Zave Smith Photography

©2006-Zave Smith Photography

Go to any school play or sit on the sidelines of Saturday morning soccer and you will see more cameras and camcorders then the White House Press Room. These snapshots are destined to fill family albums, spill out of kitchen drawers and decorate the entryways of homes across America.

Families who are fighting for their kids lives do not have the energy to bring cameras to the hospital and record Sara lying in bed. Flashes of Hope is a newer organization based in Canton, Ohio, whose mission is to go into the cancer wards of children’s hospitals and create photographs of these young patients. These portraits are then given “gratis” to the children’s families. After all, at the end of the day, kids with cancer are just kids. They are beautiful, cute, and full of hope and promise. These are the kids whose faces have the power to remind us why we are all here.

RainTree Children and Family Services is a social service organization based in New Orleans. They help arrange foster care, adoption services, after school programming and provide a group home for teenage girls who need a safe harbor. In this time of government cutbacks, trying to keep an organization like RainTree going is a huge challenge. In post Katrina New Orleans, this challenge has become a Herculean task.

Through the offices of my friend, Richard Cardona and the Create-A-Thon I found myself spending a recent Sunday afternoon at RainTree. I was there to create a cover for a brochure. Since you cannot photograph foster kids for promotional brochures I had a couple of cute, “employee” kids to model for us. After the shoot, which was watched very closely by the six teenage girls who currently live at RainTree the director told me how foster kids seldom have pictures of themselves.

Just like with “Flashes of Hope”, I decided spend the rest of the day creating portraits of these unphotographed girls. These images were made not to “sell” but to share. And like the portraits from Flashes of Hope, these pictures will fill an empty spot the on the kid’s bedroom walls. For at the end of the day, foster kids are also just kids with all the energy and hope of tomorrow.

While I get a huge kick out of creating photography for advertising and I love seeing my images spread across the pages of magazines. And believe me I love the checks that I received for doing this work. There is a special joy in photographing the Unphotographed. Models know how to flash for the camera and create smiles that sell a million items. But capturing a smile emerging from the shy faces of those we seldom see is a challenge and a real pleasure.

It has been an amazingly busy summer at the studios. We have been shooting for Aramark, High Mark Blue Cross & Astra Zeneca. Check out our new work at: zavesmith.com

Sincerely,
Zave Smith
www.zavesmith.com

©2006-Zave Smith Photography

Advertising photography is a floating world carried by the latest trends in cultural, politics and fashion. To survive on this river you need to know when to let the currents of popular culture carry you and when to set sail in a stream of ones own creation.

Around every two years or so I find myself becoming grumpy and bored by the work that I am doing and I realize it is time to change. It would be easy to open the latest Workbook or Vogue and copy the style of the day, but what fun is that? Though I might use these resources to inspire, I ultimately look in two places for inspiration. One place is inside my heart and the other are the new work prints that start to cover my walls.

These days I find myself trying to find the right balance between realism and fiction. I am not interested in creating fantasy worlds where every man is built like a tank, every woman is a perfect “0″ and everybody is smiling. What is interesting about that? I am more intrigued by questions than answers. I am looking for the fiction that helps us understand the multi dimensional reality of being human.

One of the biggest differences between yesterday and tomorrow’s work is intent. Where yesterday I would look for an idea, tomorrow I am looking for a feeling. Yesterday I would want to photograph an activity; tomorrow I want to photograph possibilities. Yesterday I photographed from the outside in; tomorrow I wish to photograph from the inside out.

These new images seem to often take a long time to gestate. While before I would spend a day or two putting together an image now I find myself spending days just finding the right location. This new location often inspires me to rethink the whole concept of the shot. Then I start the whole process again by casting. This method is time consuming, but intriguing, thought provoking and fun. It requires not being married to the original idea but allowing a dialogue to develop between the visual elements and myself.

Not all of tomorrows work is born under such labor. Occasionally images seem to fall into my lap. For each shot that took weeks of thinking and rethinking, there are shots that just happen. A new talent comes to the studio, we talk, we play, all the pieces fit and a visual metaphor is born.

