Our Philosophy on photography and why we do what we do the way we do it
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I wrote this over at the Image Fusion Studio blog and It is really personal to me and sums up the philosphy of Studio Alegria and really my whole apporach as a professional photographer.
I think that it is important enough for my clients both old and new to understand about the passion of Studio Alegria that I wanted to post it on the front page of the blog here.
There are times when things sneak up and kick you in the butt and the focus of your life becomes redefined.
I was working on a product shoot this afternoon when my kiddo Jordi asked a really simple question. “Why do you like doing this stuff?”. Which caused an immediate Lt. Data like system freeze (complete with rapidly blinking eyes and slightly cocked head) as all available mental resources were redirected to the primary cpu to try to form an answer that could be understood by a 8 year old. The answer that blathered out was something akin to “cause it makes me happy to make other people happy. The best way that I know to do that is to make cool photographs” He said “cool” and scampered off to play on the DS or something far more interesting to an 8 year old.
Considering that I was photographing a relatively mundane electronic component at that time that was not the most astute answer that I could provide.
So, I wanted to take a few minutes to try to answer his question in a manor that really gets to the heart of what I do … and why I do it .
If you poke around the gallery section of the Image Fusion Studio site you will see a comment by a bellydancer that goes by the stage name of Shimmy.
The comment was left 08/31/05 at 15:59 and it said simply “thanks for making me look pretty”
“Thanks for making me look pretty.” It still amazes me that one comment left by a random person could have such a profound effect on ones life. But in some small way for some small amount of time that she looked at that image… she felt joy. And that image that she was looking at …I created it. We shared something … we connected for 1 1/60th of a second… and we both were changed. Wow.
Several months later I attended a seminar given by a photographer out of Cape Girardeau, by the name of Joe Craig. His presentation was called “Soul Dance” and in my little mind I went in expecting a seminar on Dance photography. What I left with was a lesson in life as well as photography.
This man has a philosophy that totally transcends just photography. He made a statement in his presentation that his goal when creating a portrait is to “Reach in…grab their heart and pull it out through their eyes”. He wants to capture in that split second their life story, their passion, their emotion, their joy and even their pain and their courage. He proceed to project on the huge screen before a group of 400 photographers images that he had created. Some of those images featured cancer survivors. Most bald . Some visibly sickly. But all of the images had a common characteristic. The people in the images showed strength, passion, and emotion. We saw their hearts brought out right through their eyes.
I don’t mind saying. I cried. The images touched me. They resonated. I connected. They were alegria, joyful. Even with some of the subjects in obvious pain.
There is article written by Dustin Michael on Joe’s site that has a quote by Joe that says “I believe as long as we’re following our purpose, doing what we were born to do, we’re fulfilling our destiny”
I remember a young lady that I did a session with who shall we say had some “life issues” She was on a road that she particularly didn’t want to be on (what that road was isn’t really important) We had a fantastic session. When it came to ordering prints she simply handed me some cash said “you pick them” … A couple of days later when the prints were done I called her to set up delivery. She asked me to meet her in the parking lot of a clinic in Dallas because she would be there waiting for a ride. I handed her the presentation box with 12 prints in them. She looked at each one closely in silence . Put them back in the box and handed the box back to me.
My first reaction was “OH FRIGGING CRAP I have bombed on this shoot”. I asked her the obvious question… “are they that bad?”
Her response “No, they are beautiful … but I don’t know this person in the pictures … they are not me”
I handed her the box back and said “yeah … this is what I saw… this is the “you” trying to get out”.
She called me a year or so later and told me about her new life and her new 3 month old. She said that the images of that “other you” had gotten her off the path that she was on.
To steal from Joe again… photography CAN have a healing power.
Ya know … I have come to the realization that I will never be “a world famous photographer” I will likely never have the chance to turn Whoopi into a genie. And likely the line to my door will remain very short and no BMW 7 series in my driveway, but I hope that I am giving truth to Joe’s quote and following MY purpose.
So Jordi… the answer to your question of why I like doing what I do is … because I am fulfilling my destiny.
And Shimmy… You’re welcome !
Please Visit Joe’s site at http://www.joecraig.com. It is not a big complex site (it is actually only 2 pages from what I can tell) but the front page images are incredable.
Here is the little secret. When I came up with the name Studio Alegria … I was looking at his site.