We are very exited about the launch of a brand new monthly feature here on Faded & Blurred. It’s called ‘Work:Life’ and it’s all about connecting with and talking to working creative professionals. We want to hear from you, the photographers, the artists, the graphic designers who are trying to balance your creative, personal and even business lives as you pursue your passion. We want to hear about the little victories as well as the epic failures in the hope that these collective experiences will help to inspire other creatives who may be going through the same things.
We are starting out Work:Life with a wonderful photographer from Chalfont, Pennsylvania, named Jeff Reeder. A husband and father of five, Jeff has been a full-time photographer for more than 20 years. He specializes in weddings, seniors, portraits and theatrical photography. We recently caught up with Jeff on the heels of opening a gallery showing of his fine art photography.
What is the biggest challenge of being your own boss?
When I was in college, there were all sorts of business classes available to me. I always thought I wouldn’t need that… I am an artist! Well, I kick myself every day for not taking some business classes, because although my business is photography, and creative and enjoyable, it is still a business. I could have saved myself a lot of time, money, and trouble in general if I started off with a better business sense, and an understanding of money and taxes. Also, there is just a lot of non-photography work that goes into this. Right now, being my only employee, and my own boss, I have a lot of hats that have to be worn on a daily basis.
You have been doing weddings for more than 20 years. How did you get started with theater/opera photography?
The opera work came about a couple of years after I shot the wedding of a couple from the Princeton area who, at the time, were working professionally in opera. Fortunately, the couple ended up starting their own opera company, and called me to document their first performances. Although the opera has since changed hands, I have been doing it ever since. I never expected to like this kind of work so much, or enjoy the opera for that matter, but I whole heartedly look forward to it every time I get to shoot it.
Other than the low light, what are some of the challenges of theatrical photography?
It is not just the low light that is challenging, but the changing light. You have to constantly be adjusting for the light depending on where on stage the subject is positioned. The biggest challenge with opera is predicting the best shots and being ready when they occur. It is a lot like shooting a wedding… I have one chance to capture the important moments. I can’t stop them and ask them to do it again. In contrast to weddings, the drama is choreographed, and a lot of the best shots are planned out by other artists (director/producer/make up artist, etc.) with the best light, composition, background, makeup, etc., and it all unfolds in front of me. With a wedding, there is a much different kind of drama. There is always interesting and emotional things happening, but it is not done under beautiful stage lighting most of the time. I have to be much more prepared to make the most of every situation.
You have recently opened a gallery show of some of your fine art photography. What was the most difficult thing for you about printing and framing for public exhibition vs. printing for yourself or simply posting your photos online?
This is my first gallery show since college, so it is my first show in almost 20 years. I have been doing personal work all along, but the call to support my large! family (I am the father of five fantastic children.) has left very little time to actually finish the pieces I have been working on. So, to answer your question, the most difficult thing was finding the time and inspiration to print them and prepare them for showing. Being able to post images online has been a great way to show my personal work. It has given me an outlet in the past 5 or 6 years, that I hadn’t had before. I don’t think artwork is complete until it has a viewer. It is really important to me to see what gets through to other people, and find out what they like and what speaks to them. All along, I still wanted to finish a set of images and have a show, and when a friend of mine asked me to take part in a show with her, I accepted to give me the inspiration to figure out how to finish them. In the past I have collected antique frames to show my work because I always felt like the frame was part of the piece. As my work changed, the antique frames still worked with my thought process, but the pieces were much simpler, so I decided to go with simple black frames.
What made you decide to do another exhibit of your fine art work, especially after so long?
I have always thought of myself as a fine artist. Wedding photography was something I stumbled upon along the way and realized it was a great way to make money and still do what I loved. Wedding photography has changed greatly since the 80’s. I got into it because people wanted something different from what was out there at the time. People were looking for something more creative and artistic, so it kind of fit. I never lost the desire to make and show my personal work, it was just a matter of time. Having 5 kids has kept me very busy. Now that they are a little older, I have a little more time to do some other things. Also, with the way wedding photography has changed again, and with the economy being as it is, I am not shooting as many weddings as I was years ago. This has happened naturally, and has been part of my plan to do more artwork, do more teaching, and explore other areas of photography more in depth.
Speaking of the economy. Being in the business for so long you must have seen some really hard times. How do you stay motivated to keep pushing forward when the jobs get smaller or don’t come as often?