It is hard at times to reconcile these two different methods of creating. Julia Cameron, in her wonderful book, “The Artist Way”, talks about keeping ourselves open to our visions. I feel that my best work happens when I let go of my preconceived notions and allow myself to react to what is happening in the viewfinder. What seems to work best on assignment is making sure that all the needed elements are there and then letting the work, the talent and the ideas flow. This at times it can feel like closing yours eyes and stepping off into the abyss. Creating is an act of faith, but he beats being bored and grumpy.

Sincerely,
Zave Smith

©2006-Zave Smith Photography

Have you ever wondered why so many people have had their breakthrough idea when they are just starting out?

When we are young, full of energy, passion, ambition and the burning need just to be seen, we are often too naive to know what can’t be done. All of our ideas seem to have equal merit and all seem so easily produced. We have yet to develop scar tissue from years of battle with the powers that be. We are not afraid because we have so little to lose.

For those of us who have walked life’s road a bit and built our professional identity on earlier successes, we have a vested interest in keeping our reputation. The crowds yell out to us, sing, “Satisfaction” again. How do we stop each creative answer from being in the same key? Do we just cash in or do we start again from the beginning? Bank accounts, credit cards, kids in school and a reputation to keep intact - how do we stop thinking about the soles of our shoes?

Youth have no professional habits. They approach each dawn like the first day of Genesis. But the artists, designers, and cultural leaders that I admire the most are those who at sixty are as innovative as they were at twenty. I often ask, how do they do it?

They do it by not being afraid. Fear is the emotion that stops us in our tracks. Fear freezes the mind and builds walls around the soul. The bumps and scars of a creative life teach us to be careful but being careful is the death of creativity. So how can we remain fearless?

Controlling our environment is often easier than controlling our behavior. Can we create a work environment that is both stimulating and reassuring? One of the tenets of improvisational comedy is that the characters never say “no” - saying “no” stops the action. Each character in good improv accepts the line and concepts of the previous characters and builds upon them. Why can’t creative meetings work the same way?

Fear is ultimately internal and unique to each of us. When I am feeling fearful or blocked I may go for a walk, reach into my spiritual side and remember how fearless I was at twenty.

It is nice to grow and mature. It is even nicer to grow wise and still be fearless.

Sincerely,

Zave Smith // zave@zavesmith.com

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©2004-Zave Smith Photography

When the world and photography were younger every image seemed fresh and new. Now it seems that we are nearly drowning in a sea of images. As a photographer it can be overwhelming. No matter where you point a camera, no matter what situations you dream in your minds eye, no matter what off beat ethnic models you choose, it feels like déjà vu.

Yet, every day the magic happens and fresh ideas are born. And the wonderful thing about today’s diverse market place is that there is room for the novel, the offbeat, the dreamy, the sincere and the real. It is just a matter of marrying the image to the concept, to the product and to the viewer.

Lately I hear art directors complaining, “my clients not only insist on using the cheapest royalty free stock, but they are giving me images that they found themselves and insist on using them.” It is sort of like taking a drug and then figuring out which disease you wish to cure. No wonder that so many ads taste like aspirin.

Why are we scared to create? Part of it is the time pressure, part of it is the high turnover rate and the relative youth of many account executives who do not have the power yet to stand up for their art director’s ideas, and part of it is that in many ways we have become a risk adverse society.

What would happen if the next time you presented comps to your client you used markers instead of photos? Really tight comps mean less room for creative interpretations later. Give a musician a recording of the Beatles and say, play me that and you will get a nice mimic of John, George, Paul and Ringo. Give a good musician a score and you will get closer to the heart. Give a great musician a concept or mood and you might get a miracle. In today’s crowed market place, your clients deserve miracles.

It has been a busy winter; we recently did a campaign for Motorola, several N.Y. hospitals and Better Homes and Gardens. Our commercial assignment work is now also represented by Getty Images and our recent stock output can be found at Corbis, Workbookstock and soon at Uppercut Images.

I have received many thank you notes and comments about these newsletters. I truly appreciate them. We love hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Zave Smith // zave@zavesmith.com

If you prefer not to receive future emails or you have received this newsletter in error,
please accept our apologies and send an email to us using this unsubscribe link.

