We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joe Gomez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Joe thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

I’ve had several heroes along the way through this whole journey, but they’ve all instilled in and pulled from me the prioritization of dignity.

Being around a camera and the process of taking photos or recording videos can be an extremely nerve wracking thing for people. I, myself, am very glad my career has cemented me to a spot behind the camera and not in front of one. No matter what or where you’re filming, it’s a very vulnerable thing (especially in documentary) for a person to “be themselves.” That is something that needs to be treated with respect and dignity. The portraits or images made need to be non-exploitive. I’m not interested in something that takes from the people I work.

The most influential things that have guided me and corrected my drifting courses have been, at heart, about not numbing to the process. A friend who runs a tattoo studio told me that he frequently reminds the artists he works with that, while this is the ten thousandth tattoo they’ve given, it is probably the first one for the person getting it, and that their inexperience is just as valuable and important as the person who’s already covered in ink.

My heroes have embodied and shown me the value of trust. Trust needs to be at the core of collaborative creativity. The vulnerability shown by the subject must be treated with care. Trust needs to be given to the people beside the camera with you, that they are on the same wavelength do the same in return.

It’s not glamorous answer, I’ve just been taught that regardless of the scale of production or value of the camera and lenses, there’s no room for ego in the kind of work worth doing, just respect for vulnerability and trust covering the fragility of the process.

Joe, 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?

Up until recently, I always introduced myself as the person who could convince their teachers to let him make a video project instead of write a book report. I’d recreate scenes with action figures and muster up a reasonable grade for it and always be thankful that I had teachers that encouraged me doing my homework by any means necessary.

But recently, I was watching some old home movies during a visit with my mom and could hear myself asking surprisingly involved questions about our camcorder or what button “does the dark thing,” which I think meant fades out the shot. It was so funny to see and hear myself so curious about how we made our home videos, even when it was just my sister eating a sandwich.

Thirty years later and I try to have that same curiosity and newness when I work now. These days, my studio and I work mainly in the documentary space. We follow musicians as they create, listen to patients tell their story of healing through medical tragedies, and do our best to create a safe space on both sides of the camera for someone to share about themselves and the things they think about. It’s not until describing it this way that I realize that I think I’m still just making home movies for other people now.

While we have a couple of longer form projects cooking, we commercially stick to shorter form content. People these days like to know the how and why of the things they consume, become involved with, and invest in. A great example of that is work where we follow food from the farm to the kitchen and eventually to the the diner’s table. There is so much curiosity in how things are made and cared for and as a kid who grew up on the discovery channel, I’m so happy to be a part of asking those questions and recording the answers and processes.

I don’t know if I have a specific answer to what project that I’m most proud of, I’m always most excited about the current one, but whenever I have to cut a reel or show my work, I have a feeling like I’m flipping through an old year book. The subjects have become friends, the people that we made these videos with have become family, I think mostly about them and my pride in their work and the occasion that we all rose to together to capture these stories and images. We try to focus much much more on taking care of the people in front of the camera than the camera itself. I’d rather someone never feel threatened or exploited than ever capture a shot that would risk that. The same goes for those beside the camera, none of us would be here without the generosity of opportunities that we didn’t yet deserve. Anyone can learn any technical thing, but looking for people with good character and potential, crew that treats other people the way we aim to, and then throwing that person into the deep end is sometimes the only way we can keep our sets from homogeny.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Community.

When I first started things here, I had a great mentor who gave me opportunities to join him on set and train me and eventually back me to photograph on my own. Finding someone ahead to help guide and encourage you is invaluable. However, there’s much more needed. You need to know people ahead AND beside you feel the same kind of imposter syndrome that you do. You need to gather around with other people to gain the advantage of their outside perspectives.

Creative work is drastically changing. It’s become location agnostic. Technology has allowed the breakdown of many of the old gatekeepers. As we shift and change into these constantly evolving situations, we need to remember that it’s much easier when not done alone.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

There are way too many things that get in the way of people and their pursuit of making art, personally or commercially. Too many excuses and reasons to not even start. I want to continue the spirit of what people did for me and do my part to eliminate those things for others. By either helping with resources and equipment to invitations and opportunities for others to get the time on set or behind a camera, there are so many ways to make sure that the tides continue to raise all the boats.

That goes beyond generosity with gear and opportunity, but also in making sure that other places are safe for those around you. We have to be willing to be open and have potentially awkward conversations. There have been times where my peers and I have had to make sure to keep transparency about pay, that everyone feels safe and welcome while we work, that the playing field is as level as we say we want it to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: joegomez.net and hellocerulean.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/joe_gomez