Ciro Coelho's Blog: Making Photography Personal

An Eye for an Eye

2011-11-22T22:17:13Z

An Urban Photographer can be Bucolic, too.

2011-11-22T18:53:14Z

Spooky

2011-10-31T21:33:57Z

Audrey

2011-10-25T22:23:43Z

Digital workflow allows for quick and prompt editing. I have found, however, that on many occasions, it has taken me about two years to have enough detachment from the material to be able to truly "see it". In certain instances, as with this photo of Audrey Aurell, only a few minutes were needed... ©2011 Ciro Coelho. All Rights Reserved.

December 1, 2011

2011-10-21T18:30:14Z

Mark your calendars: December 1, 2011, 5PM. You'll want to see this. If you're not in the Santa Barbara area, you'll want to be. More details to come...

Oh Happy Life...

2011-10-14T03:22:36Z

A Huge Loss

2011-10-06T07:09:37Z

Steve was an idol, an example, a guiding principle. He created a lifestyle that I so earnestly adopted. Thank you for affecting my life and my work so profoundly, Steve. My thoughts are with your family and friends. You will now revolutionize the afterlife and make it way cool!

A New Video in the Sao Paulo Series

2011-09-27T17:55:55Z

I just returned from a very productive month of work in São Paulo. Here's a new video from the series I am producing on that city. Enjoy and share!

Work as Nourishment

2011-04-30T00:10:48Z

Do I do too much? Yes. More than many of my fellow photographers would? Yes. Why? Because I’m obsessed with quality. (If you’ve ever worked with me you’ll know what I mean.) Because I love what I do. I am slower at delivering work, but when work leaves my studio, I feel that I’ve put everything into it, and it's ready to leave. A cookie-cutter approach would bring me more money, yes, but way less satisfaction. Although I have collaborated with clients of all sizes, working with a small client does not lower my satisfaction level, but delivering “less than” work, would. It would affect the way I respect my craft, and ultimately, the way I respect myself. Taking longer to deliver work has its stresses, but they shall pass. The stress of “less than” work lives on. (Please note I do meet every award submission or publication deadline provided that I’m told upon being contracted for a job. I've had images in books and magazine covers in less than a week after I shot them – and this at a time when I still shot film.)

A client might never realize the additional time I put into a file, but s/he will be affected by the end result. For over 20 years I have been training my eyes to recognize perfection and imperfection, to see color, beauty, ugliness and excess. That training goes into adding what is necessary, and stripping the image of what is not. Much of it is done at the moment of capture, but finalized in post-production. The caring with which I treat an image (both in the emotional sense as well as the digital post-production sense) is exhausting at times, but ultimately, it nourishes my soul. Perhaps in the same manner that my mother knows how the love she puts in her cooking affects those who eat her food, I know that my caring will nourish not only the clients who have paid for such work, but those who will contemplate those images in the future.

My choice remains with quality, with giving my best, with perhaps having to have fewer clients who understand and appreciate my “boutique” approach. Fewer dishes leave my kitchen every year, but every one who’s eaten my food will be satisfied. And will remember. The best restaurant in the world has only six tables.

Overcast

2011-04-22T23:14:45Z