We recently connected with Jason Peguero and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jason, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I worked on was my short documentary film Legacy: The Life of Canto Robledo. It took over six years to finish, since I funded the whole thing myself and had to wear a lot of hats. I directed, co-produced, and edited the entire project. The film is about Canto Robledo, a blind boxing trainer and manager who worked out of Pasadena. I interviewed his son, Joseph Robledo, along with a handful of family and friends who knew him best. I was given hundreds of old photos dating back to the 1930s and about eight hours of home footage, which I digitized on my own computer. It wasn’t easy. There were plenty of speed bumps along the way, but when the film was finally done and it screened at the Pasadena International Film Festival in 2022, I couldn’t help but feel proud of what I had accomplished.

Jason, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For me, I knew at an early age that I wanted to be a filmmaker. I was fascinated by Richard Donner’s Superman and classic films like Universal’s Frankenstein. Filmmaking gave me a way to tell stories, to create different worlds and the unique characters that live in them.

Photography, on the other hand, came later and a bit more by accident. I originally bought my first digital camera to film, but when I wasn’t shooting video, it would just sit there collecting dust. One day I decided to start taking photos with it, and I haven’t stopped since. In the beginning, it was just little things around my neighborhood, but the more I studied photography and discovered different photographers, the more I found myself drawn to street photography and dance photography. Dance photography was a complete accident. I was dabbling in beauty photography at first, but quickly realized I wasn’t enjoying it. One day, after a beauty shoot, a model asked if we could take a few dance shots, and from that day on, I was hooked.

When it comes to my work, I don’t want to just follow trends or chase likes on social media. The more time I spend on those platforms, the more I realize I’m not a fan of what usually gets attention. I create mainly for myself, to make work that I’m proud of, and to share that with the world. It’s also why I stepped away from doing beauty and glamour photography. I realized I was catering to what the platform wanted instead of creating what I wanted.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When I first started building my audience, I was just posting random images. It started with a 365 project that I never actually finished. Later, when I began working at a studio, I was shooting glamour and beauty work, but I quickly realized it wasn’t something I enjoyed. It wasn’t until I shifted my focus to what I truly loved, street and dance photography, that I started seeing real growth in my audience.

My advice for anyone trying to build their audience is simple: post what you love. Even though I do street photography, my platform mainly grew because of my dance photography, and I’m perfectly fine with that because I love shooting dance. My social media might not fit the “business standards” you often hear about, but I post what I want, and I don’t worry about what others think.

If you’re just starting out, post what makes you excited, share the work you’re proud of, and don’t be afraid to reach out to other creatives. You’d be surprised how many people will respond and have a genuine conversation with you.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding part is seeing my work come to life. With photography, even after I finish shooting, editing, and uploading to social media, it doesn’t feel truly complete until I make a physical print. A lot of people don’t bother with printing these days, but there’s something special about holding your work in your hands. It’s a feeling that’s hard to beat.

The same goes for my films. I can upload them online and share them with the world, but when one of my films gets screened at a festival, on a big screen, that’s when I feel like it’s really complete.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonjpeguero/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AWDLoot
• Other: https://vimeo.com/jasonpeguero

Image Credits

Eugeniia Gul
Isabella Fuson
Angel Hass
Morgan Marquez
Hannah Yosef