You Are Your Greatest Creation

If you feel like you need a reason to be happy, stop what you are doing for a second and take a look in the mirror. That is you. That beautiful being that you are staring at is you. All the choices in your life have shaped the person that is staring back at you from your reflection. And that person, you, is your greatest creation. Your perfect creation. With your virtues and your flaws, you are perfect. And you don't need me or anyone else to tell you this because you already know it. You just need to believe it. And when you finally believe it you will realize that you have many reasons to be happy. Despite all the things that go on around you, the good and the evil, you have managed to keep on going and to get here, right now, to this very moment when you are reflecting on your life and on everything that you have accomplished. So be grateful for what you have, let go of what holds you back and smile. And share that smile with others. Let happiness be the greatest gift that we give during these holidays.

Happy Holidays 2016.

Photo credit: behind the scenes by Andrzej Gruszka.

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Counting Heart-Throbs

By this time of the year I get very introspective and reflect on my life over the previous 12 months. Like Socrates allegedly said: "the unexamined life is not worth living". So I think about my accomplishments and my failures, about the things that I should keep on doing and the things that I should correct; about the lessons learnt and how to live by them; I think about those whom I have loved so that I can love them more, about those whom I have hurt so that I can ask for their forgiveness, about those who have hurt me so that I can forgive them...

I also think about the people whose lives I have touched with my photography, not only those who have worked or collaborated with me, but also those who have been in front of my camera posing for me. The satisfaction that they get when they see their image on the screen is worth more to me than all the money in the world and I have to say that these last 3 years I have been be able to make a lot of people happy. And that makes me happy.  And I know that to be able to say that one is happy despite all the events that took place in 2016 makes me a very lucky bastard.

Some time ago I read a fragment of a poem called “Festus” by Philip James Bailey:

"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most—feels the noblest—acts the best."

I like to think that I live my life by how much I make other people's hearts throb.

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Aspiring Models: Beware Of Fake Model Agencies

In the last couple of weeks I have gotten many calls from aspiring models who have been approached by fake model agencies promising them jobs with top clients and earnings of thousands of pounds a day provided that they came to their offices for a test photoshoot for which they had to pay a refundable deposit. These are not real model agencies, these are just scammers who are trying to take advantage of the hopes and dreams of vulnerable people who know nothing about the modelling industry and who would do anything to work as a model. Keep on reading for tips on how to recognize them and not fall prey to their reprehensible techniques.

The modelling industry is a really tough industry to work in. You are being constantly judged by things that are completely out of your control. Rejection becomes the new normal. It's nothing personal, it doesn't have anything to do with whether you are pretty or not, or whether you have the body shape, or the height or the origin. It has more to do with the trends of each market and what the clients are looking for at the moment. There is nothing wrong in trying to make it as a freelance model and probably by doing so it would get you a constant stream of jobs even if they are lower paid, but the dream is to be signed to an agency that gets you the jobs that pay the big bucks. The problem is that agencies respond to clients expectations and they only sign models who they can make money of. So if this season no one is casting redheads in London and you are an aspiring redhead model, the likeliness of getting signed by an agency in London this season is very low. If you wanted to get signed you would have to consider other markets. And it is precisely those moments in the aspiring model's life that the fake model agencies target.

It is a sad reality of humans as a species that there will always be someone trying to take advantage of the most vulnerable. If they take advantage of me, a 40 something year old man, it doesn't make it better but at least I can excuse myself by saying that I've been caught off-guard, I should have known better, and this won't happen to me again. But it is disturbing that someone takes advantage of the dreams, expectations and innocence of young people. To me, that is unforgivable. These fake model agencies target young aspiring models who are desperately looking to be represented or models who are just starting out and have no idea of how the modelling world works. They contact them on social media or on the streets, tell them that they have what it takes to become a model and lure them into their studios with the promise that they would take their photos to start developing their portfolio and then send it out to the best agencies and the best clients in the country. The only condition is that the model pays a refundable deposit which they hardly get back and after the photoshoot finishes then they have to pay for the photos if they ever want to have them. And some of these fake agencies charge up to 2000 pounds for photos that once they are given to the model they are never sent to any agency or client and the model never hears from the fake agency again.

So, how to know when are you dealing with one of these scam agencies?

