We were lucky to catch up with Chuck Lembo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chuck , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I’m not sure what a “regular job” is exactly, but I love that both my main career as an architect and my photography are both creative outlets. I did not ever want to have a mundane repetitive job that I would hate going to or participating in. Even my actual full time job as a partner in an architectural firm still allows me to be creative and practice design, even with all the time it takes to actually manage a business. Photography is even better, although I can’t currently survive on that career alone, as I am in full command of all design decisions, as I’m the creator AND the client. If I end up selling some of my artwork even better.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My main career is architecture. I am a partner in a successful architectural practice for over 25 years. I chose architecture as a career because I love design, and I liked the idea that every project would always be different, having different challenges and solutions. I dreaded the idea of choosing a career that would have been mundane and/or repetitive.

While I was in college however, I became interested in photography. I had to get a good camera (a Nikon N2000 film camera which at the time was a good camera) in order to document all of my models and projects for my ongoing portfolio that I maintained from my initial design classes all thru my thesis. My grandfather was a professional welder, but he was into photography and he showed me how to use an SLR camera when I bought it. That would be my one and only camera lesson! I took mostly black and white photographs for school work, and that still is a favorite style of mine. While in school I also started to be interested in infrared photography, which at the time was also film based and black and white. I was interested in the different tones you would get with infrared film, where tree leaves would be white instead of black, and the sky and bodies of water would be almost black. But once my architectural career took off I basically put photography on hold.

Around 20 years ago I got my first digital camera, a Nikon D70, and over time I collected a bunch of lenses and other accessories. But as I got older, I got lazy, and started to not enjoy dragging all that gear around with me all the time, so in 2018 I purchased a “bridge” camera, which is basically a DSLR, but with a fixed lens, so I didn’t need to carry so much stuff all the time. But my Nikon was still functioning, and rather than get rid of it, I decided to send it off to have it converted to infrared…so I could use it to take digital infrared photographs, which now had evolved beyond black and white into color, depending on what filters you use, and that’s when things got interesting…

Five years later, I barely use the “new” bridge camera, and now have three converted Nikon infrared cameras…the original D70, a D7000 DSLR, and a Mirrorless Z50, along with 6 lenses, and 9 or so infrared filters of varying wavelengths. Ironic, as my original plan was to get rid of all the “stuff”…and now I have so much stuff I need two giant camera bags…

Infrared photography is much more involved than typical photography. There’s the “taking the pictures” part, which it and of itself is a challenge. You of course you have to have an eye for composition just like any other style of photography, but you also have to understand how different wavelength filters and setting the white balance in the camera will affect the outcome of your photographs, And then you have to understand how to edit infrared photographs, as they are not at all impressive or attractive coming straight out of the camera. It was a very slow and long learning curve, and it took even longer than it could have as I am completely self taught, but that for me was part of the fun.

Around four years ago, at the urging of some friends, I applied to be featured in a local art gallery and was accepted, and that’s when my hobby turned into something more. Currently I’m a curated member of a very busy and successful local art gallery, and have been selected in several open calls and have had my photos featured in other galleries across the United States. I’ve developed my own website and now run my own e-store thru the website, as well as selling prints at the gallery. I’m not quitting my real job any time soon, nor do I see myself retiring on photography profits, but I am thoroughly enjoying this new side career I’ve gotten myself into, and sometimes I wish I had pursued photography as an actual full time career much earlier in life.

I don’t really do this for the money. I really just enjoy taking and editing the pictures, and I enjoy marketing and selling the prints because it makes me happy that people seem to enjoy my work, and that there are people who now have my photographs hanging on the walls in their homes. I would love to be MORE successful, but right now I’m just enjoying myself. I love having a second creative outlet, but one in which I am my only client, and I do what I want for myself. If people enjoy that, all the better. I see photography almost as therapy.

I concentrate mostly on infrared photography, but also enjoy black and white photography, both in digital and film formats. My pictures are mostly of natural landscapes and of architecture. I typically don’t photograph people, although I have done some back and white portrait work and would honestly like to explore doing more of that.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Well, again, this isn’t my actual full time career, but yes, I can actually share a story about resilience. I as just starting to get noticed by friends and by people thru social media and I was starting to gain a small following when I found and was accepted by the local gallery I’m currently involved in, in December of 2019. I had joined late in the month and missed the Holiday rush, but I didn’t think that would be a big deal. But then the pandemic hit, and the world shut down. I had decided to invest in this cooperative gallery at arguably the worst possible time. The gallery was physically closed for months, and once it opened, business was obviously slow, and this dragged on for 2 years. Then once the pandemic seemed to be over, the economy took a downturn. My point being is that I’ve been involved with this gallery now for possibly the three worst years in the last 20 as far as the desire for people to purchase art is concerned, and even thru all of that, I did manage to sell my photographs. There were times where I wanted to bail out, as I was operating in the red, when I clearly didn’t NEED to be, but I stuck it out, and so far this year looks as if we’ve finally pulled out of it and hopefully I’ll be able to experience a “typical” year to judge my level of success as a photographer.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Interesting question, and timely actually. I sell physical prints in different mediums independently, and thru the gallery I’m involved in. But as recently as 2 months ago, I really started to do some research into NFTs and what would be required to sell some of my photographs as NFTs. I did a LOT of research and was almost ready to move forward, when I backed off and pulled the plug, and there were numerous reasons for this. First, the idea that NFT sales are attached to cryptocurrency is a turn off to me. I find that the crypto world is extremely volatile and risky, and I don’t really need to deal with that. But even more so than that….in my personal opinion, I really think NFT sales are going to be a passing fad. I also think that unless you’re a celebrity, selling NFTs in what appears to already be an overcrowded marketplace, is a waste of time and money. You hear of astronomical prices for average looking art, just because of the celebrity status of those selling NFTs. Meanwhile, I know plenty of legitimate talented artists who aren’t selling anything in the NFT space, despite doing all the “right” things.

So, for me….I have no desire to pursue NFT sales at this point. Perhaps in the future that might change.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chucklembophotography.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/chuck_lembo
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChuckLemboPhotography

Image Credits
All images are my own.