“Everyone with an iPhone or camera can be a photographer.”
Oftentimes you would come across someone with a really nice and expensive DSLR camera and call themselves a photographer. Max Flatow, however, believes otherwise. Flatow went to middle school with a photography program but when he went to Vermont college, he wasn’t offered many courses that pertained to what he wanted to study. However, he was given access to a darkroom, where he got to play around with different techniques and improved his photographing skills. He studied abroad in Spain when he was still in college, where he took pictures that he was able to display at a local cafe to sell himself as well as his work and about fifty to seventy people showed up. From there, his career finally took off.
His talent has brought him to opportunities and projects in different cities in the US and even to different countries like India. There, he shot photos for a couple that was getting married. A lot of his projects are for couples getting married because “People are always going to get married no matter what.” However, he is not only interested in photographing weddings but he “like[s] to shoot everything.” Some other subjects he had taken photos of are football players, bands, and of course, food. In the past, he even shot music photography.
There are many different techniques that comes up a lot in his pictures. Some of them include the rule of thirds, depth of field, using artificial lighting, and taking advantage of natural settings. In a lot of his indoor shoots, he has a large spotlight that can produce the appearance of shadows and darkness, such as the one with two flower girls and the one of a couple walking down the steps. In another photo taken outdoors, he used the wind to take photos that were untraditional, with the veil of the bride flying in the air. Unlike most photographers, he takes a lot of photos that are in the moment and candid, such as the couple on the streets of Manhattan, because he understands that many people aren’t fond of being told what to do and how to pose. At the end of the day, he says that out of the hundreds and thousands of photos he takes, his clients choose the one where they are acting most naturally and make them feel as if they are reliving the moment.
Flatow’s passion for photography was definitely emphasized as he went through his slideshow of photos. He used each and every technique to catch the subjects in their most beautiful angle and lighting, which encourages me to play around with a camera for the photography projects. The fact that he learned all his photography skills on his own is really inspiring and definitely makes me want to learn how to use a camera to its fullest potential.