1. They don't call themselves an agency: if you talk to them or if you go on their website you will see that they usually don't call themselves an agency because they are not. They use words like "platform" or "advisor" or "coach" and they will tell you that they will provide advice and guidance to help you become a model and then put you in contact with "top agencies" or "affiliated agencies" or "top clients" to get you the jobs. Real agencies call themselves what they are, Modelling Agencies, and if you go into their websites you can see that they clearly say so.

2. They charge a deposit or a fee: real model agencies never charge you money when they book you. Whatever money they invest in your development they will take out of the payments that you receive from clients once you start making money with them.

3. They ask you to come in for a photoshoot and then charge you for the photos: real agencies develop your portfolio with a network of photographers that they work with and never charge you directly for the photos. As I said before, all the development costs come out of your first jobs.

If you feel like you have been approached by one of these scam agencies you can learn more about models rights and agencies duties on these links:

• British Fashion Council

• British Fashion Model Agency Association

Modeling is not for the faint of heart and there is no easy way to make it in the industry. You don't need an agent to work as a model but if you decide to look for one you should first do your research on what to expect from the agency and what the agencies expect of you.

Photo credit: behind the scenes by Andrew Clark.

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2nd Blogiversary!

This month my blog turned 2 years old! Can you believe that? It feels like it was yesterday when I decided to start writing a recount of everything that I was going through when I decided to switch careers and become a photographer. 2 years... Don't they go by in a blink?

And to celebrate it I have put together a list of the most read posts of the last 24 months. Thank you so much to all my subscribers and to the people that read me every Wednesday!

Without your support this blog wouldn't exist.

And if you still haven't subscribed to my weekly updates, what are you waiting for?

Take The Blindfold Off

What If The Goal Is Becoming You?

The Man With A Plan

Brexiters

Show Up To Give

Your One Person Orchestra

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Are You The Hero Or The Villain?

I got my first office job back when I was 19 years old and in that company I met a very wise woman who taught me a valuable lesson on human interaction. She used to say that it really does not matter for how long you interact with someone, what is important is the depth of the connection that you have with them. Sometimes we meet people briefly but they stay in our minds for the rest of our lives; while with other people it takes years of interactions for them to grow on us. It is as if with some people their role in the movie of your life was to show up in just one scene, say just a few lines but somehow affect the rest of the plot. And if it's in a negative way they don't get a second chance to amend their contribution to your story. They only get one chance to be a hero or a villain.

The thing about the other people, those who appear regularly in your story, is that they have more time to develop the character that they are performing. They can start as heroes and become villains later on, or the other way around... or even shift continuously from one role to the other if they stay in your story long enough. While people who appear briefly in your movie get very limited time to change status. And then there is us, and of course we are always the hero in our own story. But what happens with heroes is that they can be the good person in your movie but they might be the villain in someone else's. It's all a matter of perspective.

My aim has always been to be one of the heroes, not only in my movie, but in the movie of every person that I interact with. I always try to have positive interactions with others and not only with the people that are close to me, but also with those people that I get to meet only for a few minutes or a few hours or a few days. Because I sincerely want other people to feel good around me and to remember me as the person who made them feel their best, no matter how brief the encounter was. Sadly, it can't happen all the time. Sometimes I am the villain. I don't think that I ever do it on purpose, and sometimes when it happens I am not even aware of it, but if I find out I do my best to amend my misbehavior. One thing is for sure, I never stop trying to be the best person that I can be.

Some people might like us, others might not, and that is just life. But we should never stop trying to be the best version of ourselves. The world is in need of good people now more than ever.

Photo credit: behind the scenes by Andrew Clark.

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I Live In A Bubble

I live in a bubble. And in my bubble I surround myself with good people, with people who embrace diversity, with people who see others as brothers and sisters and not enemies, with people who are acceptant of differences and who know that love conquers all. In my bubbled world there is no room for misogyny, discrimination nor hatred, and by alienating those who engage in these practices I have in fact alienated myself from the real world. In my naive approach to life, all these things were things that were slowly becoming part of the past and new generations had learnt from the mistakes of the ones that came before them. But I was so wrong. There is still so much work to be done.

