“What do you do?”

That was my introduction to 86 people in the first week of February this year. In each session, each day, and each moment passing, the question framed the time with each person I met. So simple, but so much.

“What do you do?”

The same response never came twice. There was repetition. There was commonality. There was the distinct inflection of a New York story that plays itself out every day, but never ends.

“What do you do?”

There were so many different answers. Banking, acting, singing, dancing, writing, producing, studying, finance, working…working…always people working towards something. I often wondered who each person would be and what they would become as time passed. There were New York natives, transplants from a coast away, and everything in between, but through each person, I saw a world of life played out 15 minutes at a time. Inspiring, honest, bold, reserved, forthright, pure, and simple.

See the slideshow by clicking the image below. This entry continues afterwards.

The first day was a rough start. It was tiring and long, and I wasn’t quite ready. I hadn’t decided on lighting, objective, or direction, and I wasn’t focused. I decided that I would have to let the experience take me wherever it went. I have too often taken the safe path in my life, avoiding failure more than going for success, but here there was no choice. With no restrictions and no blueprint, I could only let each person be my guide. It meant I was free to make mistakes. It meant I was free to grow.

And I did grow. I can only guess that to each person coming in the door this was just a project to have some fun and occupy some time. After all, that’s how I usually described it. But as it went on, I found that this was about knowing myself and learning about how I relate to others. Every person has so much to give to one another.

Things started to come together by the third day. It was tiring, not quite inspiring, and still a little uncertain, but as my technique became more tangible, I stopped worrying about what to do every second of the shoot. My approach changed. I spent some time talking with Natalia on my last shoot that Wednesday. She was soft spoken and intriguing, and in those quiet moments, I could see that in her face, as it was and free of overt expression, there was all I needed. No need for dramatic lighting or a compositional statement. Just her, looking at me. Less was more.

By the fourth day, I was calmer, and I started to better feel my reactions to people. Where on prior days I worked with multiple set-ups to ensure that I captured something visually engaging, now I was focusing on body language and expression. The defining moment of the project came on the last day. It was then that I realized that this week was something special for me. It happened when Kell walked in the door. “What do you do?” I said. He looked at me quizzically, so I asked again. And, unexpectedly, he just let it all out. His life story in 10 minutes. It was in that moment that I understood that we all carry in our gestures and form a power from the stories that we live each and every day.

One week and 86 portraits later, I am no longer tired. In fact, as I write this on a day off, I miss the studio, the people, and getting to know them. I want to keep going. Now that the week is said and done, I know that each person who sat there in front of me gave me something special. They gave me a piece of themselves, and in doing so, they gave me a piece of myself. It was in this week that I could feel something I had already believed. Community is essential.

To each participant, you are all fabulous. I feel a debt of gratitude for your coming in and being there. You have inspired and touched me. To talk, to listen, and to be present – these things are the essence love and life. Thank you so, so much.

Finally, a special thanks to Irina, who has helped with this project in more ways than I’m likely even aware of myself. Not only could I never have done this without her help, but I don’t think I would have without her encouragement. She went above and beyond the call of duty, and being there to help, listen, and talk has meant everything.

Rob Cordova. Photographer: Spencer Lum

We are very excited to announce our portrait marathon for the first week of February! We will be shooting free portraits at our studio and want you to be part of it. Come as you are and be yourself in front of the camera for about 15 minutes and be your silly, serious, sexy, crazy, or (fill in the blank) self that you are. If you, or someone you might know, would be interested in participating, please let us know so we can reserve your time slot now. We will email you the picture soon after your sitting. In the end, you will be part of a very cool project and get a nice portrait out of it!

We will shoot from Monday, Feb. 1 through Friday, Feb. 5 from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. every day that week. When replying, please let us know which day and time works best for you. Looking forward to seeing you there!

One of the hard things about shooting weddings is that you never really get much time off during the summer on weekends. That in itself isn’t really bad, but I do miss having my vacations during the summer. Katya and I used to take an annual trip, usually sometime around May, but that’s just when wedding season really kicks in full steam, and it doesn’t let up until November or December usually.

So, for this year, we decided to make a trip to London. One thing I didn’t know was that London really shuts down on Christmas day. Even public transportation, which doesn’t make it the best for touring. Still, it made for great walking, and we got to fill the day with a visit to Charles Dicken’s home (that’s where the two shots of the window were taken) and a wonderful walk along the Thames. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not really snowing and freezing all winter. Actually, the weather held up fairly nicely for us, with just a little rain and not a trace of fog. The city was beautiful, both modern and quaint, and chock-full of history. And the fish and chips! If only I could find the same here in New York.

