Zave Smith Photography

©2007-Zave Smith

I am not a doctor like my brother, nor a teacher like my spouse. I have saved no one from hell nor created a web 2.0 business. I am just a photographer. I’m not even a hell bent to save the world photojournalist. For I am just an ad guy. I create images that help sell products. Or, as one of my favorite creative directors once said, “We create landfill”.

Luckily, the pictures I create do have a certain power. Somewhere between my studio and the city dump, millions of people see my work. For a brief moment while filliping pages and dismissing come-ons for things they don’t really need, my pictures reach out catch their eye and make them smile. For the power of my images is their ability to tell the universal story of our pleasures and our pains. It is this power of affirmation that helps us all feel human again.

If the beauty of my photographs can create so many smiles in people across the globe I am doing something very worthwhile.

©2007-Zave Smith Photography

My studio is located in an industrial area in Philadelphia. Across the street an Asian man owns several food related businesses. This hard working man who barely speaks English also has his family living above the warehouses that he owns. Often times what I believe are is wife, mother and daughter can be found sitting on boxes and enjoying the views though nobody would call the views on Buttonwood Street pretty.

Yesterday I took a photograph of the little girl and gave this image as a print to the family.

Sometimes it takes a while to fall in love with a shoot. This one I did around two months ago.

©2007-Zave Smith Photography

©2007-Zave Smith Photography

There are times when it requires large team to put together a shot. Many of the commercial jobs that we produce can require: A producer, clothing stylist, set stylist, hair and make up stylists, models, props, locations, digital production assistant, camera and lighting assistant and who knows who else. Other shoots work better paired down to just the model and me.

On some jobs a massive amount of planning goes on, a whole dream world of sets, props, and talent is built to order in order to create this photograph world, which often looks just like the real world, only better. Other times I get to let life play out in front of me, where my role is to not to get in the way. On these jobs I am there to watch and to capture reality in a way that this reality becomes an icon or metaphor for what I want to share.

Sometimes the best chef just lets the natural flavor of his ingredients come through.

©2007-Zave Smith Photography

Today’s fun. Thank you to all who helped.

©2007-Zave Smith Photography

Just before I discovered Girls, I was really into shortwave radio. What made shortwave fun was listening to radio stations from countries that you did not even know where countries, like Radio Windward Island. True shortwave people kept a world map and put marking pins into countries that they manage to listen to. Shortwave nerds would even send the radio station a reception report so the station would send you a thank you postcard. Lots of postcards from obscure countries meant lots of bragging rights.

Today I am getting a similar kick out of Google Analytics. This web tracking tool tells you how many visitors your website receives and where your viewers are from. Google Analytics even has a world map with markings on it that like my shortwave days of old which shows you how many people from each city and country recently visited you site.

I find this information very cool and very useless though I do wonder sometimes why suddenly 30 people in Singapore decided to spend some time looking at my work. Now if I could only figure out a way to charge these viewers…