This year has proven me wrong at so many levels. But to be fair it hasn't all been my fault. It's true that if I filter my friends and peers and only engage with like-minded people I will undoubtedly end up living in a world of my own creation. But inputs from the outside world like news outlets, social media or the internet itself should have been enough to help me realize that things weren't going as good as I thought. The problem is that nowadays all those inputs from those sources have also been tailored to my likes and needs without me even noticing. So when I browse the web or spend time in social media, all those ads and posts that I see are shown to me by algorithms that have a very accurate profile of who I am. And in the end, the life that I thought that I was creating for myself had actually been customized for me. It's all an illusion.

If you open my Facebook feed or my Instagram or Twitter at any given time you will find posts that are pro-equality, anti-hatred, centre-left and global-minded. And it is not that I was so naive that I didn't know that discrimination still existed in the world but to me that was reserved to a very extreme but low percentage of the population. And for the longest time I didn't like it when people called immigrants, other races or LGBTQ people minorities because I thought that in this day and age the anti-diversity were the true minority. But it turns out that the real minority is the one formed by people who, like me, believe that no gender identity, no race, no sexual orientation and in fact no differentiating factor should be discriminated upon but embraced.

But I'm happy that my bubble burst because now I know that in order to make my world truly diverse I most also include those who think completely different from how I think in order to understand them and to learn why their fears make them hate others. And maybe one day I will be able to show them that those fears are self-created or induced by others who just want to control them and profit from their extreme feelings.

Photo credit: behind the scenes by Andrzej Gruszka.

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Photomonth Exhibition

I am thrilled to announce that my 'Brexiters' project photos are being exhibited as part of the Photomonth East London International Photography Festival at Rich Mix Eastend in Bethnal Green from 10am to 10pm until 26 November 2016 with free access to the public.

'Brexiters' is a personal photography project where I explore the image that British people have of those who voted to leave the EU during the 2016 referendum. The sitters applied to an online ad where they were asked to impersonate someone who they thought had voted 'Leave'.

Interview with local newspaper

Projections

When you visit the exhibition, you will find some of my photos hanging on the wall while the rest are being projected on a big screen. Here is the address:

Rich Mix: 34-47 Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, E1 6LA London

Can't wait to see you all there!

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In Business And In War

I read somewhere on social media today: "I make new enemies everyday, it's called business", and even if it's a quote from a movie I couldn't help but feel sorry for the person who posted it because they made it their own. Who wants to live a life surrounded by enemies? Who wants to be in constant fear of competitors and peers?

It's true that in business, like in war, the only way to win a battle (that is, to get the job) is to end it in your favor. But, unlike war, in business we loose the jobs most of the times for reasons that have nothing to do with the world trying to come out to get us. We loose jobs because we are not the right fit for the client or the jobs are not the right fit for us (expertise, budgets, timings). We don't loose jobs because our peers are running around with blood on their eyes taking the jobs by force out of the hands of our clients. And if that is the case, perhaps it's time to reconsider the type of clients that we are trying to approach.

So instead of focusing your business development strategy on what your competitors are doing or not doing, lets focus in ourselves and in trying to improve our offer to become the best possible fit for our clients. The success of your peers doesn't automatically make you unsuccessful. It just means that there is also a possibility for you to succeed.

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What Makes A Great Image?

A lot has been said about what makes a perfect image. As a photographer, the challenge lies in trying to create the image that hasn't been seen before. The image that will make heads turn and that will stand out in the ocean of images that surrounds us everyday. But what makes this so hard to accomplish is that taste is very subjective and what is memorable for some is uneventful for others. How then can we create this perfect image? Is it even possible to plan for a great photo or does it happen on its own?

There is some really good photography out there. Photographers from all walks of life and from any level of expertise are creating amazing imagery. If you are like me and you are curious about what photographers from all over the world are creating you might already know this. And you might have already noticed that even if some images are exquisite some of them just look like what everyone else is doing. Even when I look at my own work I feel like I am just repeating the same pattern and that my work is not standing out.

Since I became a photographer some 5 years ago I have read an infinite amount of books and articles on how to create a great image and even when I went to photography school this was one of the first things that they tried to teach us. And let me tell you, there are a lot of schools of thought. Also, photography is such an extensive field that the formula that might apply to one type of photography might not work for another.

So while I am writing this post I am trying to think of the greatest images that I can remember to then put in writing why I feel that they are memorable to me. They all have one or a combination of the following aspects:

• They follow all the rules.
• They break all the rules.
• They were taken with perfect timing.
• They have great use of Colour Theory.
• They depict a historical moment.
• They depict current affairs.
• They have an interesting or famous subject.
• They evoke a feeling.
• They tell a clear story.
• Location, location, location.
• They have beautiful light.

