Recently I was invited to an opening of a fashion designers boutique here in London where I met a lot of cool and interesting people.
During the event I was asked by the owner “what is your photographic bread and butter?”.
When I answered that it is an architectural photography he wasn’t surprised, he knew already that by profession I am an architect but he was a little confused because he couldn’t find these pictures on my website…
I respond quickly but I felt that it is more complex than just a one liner…
My Website and especially this Blog was created to share stuff that I love to do!
Stuff that makes me go an extra mile but the most of all that are completely mine…
Architectural photography is a really interesting area to work in. But it is an interaction with the other people that brought me to this industry.
Buildings do not appreciate your efforts, it is going to be in the same place tomorrow if the weather is not to your liking.
When working with people you need to have a people skills, the day is less predictable but to me a way more exciting. The bigger the team the more thrilling it is.
Another thing and crucial to me is how you feel about it… can you really say about an architectural photography “my work”?
As far I am concerned, I am struggling with that.
Yes you will pick the angle, wait for a perfect light and in the right moment to press the shutter.
But when I do that I can’t stop thinking about an enormous effort from many people involved in making this building rise from the ground.
A lot of people actually, starting from the client through architects, engineers, planners, contractors and many builders. And all of them were considering location, light conditions and appearance of the structure often years before you even had a thing to photograph.
Than I am showing up on a sunny day… snap… job done.
And even though I have many publications in Mags and books this is why I can’t get a lot of satisfaction from that particular work.
Same with events, I am a control freak and it would just drives me mad that I could be just a fly on the wall. It is just not for me.
This is why you rarely have a chance to see “my regular work” here.
I prefer to talk about my conceptual photography. The projects that are truly mine.
After it pops into my head or heart I will do all I can to make some of these ideas happen!
Sometimes it takes to do all from scratch – story line, costumes, location scouting, casting models. But the more effort it cost, the more rewarding it is!
This year we have a few really great gigs like that! And you can be sure that I will share them with you here.
But how to do that. How to balance such demanding ventures while working on regular stuff to pay your bills?
It is quite simple really, one of many solutions is to give up on sleeping!
You just need to find what your love, focus on that and let it kill you! It feels great, you will see!
In fact this will be a subject of my up and coming Seminar in London on the 7th of March.
If you are around I hope I will see you there. You can find more details here.
Cheers
Jaroslav @AurumLight Team
Aurum Light Blog 