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Showing posts with label commercial photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label commercial photography. Show all posts
Monday, January 9, 2012
Friday, May 20, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Reinterpretation
view gallery: Reinterpretation
She was my first love. I found her on the pages of “Life Magazine” and hanging from the walls of the Detroit Institute of Arts. She was small, rich in the colors of black and white. She was the representation of an artist’s reaction to life. She was the etchings of Rembrandt and Brueghel and the photographs of Weston and Smith. Her images were honest, brutal and beautiful. She inspired my first black and white photographs. It was love at first sight. It became my method of interpretation of life as I felt it.
Musicians often reinterpret their work. Visual artists tend to create with the sprit of one and done. While visual artists might work on a theme or style for a series we seldom go back to the single original and rework it.
Recently I have had occasion to revisit some recent photographs. A client had asked me to convert a couple images into black and white. I did not simply do an image>mode>grayscale in Photoshop but I went back to the original raw file and completely reworked it. It was like bumping into my first love all over again. Seeing these images anew in Black and White rekindled a passion that had been left behind.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
34 Portraits
Showing Off
It is hard to find the time to sit down with art buyers and show off the new portfolio in person.
But it is such a blast when we do it. The reaction is just so positive.
Zave Smith
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
It is almost an act of murder. In order to grow you often have to kill off the very things that have made you successful, in the first place.
At first I tried to understand and follow the marketplace. This was reasonably successful. But I was not after being reasonable. Besides, who was willing to pay for a cheaper imitation of the latest trend?
After ten years of some success at being a generic photographer, I started to become bored. I then started to put my craziness back into my work. I let go of the food and the products that had made my pay and started photographing shadows, kids, old people and even twenty-something cute girls. My only criterion was to make pictures that made me smile.
I used to get a lot of assignments that started with a layout. “Here, photographer, create a photograph that looks like this.” That is what I was paid for. Now I get assignments like, “Come down to Mardi Gras for a week and see what happens.” Or when Capital One called and ask me to spend some time photographing several small business clients of theirs in Dallas and in New York. No layouts, few directions, “Go see what’s there and bring us home something wonderful that captures the real life of our clients.”
I have learned that my best work, the work that makes my client’s smile is the work that happens when I let go. When I forget all the preconceived notions of what they want or what an “advertising” photograph should look like and I just react to what I see, I create photographs that sell.
Kill the concept and create a killer photograph.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
Monday, January 17, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The Wisconsin Farm Project
Back in 1982 I did a series of photographs on the Fecter Family Farm in West Bend, Wisconsin. Today I had to revisit these images for a client. I had not looked at them in twenty years but they still bring a smile to my face.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Nouns, Adjectives or Verbs?
Lately I have been wondering if my photographs are nouns, adjectives or Verbs?
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Crossroads
I had the wonderful experience of meeting and photography some amazing young adults yesterday. A true testimony of life's sprite overcoming life's challenges
see the rest at: Crossroads
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
The Cure
I have been at this for a while. There have been good years and there have been years where sleep came hard for worry.
I started my career in 1982, a year with a similar economic climate to this one with high unemployment and no optimism in the air. Like many of you here I am receiving a fair amount of resumes and young photographers asking for advice these days.
I was never one who buys the idea that it was “better back then” a career in the creative arts has always been a difficult choice. We who dedicate our lives to constant reinvention soon discover that we cannot always pull the next big thing out of our camera shaped hats. Our markets are not forgiving. Our markets always want the next big thing.
So what do you say to the next bright eyed recent photo grad with a huge heart, deep passions and a small camera? How do you find the right tone between follow your heart and watch your wallet? We all want it all; sex, money, power, sprite and the idea that you are saving the world. How do you let them know that while few have it all, with hard work many of us get to drink a bit from the cup of joy even during times where the oxygen seems to be leaving the room.
To those of you who are starting your careers, have faith, work hard and keep on creating images that are close to your heart.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
www.zavesmith.com
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