As you can see, there are so many different reasons why a photograph can be a memorable image. And some of these reasons depend on so many factors that they seem impossible to plan for. Which makes me wonder: should we as photographers even bother? Maybe the clue is to keep on working in our art and let the chips fall where they may. Someone, someday, might think that our work is the best thing that anyone has ever created... what are your thoughts?

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Don't Hate, Just Dislike.

Over the last few years there has been a rise of extremism around the world. From inflammatory political speeches to hate crimes and terrorism, it feels like all the phobias were cooking slowly inside our societies until the pot couldn't contain them anymore. Hatred is such a dark and heinous feeling and I believe that most of us have never really had it ourselves. Which makes me wonder why do we use the word "hate" so loosely when we only mean "dislike"?

A few days ago I was having a conversation with a friend when I said "I hate it when that happens." And the second that the word came out of my mouth it just felt very wrong. Why did I choose that word if what I really meant to say was "I don't like it when that happens"? I don't think that I hate anything in my life or that I have ever felt that way towards something or someone in the past. And nevertheless I think that I use that word frequently instead of saying that I dislike something or someone.

So I made a promise to myself that day to stop using the word hate when I really mean dislike. Because even when the dictionary defines hatred as an "intense dislike", the word has gotten a completely different reputation with the events of the last few years and I don't want to be part of any of that. And I don't want my words to feed that feeling in others, either.

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There Is No Secret Recipe

Back when I was working in corporate I really disliked when suppliers used the phone to offer their services. "We work in technology, people, use the email!", I used to think. In fact, everyone in my department avoided answering suppliers calls for the same reason. We were busy people and a phone call was just a waste of time. Besides, there are some products or services that cannot be sold over the phone; you need some time to process what you are being offered and understand if it's something that you need. At least for me. So anyone who has ever tried to sell me something over the phone has failed. Surprisingly, telemarketing is still a thing no matter how many times I hang up on them.

We are in the last quarter of 2016, almost seventeen years into the XXI century, when thanks to technology we are more connected than ever and distances aren't meaningful anymore. Email, chat, webcams... all tools that transcend space and time. And yet, some people are still using the phone, a technology from the 19th century, to run their businesses. Which goes to prove that we are all different and that the selling techniques that don't work on me might work on others. Where I prefer emails because you have more time to process what you are reading and there is a written proof of everything that has been agreed upon, others prefer phone calls because they feel emails are too impersonal. There are no secret recipes to selling, where some fail others succeed. It's just a matter of understanding your target. Telemarketers who call me over the phone obviously don't know theirs.

The truth is that regardless of the method that you use to approach your prospect clients, the important thing is that you are consistent and that you always follow up. One call, one email, one online ad won't land you a deal. Consistence and perseverance will. There are no secret recipes, just these two secret ingredients.

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What If The Goal Is Becoming You?

I remember the first time when I said "I'm a Photographer" after being asked what I did for a living. It felt so strange yet so fulfilling. For close to 20 years I had been answering the same question awkwardly because I worked in an industry where I always felt a bit out of place. And there I was, a few years before turning 40, feeling like myself for the first time. I finally discovered what it was like to have pride in oneself.

Fast-forward to today and here I am, in the constant self-promotion, in the never-ending struggle to attract clients, in the crunching of the numbers to make ends meet... building a business is not for the faint of heart but it's such a rewarding experience. My friends jokingly wonder if I will remember them if I ever become famous and my husband wishes that I succeed so that I can early retire him. But even if those things sound enticing I really don't see them as my long-term goals.

I feel that one of the reasons why so many entrepreneurs fail in the early stages of their businesses is because they don't have a clear goal, not only for their businesses, but also for their lives. We are so focused on the return of the investment, and the profit, and the growth that we forget about the passion that drove us to starting the business in the first place. What if the goal was not to become a millionaire? What if the goal was not to achieve notoriety? What if the real goal was to become the best version of ourselves?

For 20 years I worked really hard and made a lot of sacrifices in my life without a clear vision of my future. I was just doing what everyone else was doing: pushing hard to climb the corporate ladder and helping other people's businesses grow and succeed with my own sweat and tears. But one day I got fed up, fed up with my choices and with my not realizing before that up until that moment I hadn't thought about myself. That's when I decided that I was going to become who I really wanted to be. And that is why that first time when I said "I'm a Photographer" made me feel so proud of what I had accomplished.

