Fours Years of Our Boudoir Journey So Far
In February 2023 Silk + Salt celebrated its 4th birthday. Lots of things have changed since Pamela and I decided to create this experience. At the beginning it was supposed to be just a “little” photoshoot experience that would be super fun for clients, but immediately we realized that boudoir has real power to do so much more than that. We decided to create this experience in order to empower you, show you that you are worthy of gallery quality art, and have a total blast while doing it. Today I want to share the artistic journey we have been on for the past 4 years. A lot has changed, but our vision and mission haven’t. I think that my body of work represents that very well. There hasn’t really been a large revolution at any point but rather everything is an evolution of my core beliefs, personality, and values. Lets go back in time a little!
Year 1
After I graduated with my Masters Degree in Music Performance I knew that I wouldn’t be playing anymore. I always felt like I was playing other people’s music and any feeling and expression I wanted to share with people was extinguished very quickly. With all of the money I saved up I decided to buy a camera – something I had wanted to do since my middle school days but always used lots of excuses to keep postponing it. Right after I finally got my first camera I started to take photos of my wife. Thanks to her patience, love, and lots of faith in me, we created some of the very first images that would set me on a journey of photographing and connecting with people. I have tried a lot of things, especially when it comes to light. I was enamored by the art and feeling of creating and shaping light. A lot of experimentation and countless hours of studying light, I was set on mastering it no matter the place, time, or circumstance.
Year 2
This was probably the pivotal year of my journey. I discovered Peter Lindbergh, and it seems like “the rest is history”. Up to this point I took very few black and white photographs. I thought that black and white photos were easy and lazy. Most people who have no idea what they are doing and no direction simply turn their pictures into black and white and call them “art”. Oh how wrong was I. Peter’s book called “A Different Vision on Fashion Photography” changed my life. From the very first pages of this photography book I fell in love with monochrome. I experienced exactly what I have been searching for my whole career as a musician and as a new photographer – EMOTION. These photographs made me feel something. It wasn’t always clear what, but they always touched something in me and pushed me towards searching for what it might be. I felt like I finally understood what black and white photography was. It was a language and I decided to learn it and become so fluent in it that I could “write” visual poems with it.
Year 3
Ever since then my work has transformed into primarily black and white photography. I even started to use a monochrome digital camera that could capture images without color only. This was the year when Covid ravaged our lives and for a long time I was completely engulfed by work. I felt like I had to do something big. Thankfully, the universe responded. One of my photography inspirations, Vincent Peters, announced a photography workshop in Italy. He almost never teaches, so I felt like despite all of the restrictions and difficulties, I had to do everything I could to go and learn from him. The time I spent learning from him was invaluable. It was one of those lessons in which the meaning fully flourishes with time. I still am unpacking and understanding everything we went through during this workshop. One thing I can definitely, confidently say is that I understood much more about myself and what I am creating and what I want to create in the future. My focus on creating organic, authentic, and emotional photography was solidified and I felt like I “matured” with my work.
Year 4
This is the point where we are at right now. I think that all the things I have talked about already are coming together right now. My photography is aligned with my personal vision as an artist and our Silk + Salt mission. I feel like our art and what we do aligns so well that words cannot express it. That is the reason I create images with you and let them speak for themselves. I let them make you feel something. It is a chamber music performance and we both are creating a piece that has different sections, keys, tempos, and textures.
Year 5
This has been a year of big changes, the biggest of which is likely our move from Ogden to Salt Lake City. Our studio is now located in the heart of Utah, right next to Liberty Park. The new space has allowed us to enhance the experience of working with us and has given me the opportunity to expand my repertoire in lighting, composition, and creativity in ways that our previous space could no longer support. I also completed another workshop with one of the world’s best photographers, Szymon Brodziak, who is widely regarded as a master of black-and-white photography. Our style has matured greatly, and we are incredibly proud to bring all of our experience and knowledge to every session we create.