©2004-Zave Smith Photography

Creativity flows like a crazy river. One moment it is so low that you can clearly count the pebbles laying on the bottom of the river bed; the next instant it is a swirl of rushing water - powerful, churning, full of debris and lust. We who live in the commercial art world, where deadlines and budgets do not permit the luxury of waiting for the next creative deluge, need to find a way to survive in this land of deserts and floods.

Clients approach us, the experts, with ideas that can be quite literal or quite vague, in need of our expert direction. Our task is to find the underlying concept and illustrate it as powerfully, visually, and uniquely as possible. It’s like translating a foreign language. When my clients bring me their ideas, my job is to pick up on and even enhance the rhythm, structure and color of the layout. I must fully understand the concepts and thinking behind the campaign. Like all good translations, it works best when I go beyond just the meaning of the individual words and bring the sprite of the piece to life. This happens when I permit the rushing waters of creativity to carry me. It is a brave thing to allow and even encourage this process to take place. To loosen the attachments that we have to preconceived notions and to respond to what is truly working in the picture that is unfolding before our eyes is often not easy to do.

I can feel the moment when during a shoot I let go of the restraints of ego and budget and start with visual honesty to just react to what is in front of me. Clients feel it too and this synergy is what produces the best visuals. Incorporating some flexibility to be able to add ingredients to the stew, when it tastes a bit flat, is an exciting way to work.

Whether we are in still waters or churning rapids, we who thrive in this commercial world must still bring home the dinner. We do this best when we can reach deep into our creative well and ask, what can we do to make this better?

Sincerely,
Zave Smith

©2003-Zave Smith Photography

One of the pleasures about being a photographer is that our creative life is not client dependent. For example, my shooting schedule does not vary that greatly between the times when the studio is busy with clients and those times in between. I am constantly shooting and exploring my visual world.

So where does the inspiration come from? Last week I was stuck in traffic on Chicago’s infamous Eden’s freeway when I heard somebody on the radio say the phrase: “Fragile Beauty.” Those words struck a chord, which I will explore photographically. Later that day, Nancy Morey from Cramer-Krasselt asked me, “What have you been thinking about?” We talked for a while about the relationship between abstraction and universality. Both these encounters will somehow work their way into my pictures.

For me inspiration can also come from an inspiring model. I will meet somebody at a casting and will find their look, and more importantly, their personality, captivating. I will then develop shooting scripts around what intrigues me about them. The script ideas often come from my day-to-day life. I then set the scene and let the talent act it out. It is during this acting that I seek to catch the spark of life.

To catch this spark I often expand the emotional gestalt of a shoot by having the talent playing the scene from several points of view. If I am after a romantic couple I will also have the couple act as if the are angry, mad, contemplative or bored. By swinging back and forth through different emotions the talent will often reach a truer sense of their feelings. This exercise also builds trust between the models. Most of our emotions are not pure, they have many shades, many sides, and they are complicated. Powerful photography has that sense of the complicated nature of our emotional lives.

Trust is a key feeling in selling. Building trust on the set I believe is key to building trust in a photograph. By giving our talent as real of a world as possible to act in, they more easily enter into their roles. One of the neat things about shooting digitally for example, is that the talent and the clients can see the scenes take shape on a large monitor. Once they see how great it looks, their trust factor and their confidence goes way up which helps to enhance the success of a shoot. Like baseball, you have to round all your bases in order to reach home.

On many days in our rush to meet life’s demands we don’t hear those voices of inspiration very well. It is kind of like being offered a gift but we are too preoccupied to accept it. I try to live with my arms open.

Twyla Tharp in her new and wonderful book, “The Creative Habit,” talks about the relationship between physical acts and creative ones. She says if the brain is stuck move the body. I say, if the picture is stuck, move the camera, move the lights, and move the models.

STUDIO NEWS:

Our web site was just nominated by www.netdiver.net as on of the fifty best creative websites of 2003; also the site is a finalist in the 2004 Art Directors’ Club of Philadelphia Creative Annual.