And yes, I want to grow my business and make it sustainable and hopefully one day be able to generate employment for other people. But that's just the plan. The goal is to be the person who is able to do that and probably much more. The goal is always Me.

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Is Anyone Out There?

As a business with a social media presence one of my biggest concerns is defining conversion and being able to track it. Specially because I offer photography services and not products and because I don't have an online shop where you buy my services. My clients have to contact me and together we devise a project. So what should be my conversion and how to know if anyone out there is listening?

The first step in order to know if anyone out there is reacting to your marketing efforts is determining how to track this. The conversion rate is one of those metrics that you define as a business to be able to measure the success of your marketing campaigns and their profitability. You could define it as the number of people who take a desired action that you want for them to take. For instance, you could say that in its basic form it would be converting a person who browses your site into a paying customer. But sometimes you could also want to track other types of conversions that not necessarily end up in a client paying for your services. Like the number of people who opened your marketing email and clicked on a certain link.

The second step is figuring out what is a good conversion rate for your type of business. And I feel like the only way of knowing this is by comparing with other businesses in your sector. The people at Smart Insights posted a very interesting article on email marketing statistics by industry that you should check out.

And lastly, and probably the most difficult step of them all, is deciding what all this means for you. You could have a very good conversion rate but it will only be as good as what you do with this information. Like I said at the beginning of the post, my marketing strategy is not based on a product that I sell, but on a project based service that I offer. My marketing efforts are content based and go into creating brand awareness, audience loyalty and social engagement. For me, a good conversion rate (new subscribers to newsletter, for instance) means nothing on its own if I don't cross-reference it with other metrics (quality of subscribers / leads generated from subscribers).

Like with friends, it's not quantity but quality. No matter how much data you gather or how many metrics you create, it's all worthless if you don't know what to do with them.

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Creative Does Not Mean Chaotic

There are two types of people in this world: tidy people and messy people, and those who know me know that I belong on the first group. But even if my world is very structured, I respect people who find peace in chaos. Until they use chaos as an excuse to be disrespectful to others. Because you can be chaotically creative but still be on time, respect deadlines and keep your word. In the end, it's all about being professional.

There is always a new study that finds out something new about human nature. And we will still be having those kinds of studies for as long as it takes us to understand our species. But we are such complex creatures that it will take us probably a few more centuries before we can finally decipher how our brains work. So, read all those studies as amusement articles but don't take them too seriously. The same people who wrote them might contradict themselves in a few years time.

Lately I have been reading a lot of articles about new studies on creative chaos and how the biggest creative brains in history were or are really messy and disorganized people. And the way these studies are written tend to suggest that people like me, who are very structured and have a system for everything, are not allowed to be creative because it is not in our nature. But to me that is just non-sense. First of all, because it implies by definition that I am not a creative person. And second of all, because what most of these studies say is that messy people tend to find order in chaos, which actually means that messy people are as organized as I am, they just express it differently.

So if you are one of those people who is always excusing themselves for being "fashionably late" or for not being able to keep deadlines by saying that it all comes with being a creative, stop lying to yourself and stop disrespecting others. That's just selfish. And to those of you who fear acknowledging how tidy you are because others might not think that you are creative enough, I say: don't let anyone tell you what you are supposed or not supposed to be. Be who you are but always respect others.

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5 Networking Tips For Fashion Week

London Fashion Week is around the corner and there isn't a better time to dust-off your networking skills. It is the biggest event of the industry and if you are lucky enough to be able to attend you should be prepared. You might not have a networking opportunity like this for another 6 months.

A year ago I wrote a post on Do's and Dont's for networking events. Check it out here. But today I'm adding a few more that relate specifically to fashion events:

1. Dress For Success: this is not only the name of a song from the 90's band Roxette. If there is a time of the year when you have to buy clothes it is now. If you are trying to appeal to a target that is fashion oriented, you must understand fashion.

2. Every Second Is A Networking Opportunity: you have to make the most out of this event. Talk to everyone and do not underestimate anyone. The person behind you on the cue to the restroom could easily be your next client.

