We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Juan Herrera a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Juan, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I have been fortunate enough that my purpose found me. At an early age, not once but twice, and I thank god for that. And it wasn’t photography but music. My father was a big music fan; he would play records from different types of genres all day, from classic rock to boleros, salsa, and modern bands of the day. That sparked my curiosity and imagination of playing live in front of an audience. Along with my brother Omar, we got our first instruments. He studied guitar while I gravitated to the drums as a kid, and to this day, I love playing and writing music.
The second artistic outlet bug is Photography. With this one, I’m still determining where or when it happened, but my earliest recollection of being introduced is by my uncle Pascual. Growing up, he was the one uncle who was into photography and videography. I would see his photos on the wall that he shot and printed. Another early recollection is that during high school, I recall shooting a lot of 35mm film on my family camera and buying disposable cameras at the time. However, I didn’t think anything of it; I thought it was fun. When I graduated high school, I was looking for an elective class to fill in my class schedule for my semester at college, and I noticed there were still seats left for the Intro to black and white photography class. When my uncle heard that I was taking a photo class, he gave me his film camera and some other photo gear and handed it to me. It was a 1981 or 82 Olympus OM-1 camera. To this day, I still use it and create photos with it. I was hooked the first time I developed my film and saw the images, peering through the chemicals. I knew that this was my calling and purpose to share my photographs with the world! Parents with kids usually say they love their children equally. Their first child is their first love, and they also say they have a favorite out of the bunch. I love creating music and photos equally. Music is my first love unconditionally, but photography is my favorite child! Haha 🙂
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My journey with photography has been a gradual and consistent one. I started by taking a few college courses in photography. Then, I began making photographs for my personal work to express myself in various genres, such as street, landscape, and travel documentary photography, among others, over 15 years. However, I always wanted to capture people’s portraits. Initially, I was too self-conscious to photograph strangers. The entire studio setup with strobe lighting was overwhelming, and I needed to be more confident as a photographer. I’m still learning and finding ways to build my confidence and improve my craft. When the Covid pandemic hit, and the world was on lockdown, I had a lot of time to think about where I wanted my photography to go. I saw it as a sign to expand and learn portrait photography and lighting, and my most important decision was to go public with my service.
I wanted to capture people’s portraits, and I had to try at least. So, in the past year, I have been deeply involved in learning and photographing people. I was setting a goal to shoot at least one person a week, whether a collaboration or a paid gig, as long as I build my craft. Over the past year, my photography has become public, and I am now doing paid work. My specialties are headshots, portraits, and some fashion in beauty photography. I love to capture a person’s true essence, and I work with the client or whoever is in front of my lens to capture that moment. It’s an exciting experience for me and the client when they see the final results we made together.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Wow, there are so many things that I could suggest, but to make it easier, I’ve narrowed it down to three tips that have helped me and, hopefully, can help other young photographers:
1. Find inspiration by surrounding yourself with photography from other artists. I love buying photography books to look through and get inspired by. Magazines are also a great resource, and if buying books is not an option, you can always visit your local library or school library to rent them out. Visiting museums and looking at other artists’ work, like painters, sculptors, and graphic designers can also be helpful.
2. Practice constantly. Always try to practice your photography skills, even if it means shooting photos in your backyard. There may be days when you feel too tired, or life gets in the way, but try to push through it, even if it’s only for 20 minutes each day. You’ll realize that it’s not that bad after all.
3. Surround yourself with a community of like-minded artists for support. You can find this by joining classes at your local college, attending workshops in your community, or joining online photo groups. You can give and receive feedback from one another, and finding a great mentor can be incredibly helpful. You can even write to photographers in your area to see if they offer mentorship or assistance. Working with a mentor can help improve your photography skills drastically.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
What I do when I feel overwhelmed is usually take a pause and keep it simple. I usually overthink things 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: https://juanherreraphotography.com/
- Instagram: @juan_herrera_photography
Image Credits
Juan Herrera
