Born in Brooklyn, New York…I had a normal childhood
growing up with two older brothers to look after me… My father was an x-ray technician, and a hobbyist, with a darkroom in our basement Bathroom… I showed an interest,
and became the assistant. After moving the prints in the darkroom from developer to fixer, I would watch, as the Image would slowly appear. I graduated to working the
enlarger, and shortly after, I was hooked. I was in my early teens by the time I had started to do my own darkroom work.I still have my first camera, a Kodak Duaflex 127 box
camera. I always assumed that everyone had millions of family photos like our family, so it just seemed natural to have a camera around my neck. I also assumed that
everyone was as able as I was to take a well composed and candid photo, I was wrong.
My early subjects were anybody and anything that would
stand still for me. Little league baseball, school plays, and rock & roll bands.
By the time I started high school I had become a shutterbug, I had chosen a school that had an advanced
program in photography, and found that the photos that received the most attention from my peers were the ones of the contemporary music scene.
I would go to the Rock & Roll shows at Madison Square
Garden, sneak my cameras in, and work my way as close to the stage as possible to catch a great shot of Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, or who ever else I could get good
access to. After the show, I would go right home and develop all my film and start printing B&W glossies all night long. The next day I would go back to the Garden and start
selling my photos. I would gossip with people about the performer, run from the police, and collect the money. I remember making Two hundred dollars from the sale of
"Who" photos, My pockets were stuffed with dollar bills, and I realized that this was a great way to make a buck, in addition to being a hit with all my friends. I had become a professional photographer.
With the money I'd made from my Rock & Roll photos, I bought my first Nikon Camera, with an assortment of lenses…I was moving up in the photo world.
In my senior year in High School I discovered a section in the NY Times called "Fashions of the Times," The women were both Beautiful and exotic, the locations, gorgeous. I
used this as a textbook in building a portfolio of fashion photographs. With support & prodding from my mother, I entered a contest sponsored by the NY Times. My photo essay titled
"Fashions of High School youth" was a runner up, and I won an award of $500 dollars. Now I was really hooked!
Having won a few small photo contests, I was becoming
more confident as a photographer, and decided that a career in fashion photography was where my future lay.
After graduating college from the Fashion Institute of Technology
in NYC, I began the arduous route of paying my dues as a photo assistant to some of the NY's top photographers. It wasn't as glamorous as I'd hoped, but it
was a learning experience that I'll never forget. Long hours, short pay.
I had begun building a portfolio of Fashion & Beauty photos that had the makings of a solid career in professional
photography. After a few years of assisting a number of different New York City photographers, I figured it was time to move to the next level.
On the advice of several other aspiring photographers I
packed my cameras and headed to Europe to become a fashion photographer, and to get experience and tear sheets from whatever European magazines I could. I
settled in Madrid, Spain because I'd heard it was an excellent proving ground for young foreign photographers.
The experience proved to be invaluable…I evolved into a
working photographer, with a portfolio of editorial photographs, and experience at working with editors, make-up artists, and stylists, along with exchanging information and resources with other young photographers
trying to accomplish similar goals as mine. There were several funny experiences, one of them on my first shoot for "Dunia" (Spanish equivalent of seventeen magazine). The
driver of the location van was telling me something in Spanish very quickly while careening through the hills of the Spanish countryside. I didn't understand what he was
saying until the passenger door popped open on a sharp turn, and the driver yanked me back in with a big grin on his face. Most important I began to get the respect of a
working crew and the experience of directing Beautiful models and working with limited resources in problem solving. The whole experience gave me renewed ambition
and self-confidence, and after a year abroad I returned to New York to get my piece of the pie.
After a few years of knocking on doors and showing my portfolio to anyone who would look, I began getting some
small jobs with a few magazines, but realized that I needed more to sustain my lifestyle, the struggling artist routine was beginning to wear thin.
While attending the wedding of a friend, I noticed how hip the photographer was, and found out what studio he was working for, and interviewed with them the following Monday.
The last thing in my mind was becoming a wedding photographer. The image of the lifetime hack in the ill fitting, worn tuxedo with the cocktail sauce stain on his
lapel did not sit comfortably with me. Since I had no real traditional education in wedding photography, I improvised with my candid nature, my photojournalistic style and most important my sense of
Fashionable elegance, and motion. Luckily, my style happened to be very contemporary in the eyes of extremely particular brides to be. After six years of working as a Freelancer for some of New York's most
prestigious wedding photography studios, I had begun to develop a good reputation with a number of key people in the industry.
Using a mixture of Fashion, Candid, photojournalistic, and
traditional wedding photography, I started A Fashionable Event, photography for people who savor candid moments (my fiancé came up with that one).
In my first two years of business I've had a great response and learned the value of good referrals, nothing like a happy bride who shows her proofs to all of her bridesmaids/soon to
be brides. First and foremost I offer my clients personal service, The fact that they will be able to convey all their requests and fears for their wedding day directly to me
seems to play a large role in assuring them that the most important spiritual day in their life is going to be recorded by someone that they feel both confident and comfortable
with. I also enjoy the craft of photography, and offer my clients a number of products that I make by hand (framing, collages, presentation boxes), as well as whatever cutting
edge products that are available along with traditional wedding albums.
Most important, I bring to the job a sense of energy, sensitivity, humor and enthusiasm that is essential in a day
that is fraught with emotion, and tension that only a family gathering of these monumental proportions can conjure up. In my experience of shooting over 500 weddings I've had to
sew, remove stains and bustle dresses, along with entertaining unwilling flower girls or ring bearers (a small bottle of bubbles works wonders) to elicit a cheerful and
sometimes priceless photograph that only children are capable of.
I believe that the ability to gain a bride and groom's trust is the most important factor in putting them at ease with the
personal nature of the job you are going to do for them. After you have their trust, both the romantic and spontaneous photographs come naturally.
A veteran photographer had told me that photographing a
wedding was only partially based on skill, but was more of an exercise in crowd control. In some ways this is true. There are so many ego's and personalities to deal with,
making it essential that you are well prepared both emotionally (remain calm), and technically (maintain your equipment) to get people to move when and where you need them to.
Living and working in NYC, I've been fortunate to have the most exciting city in the world as a backdrop for some of my photo shoots. Instead of using a painted backdrop for
posed portraits, I try to get my clients to come out into the streets, rooftops, or alleys of New York, and incorporate that feeling into romantic and candid photos. It has proven
to be a successful technique, as it usually seems to relax my clients and give them the feeling that they are getting unique and candid photos.
One of the best tools that I use is my enthusiasm…I love my
work!! Photography is my life. It isn't a 9-5 job. Wherever I go, I'm always thinking of other photographs, locations, and even the quality of the light. I've never been afraid to
try different techniques, sometimes they work and incredibly exciting photos are made.
I look to continue shooting social events and lifestyle fashion photographs, along with continuing to shoot
children's portraits. I continue to have hands on control with all of my clients because I feel that quality will always win out over quantity. I'm constantly developing new
promotional pieces, and developing my web site. I'm always willing to travel, as new locations are always a challenge to making an exciting job.
I can be reached in New York at 212 330-9933 ( I always answer my own phone whenever possible), or check me out on the web @ www.Afashionableevent.com