3. Don't Get Discouraged: you are going to meet a lot of people and not everyone can be interested in what you have to say. Besides, this is a trade show, so everyone is busy trying to sell their businesses. A brief introduction and a follow up after the event is the key.

4. Be Prepared To Show Your Work: maybe carrying around your portfolio is not advisable, but fill your phone or tablet with samples of your work so you can show what you do on demand.

5. But Get Your Face Off Your Phone: you are here to admire fashion and talk to people. Why waste precious time or risk a neck injury? Look up, smile and admire fashion at its best.

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What's Next?

If you have reached a point in your career where you feel comfortable with what you have and where you finally have mastered what you do, it might be time to move on. No growth ever came from staying in the comfort zone. So take a risk, even if it's as small as trying out a new technique or as big as researching a new target. In order to move forward you should always ask yourself: what's next?

And it's scary... oh, I know it's scary, believe me! All the what-if questions come to your mind to try to prevent you from change. But you didn't get to where you are by not taking risks. You didn't get to where you are by paying attention to your inner fears. So why do it now? If it's true that it's not the destination but the journey, why have you decided to end the journey so soon?

I am no better than you on this and to be honest I looked in the mirror this morning and asked myself: "where are you going from here?". I feel the winds of change starting to blow and I don't want to feel too comfortable where I am to not let them take me along.

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Bee A Role Model

My inspiration for today's blog post came from a construction site that I can see from my living room's window. Those tiny construction workers working in harmony as if they were playing in an orchestra made me think about bees and how all their hard work is oriented at the improvement of the community. And if you have been reading my blog long enough you already know how important the sense of community is to me.

A few weeks ago I went to the Kew Gardens with my friend Jessica (#hellojess #bestiesorbeesties?) and we were lucky enough to listen to a talk by beekeeper Harry Stigner on bee societies and their importance in our food supply chain. We learned that no bee is an island and that every single bee has an important role in the beehive: "from security bees defending the hive, to gathering forage, feeding young, cleaning, building, central heating, air conditioning, grooming and preparing honey." And even if you could argue that beehives are not perfect societies because of the lack of individuality, among other things, there is no doubt that there is so much that we could learn from them on "how hundreds and thousands of beings can cohabit harmoniously in a small space."

Should bees be our new role models? Probably not, as it would be hard to relate to an insect. But there is something that needs to be done about the role models that we have today. These new generations are looking up to people who have achieved absolutely nothing. From people who are notorious just because we made them famous to others who are in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Why can't we have as a role model a hardworking person who, like the bees, has earned what they have with sweat and tears? Why can't we make a construction worker's hard work our aspiration in life?

I am sure that there are a lot of honest and hardworking people out there that would make excellent role models. Maybe the problem is that we haven't heard about them because the media feeds from what sells and apparently we are more interested in someone's makeup technique or sex-tape than the achievements of everyday people. Or maybe it is true that it is hard to find a role model in our communities and that is why the fake role models are taking over our aspirations. So, if that is the case, I have a proposal: why not be the role model for others that you can't seem to find for yourself? And in trying to be the best person that you can be you will not only be setting an example for others but you will also be making this world a better place.

Bee a role model. Bee the change.

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Brexiters - A Photography Project

As an EU citizen living and working in London, the decision of 17 million british people to leave the European Union and the motivations behind the Brexit campaign affected me and my family directly. When I decided to work on this series I wanted to explore what I felt when I found out about the results of the voting and also the mixed feelings that I had in the aftermath of the referendum. The media told us that the majority of the pro-Brexit voters were English people 45 years old and above, with almost no education and living in rural areas of England, but I just couldn't believe that this description fit the totality of the voters. So I placed an ad asking for british people who wanted to be photographed impersonating someone who they thought voted pro-Brexit. I was not interested on their actual political views nor did I want to know which way they voted. I was just interested in the image that british people had of this voter: how would they dress, how would they behave, how would they look at me while I was taking their photo. I specified in the ad that it didn't have to be a stereotyped profile; I just wanted to see their interpretation of this voter and see if it matched the description that the media was portraying.

