We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alex Palombo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alex below.

Alex, appreciate you joining us today. Some of the most interesting parts of our journey emerge from areas where we believe something that most people in our industry do not – do you have something like that?

One big thing I believe but most in my industry and in general disagree with is the mindset, “we work together, we all rise”.

The fashion industry (and the business world in general) likes to think and state that it is about teamwork and helping each other out, however the reality is that it is very much about “how can I beat out the other person”.

In my industry, there are other factors that increase this fear of helping each other rise-the biggest one being that there is so much talent and not enough opportunities. The arts are a high risk, high reward profession and because of that the environment that is created has an exceptionally high level of competition, hustle, and for lack of a better word paranoia.

Couple this with us as artists being more sensitive and such this creates a space where one feels they need to hold on to everything they have, never share, and never give it up-whether it be clients, time, information, contacts, advice, etc.

Of course this is a generation and of course there are many that are the exception, however I am talking about the industry as a whole.

There will always be winners and losers-that is life. And that is a good thing, as it is winning and losing that gives you wisdom and makes you grow and hopefully become a better person. Where helping others rise comes in is that it makes those losses less frequent and not as harsh and more importantly creates more opportunities for more wins for more people.

More wins creates more confidence which creates more wins which creates more confidence etc., and which if shared creates for others more opportunities.

This however should not to be confused or thought of to be (as in a lot of cases it is) someone doing something for someone instead of that individual putting in the work. When people expect to be handed things, it creates entitlement which is the antithesis of helping others rise.

There is nothing wrong with having to hustle, to work, benefitting yourself, and earn what you accomplish, it should just be with the mindset that it is ok to work together to benefit both yourself and your peers.

As the saying goes, “…it takes a village….”.

Alex, 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?

My name is Alex Palombo and I am a commercial photographer specializing in fashion and fitness.

I got into my industry by basically falling in love with what I do. Always being a creative and never feeling as if I was the correct fit anywhere growing up, I found photography in high school. I went to art school, and although I knew I had a love of fashion photography and that world, I did not have the confidence yet to admit it to myself or others. After about 6 years and a stint in LA, I finally developed that confidence and realized and decided I had to go to New York City to pursue fashion photography.

It was here in NYC my education and skillset/craft was actually developed. I learned what was in those days the traditional route of getting work, interning, getting a job here or there, knocking on doors, slowly getting more jobs, assisting other photographers and/or whatever else needed to get done to learn and create opportunities, network, and most importantly always be working on my craft.

Now I provide creative imagery, to my clients, based on what their needs are and what they are trying to say visually. I help them take their ideas and make them a visual reality. I create imagery in the form of photography and work with them to help define and create their vision.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my work actually is problem solving. The problem solving runs the gamut from craft-wise and technical know-how, to getting the shot, and/or to how to complete the vision.
Two major things that set me apart, first is the ability to problem solve both independently and cooperatively extremely fast in a calm and cool demeanor without any outward signs of dramatics. I have a unique ability to stay calm and present under pressure to get to the desired outcome.

The other major thing that sets me apart is my ability to relate to most everyone and make people feel comfortable in most any situation in addition to my personality, demeanor, and willingness to be the best at whatever it is I am doing. I am extremely proud of this.

The things I would want clients and others to take away is that I am great at what I do, that I want my clients to have the very best of not just what I can offer but also better than that of someone of my caliber can offer, and most of all as efficient and pleasurable an experience as possible while working with me. I love what I do, and I want that to transfer to the client and others as well.

I want to make clients/peoples lives easier not harder.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Advice for managing a team and maintaining a high morale is something that is and has been said so many times and somehow just doesn’t happen.

“Treat others the way you would like to be treated”

It sounds so simple, and yet so many have difficulty with this. In defense however, and this is something I had to learn the hard way-and something that I don’t think most people realize-is that not everyone wants to be treated the way you do. So this becomes a conflict or balancing act of sorts. So what do you do?

My personal advice is still to treat others how you feel you would want to be treated with the understand and empathy to understand they could have other needs and be open to that.
This means trust in the abilities of your team.

Use positive reinforcement, be honest and direct but use tact, never forget where you came from and what you went through so that they don’t have to go through all of it (although in a lot of cases they will need to as well). Understand they are professionals and let them do their job. Don’t hand-hold or micro manage. Don’t gossip.

Most importantly, let them feel that they do make a difference and that they matter whatever the role is that they are doing. If they feel that they will walk on fire for you.

And always remember it is not about you.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

A recent story that illustrates my resilience is the creation and production of my self-published coffee table book, “The 20 2020 Project-the pursuit of a dream”.

The photo book which was originally conceived as an instagram campaign was started in November of 2019 to lead up to the 2020 Olympic games. Of course as we all know in March of 2020 Covid hit and things became a mess.

Everyone suffered and my industry was no exception. In addition I was not allowed as a photographer to take photographs of people due to the 6 foot distance rules. My business (as I was self-employed) was basically gone. I was living on unemployment and being someone that needs to be productive was not in a good space. In addition, I felt my career that took years to build was no longer possible and I would have to stop doing what I loved and change paths.

This is where the book project came in. When lockdown ended, I decided to start the project back up again and in addition publish the project as a hard cover book rather than simply an instagram campaign-against all conventional wisdom and what “made sense”.

You see having no income, being on unemployment, living in NYC, and spending my savings trying to find and connect with potential Olympiads to go to them to take pictures and tell their stories with no funding is not something that makes financial business sense. Nor does spending thousands to publish copies of a book with no guarantee of any sales and looking at a possibility of taking a huge loss.

Add in (even in normal times) the sheer difficulties of finding Olympic athletes, getting them onboard, and the logistics of actually shooting them in two countries during a pandemic when fear was running rampant-all within a year to be done 3 months before the 2021 Olympic games, you have an exercise in resiliency, determination, hustle, risk, and belief in oneself.

I got it done, on time, and the exact way I wanted.

Most people would have faltered, or given up, or excused themselves from the project for whatever reason: too ambitious, not enough capital, too much risk, not enough return, a pandemic, etc., (and that would have been okay for them) but I did not. I was resilient and made it happen. That in itself became an inspiration, not only to others but most importantly to myself and kept me going until I made it to the other side.

And it has paid off in ways I wouldn’t have thought.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.palombophotography.com
• Instagram: @palombophotography
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-palombo-a008894/