Photography Meeting

I met with Ed the photographer on Saturday. I was a little nervous and not sure of what to expect. However, I knew I wanted to do this, so I was going to make it work regardless. He would have to say something outrageous for me to pass on the opportunity of dance photo shoot. Well, he didn't...and we ended up talking for two and a half hours. We chatted about his life, my life, the photo sessions, business, other clients, and the nature of his work. I liked him because he was real. He didn't try to give me any bs or sell me anything. He just wanted to have a conversation and meet the person who he could potentially work with, no strings attached.

There are many photographers out there, each with their own flavor. However, I see two types of work: one is functional and one gives you an experience. Some people just need the business headshot, a nice family portrait, school photo, or marketing image. That's fine. It's a quick and easy job. But it sacrifices substance. I look for option two: I want to feel emotion when I see a photo. I want to be there and know what the subject knows - the calculation of a leopard, the burning limbs of an athlete, the loneliness of a refugee, the curiosity of a physicist...doesn't matter. I want the photo to live. I've only found two professional photographers in Tucson who can capture this...one is mainly a women's photographer (the subjects tend to be women and their bodies - old, young, pregnant, yogi) and the other is Ed.

One of the amazing things about Ed is that he has a solid business that's sustained mostly by word of mouth, and a little bit of social media. He admits he's not very good at marketing and doesn't quite understand Instagram, even though he uses it. I think his clients are his main form of advertisement: he takes such amazing photos that people love to share them with his name. He's known for his work in dance, but he does a variety of subjects: designer shoes, plastic surgeons, jewelry, and non-dance photo shoots are just a few examples. People go to him because they want something different; not necessarily outrageous, but not cliche. Ed is not a person you go to for predictable, "safe" photos in which you know what you're going to get. You take a little leap of faith with him.

Through our conversation, I realized that Ed is one of those who uses photography not only as an art form, but also as a means of healing. He mentioned his clients who come in and want their photo taken, but they point to his other work and say, "I'm not that flexible/strong" or "I'm only a beginner" or "My body doesn't look like that," etc. He says his goal is not to make them look like professional dancers, just themselves...let their real personalities show. He says that if someone looks at the end result and says, "I didn't know I could do that or look like that!" he's done his job. He gave examples of clients calling him after doing sessions and sharing that their lives have changed. Mainly, they've gained a new sense of self and confidence. Ed wasn't egotistic when he said this, but instead expressed a feeling of joy that he could help people live better with a positive self-image. We spent a little bit of time talking about what I wanted. This is what I told him:

"I have three personas: my public/professional persona, my ballroom persona, and my private persona when I'm alone in a room. (I probably have another one for family and friends, too.) People see my public persona and some people see my dance persona, but I want to bring my private self into the public sphere and let it be seen. This photography experience isn't so much about me looking at a photo and saying, "I didn't know I could do that," but rather, "I knew I could do that...I want everyone else to know it, too."

I have this inner freestyle dancer that's lived inside of me for years that some people have glimpsed, but it has never gotten a chance to be fully in the light. Even in the various dance forms I've done, it's been Amy the Dancer within a structure. I want to do something unstructured, uninhibited, and I want it to be larger than life. I want my emotion to pour out of the pixels. We'll see if that happens! I haven't scheduled a session yet, but it will be sometime this summer.