Our story on snowshoeing was in last month’s Better Homes and Garden’s magazine. And we just finished shooting a major brand campaign for Foamex.

We also have just upgraded our digital systems. We are now working the Canon 1ds. This 12-mega-pixel camera is just amazing in the detail it captures. Digital is now as fast and free as shooting 35mm film but with the resolution of working in medium format.

We have also just signed a deal adding Corbis to our list of stock libraries. You can now purchase our images through Agefotostock, Corbis and Workbookstock. Each agency has its own unique collection.

If you would like to also receive our promotional mailers, just let us know.
Come inside our site and see what we have been up to www.zavesmith.com

Warm regards,

Zave Smith // zave@zavesmith.com

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©2003-Zave Smith Photography

Recently I have become a groupie of my son’s jazz band. I have watched these very young musicians go from performance to performance. Sometimes they create musical magic and some evenings I want to cover my ears.

We tend to think that photography is a visual art. We end up with an object that we look at. This final object is fixed. Once there, it does not change. But photo shoots I believe are much more akin to performance art than visual art. We gather a group of creative people; they work together and hopefully produce some magic.

The difference between my son’s young quintet and my work is that on my shoots we must always produce magic. There is no room in advertising photography for “off” days, mediocre performance or uninspired playing. So how do we guarantee that all days are great days? I believe it comes down to planning, flexibility and ambition.

Planning starts with a through understanding of the project. I find it helps not only to see the layouts but also to hear the strategy behind the layouts. That way if changes need to be made on the set, I can always compare the visuals with the strategy to make sure we are doing the right thing. By planning I am referring to casting, propping, location scouting and all the astetic considerations that can make a shoot wonderful. Good planning means that the logistics of a shoot are as well thought out as the concepts.

Flexibility is important because even with the best planning, problems and opportunities may arise. Problems are everywhere and can usually be overcome. Opportunities are rarer but offer the greatest rewards. Often time, on shoots, an art director or photographer discovers something that is different than the layout but actually tells a much better story. The issue becomes, does the creative team have the time, the resources and the power to follow this new visual idea? If flexibility is part of the planning and you know the strategy behind the layout, that answer can often be yes.

Watching my son’s band rehearsals, their blind ambition and determination to get better, reminds me of my student days, days when I would spend hours staring at my work, trying to understand it and how to make it better. When one acquires a certain level of mastery it is easy to forget about the power of determination and ambition. Visual success often comes so easily and the pressures of time and budget can seem to force a shoot to keep moving on to the next scene. If making that truly magic photograph is the goal, ambition and determination are needed to make sure that every detail of the plan is complete. Ambition and determination also help to recognize and seize that opportunity to truly make magic. The successful photograph depends on planning, flexibility and ambition.

This spring has been a very busy one for us. We have recently completed projects for Proctor and Gamble, PNC, and Shire. You can now find our stock photographs at Corbis, Zefa, Workbookstock and AgeFotostock.

Come take a look at our new work at: www.zavesmith.com.

Warm regards,

Zave Smith // zave@zavesmith.com

If you prefer not to receive future emails or you have received this newsletter in error, please accept our apologies and send an email to us using this unsubscribe link.

©2005-Zave Smith Photography

Winter is the season of long shadows and short shooting days. It is when the earth is brown with patches of dark green and the sky can be so cold and blue. Nature becomes transparent in winter; you can see a long way through the barren hillsides. Winter with its sharp angles and lines that reach to the sky is a time for taking stock of what was and dreaming of what is ahead.

So what am I dreaming about this winter? I am dreaming that around the world, cooler heads will preside and we can get back to the task of creating for and selling to each other instead of fearing one another. I am dreaming of a time when the headline on the evening news will be about an opening at the art museum. I am dreaming of a time when it will take months and months to buy a gun and only an hour to renew a passport. I am dreaming of a time when we greet each other by saying, “How can I help you.” But my biggest dream for 2005 is to continue creating images that make people smile, laugh or just connect with their inner humanity.

This fall was a busy time at the studio. We just finished creating a private stock library for Vanguard. We also shot a series of environmental portraits for Town Motors and a packaging project for Pfizer. Did you receive our mailed poster? If not, and if you would like one, just let me know.

