We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Max Balderas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Max below.
Max, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
If there’s one thing I can remember with certainty from the earliest days of my childhood is that I was a creative and sensible kid. My parents respected that, even when the rest of my known world questioned it. And the reason I can wholeheartedly pursue my career as an artist is because my parents have supported and helped me create this confidence in me.
I think as artists, we have an innate sensibility within us, and we can either choose to embrace it or divert ourselves into a different path. I fear the latter happens more often than not due to the lack of support and encouragement, especially when it does not come from our own homes. I now recognize that it was a privilege to grow up in a supporting environment that allowed me to be and evolve. And it wasn’t only my parents who helped me construct my vision as a person, my sister played a great role in it. I remember I was 12 years old when Instagram was just starting to take off and I wanted to post something but felt embarrassed and she said “if you don’t defend what you’re passionate about, people will define what you end up doing in life.” That sort of became a mantra to me since I did not feel understood in school or in everyday life. I feared a lot of things, boys looked rowdy and masculine to me. I felt sort of faithless.
My parents noticed my skepticism, and they didn’t want me to see the whole world as a hostile place. They started sending me to camp over the summer so that I could explore and try to relate to new people and places. I was around 10 the first time, the camp would last 2-3 weeks and I remember feeling abandoned the whole time. That repeated itself over the next few years and then when I was fourteen they sent me to boarding school in Ireland, which became my biggest challenge at the time and ultimately the place where I learned the greatest life lessons for a teenager. I ended up meeting people who for the first time I finally related to and others who challenged my beliefs. It showed me the world is vast, and life is so complex made up of intricate moments that can hold greater depth. I am glad they gave me the opportunity of leaving my comfort zone. After all that, I stopped fearing change and seeking more personal evolution. It inched me closer to the life I now have. Leaving my home country, Mexico, to New York and choosing an artistic career with conviction, and understanding the worth in my authenticity – and for that I am very grateful.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
As a New York based photographer, I was born into an artistic family in Central Mexico. My grandfather, my mom, and my sister are or were at some point photographers. But I definitely had my own path to get to that realization that I also wanted to pursue photography. My vision had always revolved around architecture since childhood. It was around my seventeen birthday that I accepted that my passion for photography could become a professional path. It was definitely an enlightenment, even though it was predictable.
While I was studying at FIT (The Fashion Institute of Technology) in New York, I experimented with different genres of photography, until I circled back to architectural photography. I interned at an architectural firm my senior year as an opportunity to immerse myself and understand the industry better. It was a short but insightful time. Simultaneously, right after graduation, I gravitated to hospitality. It felt like the perfect junction of spatial design and lifestyle, and so I started to lean into that industry as well. The world of restaurants and hotels have an incredible and extensive selection of clients and places and it is incredible to capture their uniqueness. Whenever I’m standing before a space or structure, I play with light and focus on the design elements to frame its personality– I’m humanizing architecture. I also like to think of it as if I were to be taking a self portrait through the design. Modern architecture allures to me in a very distinctive way, and I always approach it with curiosity.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
A very simple one but life changing, especially when you are just getting started, want to experiment, and refine your craft; Reaching out. Many of the lessons – creative, professionally, and personal — I learned when I reached out to do content for my own experience and portfolio. My photo program at school was very fashion centric and when I realized I wanted to do interior photography, I had to look for my own resources. First I reached out to restaurants I had been to and noticed their interiors and asked if I could come and document them. During these visits I learned more about framing, tripods, angles, and all the other technical elements I had not learned. I was sort of let free and everyone was quite sweet. People are more open than what we think. If you are a student, this is a great way to get into places and experiment, people will see you with a certain innocence and you will surprise them with the outcome.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Definitely when I get recommended from other clients. Your clientele can boom so easily. You have to be true to your current clients and authentic to yourself. At the beginning when I was still in school and I decided to take on a project– regardless of whether I felt connected to the subject– I approached it with the same empathy, care, and authenticity. Clients notice, and the final product is the greatest indicator. Years later, when my skills were stronger and vision was more distinct, clients would either come back with more refined projects or recommendations would reach out of the blue and it felt very gratifying to know that I could attribute it to something I worked on months or years ago. Social media is definitely a tool, but it requires a lot of consistency and knowing the MO of how the multiple algorithms behave in order to reach broader audiences. On Instagram for example, it sometimes does feel like an uphill battle as a still visual creator in a reel/video format centric platform. But on Threads and Substack life has been surprisingly genuine. It is important to always have your handles in plain sight so that people can find you anywhere.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://maxbalderas.com
- Instagram: @maxbalderas