London had a really different type of energy than New York, both because of the vibe and the feel of the streets and architecture. Usually, I don’t shoot in diptychs, where pictures are meant as pairings instead of stand alone images, but somehow, that was just how things came out. I don’t know if it was the atmosphere or my mood, but either way it was great having the chance to step into a totally different environment, and just play. Now, where to go next year…

I got a little time to talk with Jerry during the engagement session before the wedding. One of the things that I thought was really nice was that Janet and Jerry were among the first of their friends to get married, so all of the things they did were new and fresh. That’s just how it felt on the day – the excitement was palpable. Janet was brimming with energy – she was actually jumping up and down a bit after putting on the dress, and I think her exuberance really comes through. We arrived a little early that morning, and we saw Jerry help set things up for the ceremony, before going down to his room to get ready. It reminded me a little of my own wedding, when I was helping to set up my own ceremony, making it not only nostalgic, but just nice to see that he was so involved.

Click on the image above to see the full slideshow. Some excerpts below. The permanent link is at 5weststudios.com/weddings/2009/janet_jerry/wedding/slideshow/

I had been looking forward to Rosamond’s wedding the whole year through. She and I have been friends since law school, going back well over a decade, and I was so happy when I heard that she and Duke were getting married! The wedding took place in Malibu, California, right at the tail end of a rainy week. Even as I drove over to the hotel for the prep shots at 5:30 in the morning, there was some drizzle in the air. But that turned out to be it. The clouds parted, the sun came through, and everything went off without a hitch. It was great to be both a guest and her photographer, and I felt lucky that I was able to be there with her the whole day through, as I watched a good friend get married.

Click on the image above to see the full slideshow. Some excerpts below. The permanent link is at 5weststudios.com/weddings/2009/rosamond_duke/slideshow/

The morning started off slowly, as I waited for Krissy and Eytan to come by, but that was about the only thing that would go slowly. From the time Krissy came in to the time we left, the day was non-stop and pulse-pounding. I know it sounds like an action thriller more than a wedding, but I just can’t find another way to put it. It was one of the most energetic and spirited I’ve ever seen with a record-length hora. There was never a moment where nothing was happening, and everyone there was a blast! When I looked at my watch at the end of the day, I couldn’t believe the day was over – it felt more like 8 minutes than 8 hours – and I’m glad I got to see it.

Click on the image above to see the full slideshow. Some excerpts below. The permanent link is at 5weststudios.com/weddings/2009/krissy_eytan/slideshow/

Katya and Evan in the fall

Just a quick plug for our new photography service! My wife Katya and I have been working on extending our services to include children’s pictures, as well as maternity pictures, both in studio and outdoors. Be sure to check out some of Katya’s work on her website!

www.5westkids.com

Katya, early morning

Evan, helping to charge the batteries

While I’m not officially in the off season – I still have two more weddings this year, it’s certainly looms close. I love this time of year. It’s my chance to figure out where things are, where they’re going, and what to improve on for the next season. Some of you might have noticed that I don’t post too many paid shoots other than weddings. While we do engagement sessions all year long along with a handful of corporate work, I really try to treat the down time as a period to explore personal material. It lets me experiment and process what I learn during the season, when things are so hurried and non-stop that there really isn’t much time to think.

One thing that really changed for me last year was my focus on personal work. To some extent, I’ve always documented my own life as well as that around me, but about a year back, the meaning of photography took a 180 degree turn for me. Before that, it was largely driven by the visual nature of the image, and not so much what the picture was about. But I found that I hit a wall. While my technical abilities continued to grow, I didn’t really know what to do with them. Creating more precise exposures in unusual lighting with quicker reaction times and better composition was nice, but it also seemed a little empty.

Something was missing. I found that I wasn’t enjoying taking pictures as much as I used to. In fact, what I really enjoyed the most the previous season was meeting all of the wonderful couples that I did. I cared about the pictures immensely, but more because I wanted to do a good job and I knew how important the day was to each couple. But the actual picture taking began to feel repetitive. Not there’s anything wrong with repetition per se, but there is when it’s not exciting any longer.

So that was my focus last year during the off season. At first, I was focused on trying to find a new look and feel, but I quickly came to realize that wasn’t the problem. What was really the problem was that I was so focused on creating pictures that I thought people would like that I didn’t think about creating pictures that I would like. Even in my personal work, I was looking to create pictures that were impressive, but not necessarily meaningful to me.

So last year was something of a transitional year for me. The pictures I took weren’t so different from the previous year that you’d think it was from a different photographer, but they’re most certainly different to me. They were personal. To me, personal is anything you care about. For which there is authorship. Where the point of the picture is connect you with what the photographer cares about. And by making the pictures personal, I was able to find so much more in both my work for myself and my work weddings. I stopped caring whether the pictures were impressive. I no longer thought about whether they would look good if I submitted them to a magazine or bridal blog. Instead, what I cared about was whether they were meaningful. Did they connect the people to the moment? Did they present an idea or a feeling? Did they have something to say?

I love photography that comes from the heart, where you just know the author is consumed by the pictures he or she takes, because the subject matter and the message matters that much. And I feel like I’m on the right track. So, hopefully, this year in the off-season, I’ll be able to keep pushing. I’m excited, and I’m looking forward to sharing a little more of my personal life, more of my discoveries, and more of my thoughts on why photography matters so much to me.