Thank you all for a great year, let us all keep dreaming.

Sincerely,

Zave Smith // zave@zavesmith.com

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©2005-Zave Smith Photography

I LIVE ON A FENCE BETWEEN TWO VERY DIFFERENT WORLDS. On my right side exists a world of noise, speed, bright lights, money and seduction. On my left side, a world that is like a small pond enclosed by rocks, where small stones of ideas send ripples into motion.

I LIKE LIVING ON THIS FENCE. The world on my right side gives me a headache when I spend too much time there. The world on the left needs the energy from the right else the waters become too smooth to be of any interest to me.

Staying balanced on my fence between these two worlds would not that hard except that the worlds don’t always stay on my left and my right. Most of the time, they are spinning around with such speed that I can’t always tell where they are.

While on set this balancing act becomes very interesting and necessary. In the world on the right, where my clients live, there are long lists of things that are needed from me. These lists of dreams, ideas, and inspirations are sometimes very clear, sometimes they make no sense, and often they are in conflict with each other. At times like this it becomes important to find the world on my left and take a moment to take nourishment there. This nourishment is what gives me the ideas and the fortitude to solve the problems in the world on my right. These two worlds, so different, feed each other.

I have been shooting a lot of stock photography this winter both for my stock agencies and for private, company held, stock libraries. Shooting stock can become a numbers game. There is a lot of pressure to work faster and to count a day’s success in terms of the number of shots finished. While the pressure to make the days numbers can give a lot of energy to a set I believe that this numbers game can lead to making pictures that show instead of say something. Chasing numbers forces us to see with our head instead of with our eyes.

People forget facts, and anyway, they’ve seen it all before. Facts are transient, but a good story can last forever. Do you remember how many times you went sledding as a kid? Probably not. But I bet you remember the thrill of the ride, the smell of the snow, the cold and wet whiteness turning your face red, and the triumph in braving winter’s wind. Great pictures tell stories and a story’s authenticity resides in the beauty of the details. A great picture cries out to us to enter its world and become intoxicated.

I have received many thank you notes and comments about these newsletters. I truly appreciate them. We love hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Zave Smith // zave@zavesmith.com

©2005-Zave Smith Photography

It’s the nature of this business - periods of insane work schedules and periods of insane quiet. The busy periods are easy to handle: you’re facing into the wind but with a clear sense of purpose pushing you forward with focus. You know what you’re about and you’re working towards a goal. It’s those quiet periods that can drive you mad… When the phone stops ringing and the calendar looks like a desert, your mind has room to play games with your soul. Self-doubt rears its ignoble head and that rotten refrain “what will I do with the rest of my life” rolls through your brain. Welcome to the head-trips of the nervous and the restless. These are the times when you recall the parental voices echoing something about going to medical school like your cousin… Remember though, one of the nice things about being human is our ability to choose which games we will play. When the studio business cycle reaches that calm spot between the waves, instead of listening to those dark tapes in the back of your head - ask “What if”?

What is “What If”?

When my current client base is hibernating I like to look around and see where else in the jungle the signs of life are stirring. What if I considered the possibility that other clients or business sectors might need what I have to offer? What if called on a company I’ve never talked to before? What if I offered different services to my present client base?

What if can also mean trying to create something in a way that I never had before. One of my favorite activities is to take elements of a recent assignment and re-explore them to see what other visual possibilities might be there. I have found that each one of my slow periods has forced me to re-examine what I do and how I do it. Each slow period has enabled me to grow and reach to the next level of my career. Sounds strange, but I would not be as successful as I am if I had always been busy. Slow times can be scary, but they can also be wonderful periods of exploration. These explorations can be on the business side, on the creative side, or better yet, both sides in this crazy business. These times of unrestricted, undefined exploration are sometimes just the thing we need to recharge our creative juices and allow us to reach our next star. We invite you to take a moment and check out our website and see what new work the summer’s calm has allowed us to create.

Warm regards,

Zave Smith // zave@zavesmith.com

If you prefer not to receive future emails or you have received this newsletter in error, please accept our apologies and send an email to us using this unsubscribe link.