X-Equals – Click. Download. Smile.

All photos © John-Paul Pietrus

How did you get started?

I studied fine arts at the Minneaoplis College of Art and Design, with an emphasis on photography. The course was very theoretically oriented, so we worked a lot on the mind and on creativity in addition to achievement of a thorough technical education. After graduation, I moved to Manila, Philippines, my birthplace, in order to get to know my relatives and half of my blood, a bit better. Whilst there I started working for some local magazines, which was really interesting but sort of a hit or miss situation when it came to my shoots.

I remember some of those shoots were indeed quite awful, but others were a success. After a few months, I decided to move to Hong Kong. I was head hunted for a job which, although quite fun, was totally unrelated to my fine arts education. I worked one day and the company was bought out and I was immediately made redundant! I took it as a sign, so I just started knocking on peoples’ doors and showing my book around.

Chic, beautiful, positive, sometimes a bit mysterious, and often with a dash of humour.

I immediately started to work for the South China Morning Post, Eastern Express, and Asiaweek doing some light news and portraiture. Then someone offered me a fashion shoot (I had always held an interest in fashion) and I thought ‘wow, this is great! The subject listens to how I want them to act, and are able to embody a character I create!’ So I started shooting local fashion brands and magazines. After two years in Hong Kong, I decided to take around the world trip as I wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to live.

London was one of those considerations and my third stop on my ticket. I fell in love with someone and by the time that was over, it was three years later and I was in love with London and all that it had to offer.

How would you describe your work?

Chic, beautiful, positive, sometimes a bit mysterious, and often with a dash of humour. I love sexuality but abhor vulgarity in photos. What’s funny is not everyone gets the humour bit, and true, it’s not in every single photo but I think it is a tying thread.

Admittedly, it’s a very particular humour. Furthermore, I think that sometimes, in fashion, people take things way to seriously and are perhaps afraid to laugh and think they might offend me if they snicker at one of  my shots.

On the contrary, I love it when people see the humour!

What is your core business?

Fashion and beauty, touching on celebrity and music.

How do you attract new customers?

Agents, hard selling, networking, socializing, word of mouth, website …

All photos © John-Paul Pietrus

What is the best part of what you do?

The very fact that I’m able to do one of the things I love most as my career! I think that’s less than 1% of the world’s population who get to do that. Additionally, I love meeting and working with all of these amazing people. I am friends with those people who form my teams: makeup and hair artists, stylists, the models; it’s really like working with a family of friends.

All of the smiles in my photos are genuine smiles full of joy.

When I like a model, I will use her again and again as a chemistry and often friendship will blossom. In essence, a lot of my work, although quite lacquered and precise, feels almost like a document of my times with these people ‘playing theatre,’ rather than a commercial image. One thing (from what people tell me) that is very different about my sets to most photographers’ sets is that they are very optimistic, relaxed, fun, and creatively intelligent simultaneously.

I want people to feel comfortable with me, not intimidated. I want them to love their job too, and to have a good time. All of the smiles in my photos are genuine smiles full of joy.

What is the single-most challenging component of your business?

The ‘business side’ of the job, it is not the creative at all. More specific to right now: trying to maintain a good rate with the threatened economy, and make people understand why that rate, which is so high in their opinion, is actually perfectly reasonable. At the end of the day, commercial photographers aren’t just technicians, we are creative minds. The work isn’t just on set, it includes so much time pre and post, devoted to growing ideas.

All photos © John-Paul Pietrus

What is your favorite camera and lens to shoot with?

No single one. Pre digital years, I shot most of my work on a Wista portable 4 x 5 camera. It’s a great apparatus, as you get this remarkable quality and although you might shoot someone full length, you can zoom in on their cheek and see every single baby hair. I’d haul that camera up mountains and in the desert and it never ever failed me. I would like to point out that Polaroid type 55 is my favourite medium to this day. I wish some philanthropist would bring Polaroid back! We really need it!
Now that most clients have a turnaround time far shorter than before, I shoot primarily digitally, using the Hasselblad with a P45 back. I like macro zooms and wide angles, rarely using the standard lens.

I also like to shoot on Super-8 film and use the film stills. And I love my Contax portable camera.

I notice you use both artificial and natural light. Explain how you leverage those in your work.

Artificial light primarily for studio and night, daylight primarily for location. I recently did a shoot which was only natural light and campfire light. We did some of the shooting in the wee hours of the morning, and the four second exposures were deliciously mysterious.

How are you leveraging technology?

My retouchers are a very important part of my work, as I am very particular about color, quality of light, and textures. They can also help me achieve things which aren’t physically possible.

Where do you plan to be in the next 5 years?

I’d like to achieve Paris Vogue, W… and be shooting a lot less often, but on bigger, more interesting projects; I would like to achieve the luxury of more time for more in depth projects and for my personal life. I would like to be exhibiting more. I would like to be working on more books.

Let your creativity flow, and realize that you don’t have to narrowly define your style …

Related to that, I just finished my first book which will be released this Autumn, by Laurence King Publishers. The authors are Sue Huey and Susie Draffan, but I have shot all the images to accompany this fashion book. It focuses on the ‘it bag’; and how the handbag has elevated in status in the fashion world and in the everyday wardrobe.

I’d also like to start my own magazine in a couple of years, and am currently seeking backers, so if there’s anyone interested, please contact me!

All photos © John-Paul Pietrus

Parting comments?

Sincere thanks for interviewing me, these are always fun and I learn a little more about myself each time as I don’t really ask myself these questions. Parting comments as in advice: follow your dreams, always be grateful, and try as hard as you can to break out of any boxes others may have created for you.

Let your creativity flow, and realize that you don’t have to narrowly define your style if you don’t want to, as we are ever evolving and changing creatives.

Insert your shameless plug here:

John-Paul Pietrus – http://www.johnpaulpietrus.com

All photos © John-Paul Pietrus