I have definitely seen both ups and downs. In the past 20 years, the photography profession has changed completely a number of times. First, it was just changes in styles and preferences. Those continue to change, but a few years ago, much of the medium itself changed. It has been a roller coaster, but I always embraced the change, and love learning new things. I always said if you are not always learning new things in your profession, it’s time to quit. The recent economic hard times has made it impossible to continue doing business they way I had for years. I have looked at this as a really big learning experience. I have to come up with new and creative ways to stay in business. I love photography, and like I said above, really can’t see doing anything else. I will continue to learn new things and try new ideas, and push forward!
Your fine art photography seems to be a large part of the growth process for you. Is the creative process of creating fine art photography different?
Yes, definitely. With weddings, and stage work, I have a specific client, who wants a specific product. I have been lucky enough to have clients that hire me specifically because they like the work that I do. I always use my personal vision in this work, but it is different than creating something directly from within myself. Some of my personal work can be kind of depressing, or pensive. That is definitely not the feeling that most people want to get from their wedding pictures. I think what I like to do is show mood and emotion, and that is how they are the same, but when I do personal work, my main goal is not always to make something that will please others, it is to express something that I am feeling or thinking about.
What about Post? Is your fine art post-process different in your fine art photography than it is for your client work?
Yes, although some of the techniques I use with my personal work carries over to my client work. I have always used a lot of textures and layers. I do it differently in each, but it’s there.
Your wife, Dalissa, posted a photo she described as an encaustic print. Can you explain what an encaustic print is and how you produced it?
Encaustic is a process of painting with wax. I used standard chromogenic prints, mounted, and painted on top with encaustic. I used mostly clear encaustic, but added a little color here and there. I really like it for the texture it adds to the surface, and the ethereal opacity that it creates. I have been drawn to this process since studying Jasper Johns in college. I loved the way it built up, and had transparency between layers. It seems like a natural extension and finish to a lot of my work. This is a process that takes a lot of time, and trial and error to learn. I only have a few pieces so far that I have been happy with. I plan to continue exploring this process.
Much of your fine art work deals with solitude or abandoned places. Is there a particular vision you are trying to capture or express through your fine art photography?
There is no one particular vision. Mostly it is a way to get out what is inside my head. I am not a big talker, so I like to express myself visually.
What was the process like of picking the photos to put in the exhibit? Did you have help through the editing process? Did you have a certain theme you were looking at?
Luckily, there was a theme. Daphne Longo-Okcuoglu, who I went to college with, and recently ran into because she was my son’s art teacher, compared a lot of our work, and realized that we had a lot of similar themes and ideas, but mostly noticed the similarities in our flower and still life images. Since the gallery was also a flower shop, we decided to make a theme of flower and still life pieces. Without a theme it would have been much harder to weed out some images that might not have worked as a singular body of work.
More and more photographers are using archival inkjet printing versus printing through a service bureau. How did you have the photos printed? Did you go through a local lab or did you do it on your own?
I am, and always have been into archival inkjet printing. I ran out and bought the first archival Epson printer when it came out(2000P), and bought a number of the upgrades since then. I simply have not had the time or money to keep up, because I want every new printer that comes out. I prefer to use inkjet and fine papers, but in recent years have only used traditional chromogenic prints from a lab. I used the lab I use for all of my wedding and portrait work, Mpix Pro. I know what I get from them is going to look how I want it, so I did not reinvent my process for this show. I assume that the fine art work is much more personal, yet one of the goals in a gallery setting is to sell pieces.
How do you price something that you may be emotionally connected to?
I figure that someone who wants to buy my work also has an emotional connection to it, or they would not want it. This makes me happy to sell it. The one of a kind encaustic pieces are a lot harder to sell obviously, so they are a bit more. I assume, though, that someone would be happy to pay more knowing that it is a one of a kind piece.
Now that your show has opened and you’ve had a chance to reflect on the process and the experience, would you be willing to do it again?
I am already working on another one!
Could you ever see yourself working a ‘normal 9 to 5′ job?
No. I really think I would hate that. I would do it if I had to, of course, but I have done it in the past. I realized then that no matter what kind of job I am doing, I give it my all. A 9-5 job ends up being way more than 9-5. I figure if I am going to be working around the clock, I should be doing it on my schedule, in my own home. This way I get to at least see my family! Plus, I will always do photography. It is in my blood.
We’d like to thank Jeff for participating in the first edition of Work:Life and hope that you found it interesting and perhaps even inspiring. If you would like to be featured in Work:Life, or know someone who should be, let us know.
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