work.