Almost 50 people signed up to my project but in the end, after many email exchanges, only 7 agreed to be photographed. I told these 7 persons that I was not going to influence their characterization. My only condition was that the portrait had to be taken at their place, because I wanted them to feel comfortable in their role and also because I wanted to have a real home feel in each of the portraits. They all lived in different parts of England so in a matter of 3 weeks I travelled around the country to take the portraits. And to my surprise, the image that each and every one of them had of the Brexiter was completely different from the rest. Neither of them had a similar view to the others. While I was taking their photos I realised that not only there was no Brexiter profile but also that the description that the media made of the Brexiter was very different from the image that british people have of them. My sitters got inspired either by people that the knew or they just interpreted themselves, as some of them admitted that they had voted leave.

All the portraits were taken using the same composition: landscape, to give a cinematic feeling to the portrait as if one were watching these people on the TV, and always taking the photograph through a door, a doorway or some bushes, as if one were peeking in to these persons' private life.

While working on this personal project I not only met some really interesting and lovely people but also I realized that part of the reason why the country got so divided during the referendum campaign period was due to the fact that the media demonized the Brexiter and also their political representatives didn't actually represent them at all.

You can see the whole series at www.greypistachio.com/brexiters

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Creation By Innovation

Fashion throughout history has always been a reflection of the needs and circumstances of the times that we are living. When we started evolving and we lost our body hair, we needed to cover up for warmth; the opposite happened with hats, because when we started commuting in covered transport there was no longer a reason for keeping our heads warm; and when the binding oppression of corsets became unbearable, fluid and soft clothes became the new norm. So, if fashion has always been at the forefront of innovation, why are we copying each other so much?

I see it in photography: if you spend some time on social media you soon realize that you can divide photographers into the ones who shoot in a certain style and the ones who shoot in another. I see it in design: designers get "inspired" by other designers and then the fast fashion retailers copy these designers to make those clothes cheaper and available to the mass. I see it in makeup: one big name makeup artist comes up with a technique and in less than the blink of an eye all the models are wearing the same look.

I feel like we are not taking risks anymore. We do what seems to work for others and what is selling more. Investors just want their money's worth and if something is working and selling, why change it? Money-driven mentalities seem to be ruining the industry and demoting creativity to a the bottom of the priority list. And I know what you are thinking: this is a business and we all need to make money to pay wages and rent. But when everyone gets bored of seeing the same things over and over again, the only ones left standing will be the ones doing something different than the rest.

Lately I have been challenging myself to break this cycle and pay less attention to what others are doing and start taking some risks. I am trying to do things differently by coming up with alternative approaches to existing solutions but also with new solutions of my own. I am trying to answer the question "what makes me, me?" and see how that reflects in my work. Like Juergen Teller says: "I just want to create a picture that no-one's ever seen before".

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Take The Blindfold Off

Back when I was growing up in Panama, I lived a very comfortable life. I was brought up in a bubble, and in that bubble, I was made believe that we were better than the rest and that some colours shouldn't mix. And it wasn't until my early twenties, when I moved to Europe and experienced discrimination for the first time, that the blindfold was taken off my eyes. Life gave me one of the biggest lessons I would ever receive.

It's funny because being gay and having come out at such a young age you would imagine that I had experienced discrimination all along. But the truth is that, apart from the expected problems with my parents and the occasional bullying at school, my family and my friends were cool with it, and it was never an issue at university or later at work either. So the first time that I was made aware that my skin tone mattered, that my features stood out, that my accent spoke more than my words and that, apparently, the fact that I was making minimum wage working in a computer warehouse defined me as a human being, I had a reality check that changed my life forever.

Discrimination in some societies is taken so much for granted, especially if you are in a privileged position, that people don't even realize that they are discriminating in the first place. We are brought up with fear and rejection to those who are different because of their origin, their race, their social class, their believes, or whom they love. And that has made us a paranoid species that lives in constant distrust of their surroundings. We have lost the innocence and the beauty of pure human interaction.

Maybe I am too naive, but interacting with others without taboos nor prejudices, with trust and an open heart, is not only a beautiful experience but it makes you gain so much. You learn, you grow, you expand your horizons, and at the same time you teach, you share, and you let others grow with you. I don't want to live in a world where every time that I leave home I have to live in fear, paranoia and distrust of those around me. When I meet someone, I give myself and my trust a 100% and if they lose my trust along the way that is on them, not on me.

It took me going through a very dark moment almost 20 years ago to learn this very valuable lesson. But it doesn't have to be like that for you. You have the power to take that blindfold off yourself. Life is so much happier without it.

Photo credit: self portrait.

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