We recently connected with Jorge Parra and have shared our conversation below.

Jorge, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

As I understand it, taking risks is the equivalent of being part of some form of disruption of your own life. It comes from within, a will to change some part of your core, and only when your drive is ready to push it, then it becomes a risk you are willing to take. In my case, my career as a Photographer started by taking pictures while working in my career as a Research Chemist, and the classic situation of a young photographer, publishing a free images on local magazines, suddenly brought the attention of major clients. One phone call from one of those brands sent me into a mental spin, because in financial terms, only one photo project was the equivalent of 8 months of my salary as a chemist, and I felt ready for the jump and just did it. I never looked back.

I truly resonated with the words from the Dalai Lama: ” “Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.”I much certainly got tons of gratification from my new career, but also had some major losses. That said, this balance did not stop me from going on.

Taking the risk, dealing with the disruption eventually became the start of my second life.

The pandemics created an unexpected disruption which also forced me to re-evaluate the situation.

Work as a Photographer stopped almost completely and my income came from running remote workshops and College-level classes of Basic and Advanced Photography. That made me learn a lot about how to train people remotely, without the hands-on experience, so important to learn the skills.

Although I was not fully paralyzed, I was not happy with the situation, and my meditation practice became a project and, with the help of a portfolio of my own images, I managed to develop an online store with unique clothing for women, but I will keep the details pending as it is an ongoing process, no major disruption has yet occurred. It is more than creating an additional source of income, independent of my work as an Advertising/Commercial, Fashion Photographer/ that I am very proud of!

I am now approaching a Third life with the advent of WEB3, the DAO’s NFT Digital Art, Blockchain the Decentralization process happening in the digital world and I hope to be able to talk about this in the near future! New risks, new disruptions all over he horizon! Many things will change indeed!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Connecting with the first question, once I landed a first big job, the process was more of downhill roller coaster, and new clients emerged. I grew as a well known Advertising photographer, and at some point about 70% of the bollards ( external big posters) all across town had images of my work for many different clients and brands like Avon, Loral, Pepsi, Vans, Christian Dior Swimwear, Black Label, among many others. The crisis in Venezuela with the “Elected Dictator” Chavez destroyed the country and in the process, my career begun going down the drain, with so many clients leaving the country, and others making deals with the dictator, something I was most definitely not going to do. I grabbed my family and equipment and moved to the USA.

Right after relocating to the USA from Venezuela in, and picking Miami as destination, I registered my company Jorge Parra Photography in 2007, a mirror of the company I had back in my country of origin, and started building a presence from scratch.

Fast forward to the present and I keep doing what I love. I work for the Advertising and Marketing industries, with a strong emphasis in the luxury markets, I shoot commercial clients, ( both Photography and video) as well as Fashion, Beauty, Lifestyle and Fine Art personal projects. As of lately , I have been working with super private clients, ultra-rich people who manage amazing Art Collections and fantastic properties, and need the visual documentation strictly for their eyes only, so none of this work is visible to the public. What a fascinating world we live in!

Mi company also offers Production Services, so I can provide al necessary elements and production values necessary for a successful campaign, from a small one for a Boutique Agency or Direct Client, to a large scale project of any size.for any big-sized Ad agency. One of the core values that I provide is my ability to work the production stages efficiently, bringing a nice level of controlled costs to the client or agency. I work fast and efficiently, all under a cool and relaxed set, while clients are saving money production-wise.

My websites and Instagram accounts will help you see the reach of my work.

Additionally, I run two community enterprises I love to pursue,. To begin with, I love to bring back to the community that has helped me so much and I offer my photographic services to several non-profits both locally and nationally in the US, mostly assisting kids waiting for adoption, Heart transplant and Breas cancer campaigns an calendars, plus I am part of the Creative Mornings Miami, a fantastic group putting together all the amazing creators that live in this cool city!

I am also mentoring veterans who want to restart their lives as civilians, and even though my risks are ultra small compared to what they have lived and undergone and suffered protecting our homeland, at least there is some similarity when starting a new venture from scratch that is common to all of us. One new risk to deal with!

My second community enterprise is on Education. I teach Advanced Photography and Lighting workshops and courses to share some of the many skills I have learnt throughout years of work in different field, studios and locations. I guess I have some ability to explain things and make people understand complex ideas and processes.
One more time, I bring the Dalai Lama and his famous quotes: “Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.”

You may also read more about this and other community engagements on my website.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

Contrary to many naysayers, I truly believe NFTs are one of the new forms of digital art that came here to stay. I have been involved in WEB3 culture and technology for a couple of years now and I can tell that many people feel either neutral or bad towards these technologies exactly in teh same way nobody believed the internet and email were going to be part of the normal life back in the 90’s.

As of today several of the so-called “starving artists” IRL (In the Real World), are now thriving and prospering and making great profits thanks to the many new opportunities the NFT marketplaces offer to everyone, and we are barely starting up!

Additionally , and equally important, is the fact that the Blockchain technologies, the core of the WEB3 revolutionary changes, will eventually get in our everyday lives, and that process can not and will not be stopped. I invite every artists to start learning about all this, in order to avoid staying behind in the upcoming markets.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My creative journey started , as usual, by exploring my visual inner worlds through the available outside worlds and finding beauty in places no one else finds it.

That makes you and everyone unique.

I feel that I have a goal to achieve in participating in these emerging ongoing processes where physical and digital art collide, many call this PHYGITAL EXPERIENCES, and there are so many ways for artists to grow in these new worlds, that it makes sense to get deeper and deeper into learning, and making mistakes, and keep learning, and keep trying with the idea to manifest our feelings , emotions and concepts though visual art forms that today we have not yet imagined they can exist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://JorgeParraPhotography.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/JorgeParraPhotography
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/JorgeParraPhotography
• Twitter: https://twiter.com/FineArtKrypto
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/JorgeParraPhotography
• Other: https://linktr.ee/JorgeParraPhotography

Image Credits
Photography and General Production : Jorge Parra from Jorge Parra Photography Hair and make up Styling: Jesus Bravo and Frances Lordan Dresses by Halston, Issey Miyake, and Rei Kawakubo and 192o’s dress (by anonymous), courtesy of Parodi Custome Collection Museum. Fashion Styling: Naty Parodi (@CineWear) and Martha Meyerhans ( Marangoni Istitute) AquaAngels and Liquid Beauty NFTs produced for Jorge Parra by @FineartKrypto. ALL Images are ©Jorge Parra. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED