This months Rangerfinder Magazine had a wonderful article about me: Here is the link:
http://www.rangefindermag.com/magazine/Nov07/160.pdf
Or click on the PDF file, it will take a minute or two to come into view. 160.pdf
profile: Zave Smith
a passion
for
Photography
nurturing
Zave Smith, a commercial photographer based
in Philadelphia, PA, has been in the business
for over 20 years—long enough to see a variety
of stylistic revolutions, countless changes in the market
and incredible advances in technology. What has
remained constant, however, is the importance of creativity
and personal vision in his long-term success as
a photographer. Without this, says Zave, you’re always
chasing the latest fashion and always lagging behind.
“It’s like playing pin the tail on the donkey,” he laughs,
“but not only are you blindfolded, the donkey is also
moving.”
Even on a good day, staying your own course in a
world of opinionated clients, viewers and peers can
be a challenge. For people who make their careers in
photography, the situation is significantly exacerbated
by the need to remain fresh and innovative over the
course of several decades. “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,” says Zave. “The crowds yell
out to us, ‘Sing “Satisfaction” again.’ How do we stop
each creative answer from being in the same key? Bank
accounts, credit cards, kids in school and a reputation
to keep intact. How do we stop thinking about the soles
of our shoes?” Zave has a few answers.
Be Fearless
It’s one thing to be innovative and creative at 20, but
how do you maintain this same level of vitality and relevance
as the decades roll by? You do it by being fearless.
“Fear is the emotion that stops us in our tracks,” Zave
says. “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.”
Control Your Environment
Controlling your mind can be difficult, especially
when it comes to conquering those knee-jerk fear
reactions. Controlling your environment, says Zave, is
actually much easier. “Nothing influences me like the
people who surround me,” he says. “Positive, energized
and giving people fill my inner circle. Whiners, braggers
and the selfish are kept at bay. On the set, I want
to free my mind to focus on what is in front of my
camera and not worry about what is happening behind
it. Once in a while during a shoot, I look around and
the number of people behind me startles me. I have
forgotten that they are there. I can do this because I
know that they are paying attention to their areas of
responsibility, freeing me to concentrate on mine.”
Zave has also learned to streamline his studio environment
so that areas not directly involved in picturemaking
take up less of his time. This helps him avoid
spending undue amounts of time on minutiae.
Do the Work
Potentially creative moments arise all the time, not
just during sessions, but if you’re holding the television
remote instead of your camera, chances are you’ll miss
them. “One of the pleasures of being a photographer is
that our creative life is not client-dependent,” Zave says.
by Michelle Perkins
ALL PHOTOs COPYRIGHT © zave smith
“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.”
Find a Fresh Direction
“I am a big believer in the power of the trash can,” says Zave.
“Even good ideas, if they are not working toward my current goals,
need to be put aside.” If something is not working, Zave suggests
getting up and walking away from the problem at hand. This can
free you to seek out the answers by using a different approach,
getting past the one that has you stuck. “The pressure to make the
day’s numbers can give a lot of energy to a set, but I believe that
this numbers game can lead to making pictures that show instead
of say something,” he says. “Chasing the day’s shot list forces us to
see with our head instead of our eyes.”
Focus on Emotions
“For me, inspiration can come from a model,” Zave says. “I will meet
someone at a casting and 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 seem to catch the spark of life.”
Zave has another handy tip for catching this spark: He has his
subjects “play the scene” from several different points of view. “If I
am after a romantic couple, I will also have the couple act as if they
are angry, mad, contemplative or bored,” he says. “By swinging
back and forth through different emotions, they will often reach
a truer sense of their feelings. Most of our emotions have many
shades, many sides—they are complicated. Powerful photography
has that sense of the complicated nature of our emotional lives.”
Work is Slow? Time to Grow!
It’s the nature of the photography business: There are busy times
and slow times. While the busy times provide a clear sense of purpose,
the slow times can be breeding grounds for self-doubt—a
real creativity crusher. “These are the times when you recall the
parental voices echoing something about going to medical school
like your brother,” says Zave.
What’s important to remember, he notes, is that we get to
choose which mind games we will play. “Instead of listening to all
those dark tapes in the back of your head, ask, ‘What if?’ ” he says.
“What if I called on a company I never talked to before? What if I
offered different services to my present client base?”
Zave pursues other creativity-affirming options as well. “One of
my favorite activities is to take elements from a recent assignment
and re-explore them to see what other visual possibilities might be
there,” he says.
“I have found that each of my slow periods has forced me
to reexamine what I do and how I do it,” he adds. “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. Those times of unrestricted,
undefined exploration are sometimes just the thing we need to
recharge our creative juices.”
Find Your Passion
Photographers often strive to be perfect,
but Zave thinks that finding your passion
is much more important than complex
lighting or flawless posing. “It wasn’t until
I gave myself permission to let my personal
passions enter my professional work that
my career truly blossomed,” he says. On
a shoot Zave notes that it’s easy to get so
focused on what the client is saying that you
lose sight of why you were hired in the first
place—the visual sense you can bring to
the expression of their concept. “My most
successful shoots,” he says, “are those where
I listen to myself as much as to the client. A
true collaboration.”
To see more of Zave Smith’s images,
visit www.zavesmith.com. And be
sure to check out his blog, full of inspiring
reflections on photography, at
http://zavesmith.wordpress.com.
Michelle Perkins is a professional writer, designer and
image retoucher. She has written for PC Photo and
is the author of Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop,
The Practical Guide to Digital Imaging,
Color Correction and Enhancement with Adobe
Photoshop, and her latest book, Professional Portrait
Lighting: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers
(all from Amherst Media).This months Rangerfinder Magazine had a wonderful article about me: Here is the link:http://www.rangefindermag.com/magazine/Nov07/160.pdf Enjoy!
Shot two weeks ago at Federal Hill in Baltimore, MD. 