Last summer I decided to take my first ever official Photography course ever, I have been taking photos for 5 years but never really have taken a course,  I have chosen to specialize in Photojournalism , the magic of capturing the moment, the place, the subject and what I call “Magic” something that goes on, that I can’t really plan or provoque and every time I get it I get really happy, but I have always been an spectator, basically I almost never ask someone if I can take their picture or ask them to do anything; I almost never use flash unless it is indispensable, aka I won’t see anything if I don’t use it :). So this past summer I decided to get out my comfort zone and take a course on portraits which has been a passion but never fully embraced it, I love to take out the beauty of people, their soul , not always easy as you have to create a rapport and help them come to that relaxed place that between shots they will share with you and  your camera who their are and you will capture a side of them they did not necessarily knew existed , the soulful/beautiful one. My  course was almost a total failure and fiasco I chose a course with a celebrity photographer , who really did not care about the soul of the person he just mastered the technique of getting the best picture possible in the least amount of time, as many celebrity photographers unless they are Peter Lindbergh or Mario Testino only get minutes, so between mastering the use of flash ( which I don’t like) space ( yes I do) and finding the angle of the person in a daring original way ( to be learnt ) he creates some very cool photos, but it is at the end a cookie cutter technique if you practice enough and I found sad that he really did not care about the person. The first days of the stage I was trying to comply and use his technique: total failure , yet I was learning to be more daring and interact with people, ask the to be photographed, pose and be relaxed, which was great. But he has not liking my work and I was really feeling like crap , I wanted to go running to my airbnb and cry like a looser , but my little voice inside said : ” no, no darling, you came to do a course and you will not cry yourself to failure, that is to easy, you will do your best, follow what you like (no flash and look for the soul of the person)” , good instructions!!! thank you little voice! , now I really prayed for the right prospect to photograph , literally I prayed to angels , and the moment my teammate and I set the mini studio in the big gallery, Camille walked by, a man that looks like a direct descendent of Jesus meets rockstar with this long amazing hair, his very fashionable state making shirt , and guess what?? The sweetest personality in the planet, he would do anything I ask!!! He even took of his shirt !! Our teacher asked us to make our models do crazy things , I managed to do it and find an amazing volunteer. My heart got open that day, I remembered something I forget often, as artists we can’t try to be an other person, we can learn, use techniques, but the moment you go into trying to be what you are not and on top feeling bad that you are not them, you are on the wrong track of creation, it is not easy in the world we live to not fall in this trap , but if at least we are conscious we will create authentic things and the world will enjoy  whoever it is , ti does not matter , what matters is you poured a little true heart in what you did and let it go where it has to go :). And even if I was disappointed a bit and frustrated with my course and teacher , I did learn a lot and his criticism made me go deeper in what I can improve even if I am using all his technique and good teachers manage to do that in some way, bad ones don’t inspire anything good or bad.  So here is my first series of portraits of that course and many to come, besides my fashion adventures.

Be Authentic.

Love,

Yavidan