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

John , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

My sensitivity and attraction toward creative arts started during early childhood. The first conduit for emotional connection and feelings in my life was music and playing guitar. During my teenage years, traditional education did not seem to provide an interesting offer for my professional development. I did struggle to visualize myself making a living from a “safe” or traditional career environment. Perhaps I faced what many creative people struggle with at that stage in life. I enrolled in a music and sound production program at a renowned college in Mexico City without really knowing what the future held for me. However, the rewarding feeling of pursuing a passion just felt right since day 1 and continues to be my main driving force for career growth.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a dance photographer based in Los Angeles, CA. Born and raised in Mexico City, I started my professional career in the film and TV sound production industry at the biggest 35 mm film and post-production lab for feature films in Latin America. That was a great opportunity for me to get immersed in creative processes and collaborate with award-winning professionals in different aspects of the movie production chain. Being surrounded by those creative individuals helped me develop a taste and sensitivity toward storytelling and visual arts. Due to personal circumstances, and benefitting from having dual citizenship, I decided at some point in life to pack my things up and move to New York City where I slowly turned my attention to photography inspired by the city itself.

Aided by the visual production learnings I acquired in the film world, I pushed myself to explore the art and aesthetics of dance photography. For 6 years, I have worked with dancers from independent and major companies like Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and offer portfolio-building photography services for aspiring and professional dancers in Los Angeles, CA.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The joy of creativity itself is the most rewarding aspect of what I do. Being able to unplug from the daily routine to work on a creative process and produce images is very unique. A lot of people who are not familiar with dance photography are not necessarily aware of how complex the process can be. From dialing the correct studio lighting settings to capturing the correct lines and poses in split seconds can turn into a very technical and demanding task for both the photographer and the subject. While seeing the final results is very definitely pleasing, it is the combination of effort and prior steps that make the experience rewarding and unique

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Looking back, I wish I had learned and practiced photography earlier than I did. It takes a long time to develop your craft and can be a very competitive field due to the massive exposure to resources and social media. Believing in yourself and exercising patience are essential to artistic success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.john-camino.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jcaminophoto

Image Credits
Brittany Cavaco David Adrian Kara Cooper Léa Fouillé Brittany Marsicek Jolene Fisher Erin Monteleone