My journey into photography began as a calling.
I had this camera—by the far the fanciest I’d ever owned—and I had to learn to use it. I fell deep. When you’re in love, you’re not concerned too much with the future. You’re excited about possibilities, sure, but they’re mostly to do with your love, in the here and now.
So I shot photographs. (Next week, at the National Poetry Slam, I’ll probably clear 100,000 of them since July of 2014.) I figured the rest, if there would be a “rest,” would come on its own time.
Well, that time has come.
Gourmet Photography is now Stopped Down Studio.
I rebranded for several reasons:
- I’ve fielded the same question from clients and prospective clients alike: What’s photographic about Gourmet Books? While I might some day pour my heart into food, and make a cookbook, there’s really no connection to speak of.
- It doesn’t inspire confidence to learn that a specialist specializes in several specialities. Though I do a lot of things, each of which I stand behind, the majority of commercial photographers I keep tabs on advertise no other service. Creating a new brand for my photography gives it psychological space to establish itself. Clients and I both benefit from that space.
- After two years, my relationship to the art has a small-but-solid foundation. Time for it to leave the nest.
“Stopped Down Studio” makes space for all of these things.
In photography, “stopping down” means closing the aperture. As you do that, you deepen the sharp area of the photo—and because there are no free lunches, you lose light. (Which makes sense, since you’re closing the hole through which light enters.) To make it work, you have to find other ways to make the image appear right. Sharpening, darkening, balancing.
For the logo, I chose colors that are traditionally gendered, and expressed them in a non-gendered way. I want to offer portraiture that plays with “traditional” gendered portraits.
Stopped Down Studio will be a place for anyone to come sharpen to clarity, to express their sincerity, to come into focus exactly as they are.