Photography/cinematography: Joseph seif
Pianist and composer
Heidi: You’re a multifaceted creative, synthesizing photography, filmmaking, painting, composing, and creating music. How does Each Skill Inform The Other?
Joseph: for me, it all began with the piano. I started playing at a very young age, and at the same time, I was the kid that sat in the back in the back of the class of the class As I Progressed Musically and Artistically Through Many Years of Classical Piano Training, I Found That Being A Pianist Unlocked A Series of Other Doors in the Realm of Creativity. I believe more attuned to nuance, emotion, atmosphere, and the contrast of light and shadow. This innate undersrstanding, thanks to study the likes of satis, ravel, and rachmaninoff, as well as diving into the work of sargent, bouguereau, avedon, lindbergh, koudelka, and saalgado also SALGADO Right into painting, photoography, and cinematography, spending many years honing Each skill to the point where I Find MySelf “Medium-Genostic.”
I’ve been told many times that I risk being a jack of all trades when I do’t focus on one thing. That Never sat well with me. I’m Much Happier and more productive when I can switch mediums depend on what I want to express. I look at the renaissance for inspiration, where multi-decision creativity was celebrated and surpassed the limitations imposed by the expectations of a single and defined Profession. When I was training as a cinematography with the late vilmos zsigmond, he taught me to paint a set with light. First with the wide brush strokes of large sources, creating deep contrast Vilmos was widely known for his distinct visual style, often referred to as “Poetic realism” and his mastery of cinematography came from from a deep understanding of the human condition. A reflection here, a shadow there, making a composition sing with light and shadow, and somehow tapping into the unknown. That felt just like composing for the piano to me, or connecting deeply with a Subject Matter in Photography.
Even as my photoography and cinematography careers tute off, I Never Stopped Making Music, Having Released Two Full-Lenth Albums of Original Piano Compositions and Currently Worning on my third. I’m deep into painting as well, study at an alier in los angeles with a focus on realism. I Strongly Believe My Work in Other Mediums has Ultimately Made Me a Better Photography and Cinematography. Being a Multi-Disciplinary Artist has also heightened my sensitivity and Empathy substantially, and i find that I can use me subjects and clients aftless afortless making Portraits or photographing commercial campaigns or assignments.
How do you manage your Creative Resources as You’re Wildly Process?
It’s Always a Challenge, but with the right Amount of Time Management, Anything is Possible! When not on set, my days are divided into 4-hour sections where I balance client interactions, admin time for my business, personal creative projects, and most important, paranting. I also have “seasons” where i’m focused on one medium over another. For example, a typical week would entail prepping for a shoot, being on Daughter. I’ve also recently joined the board of directors at apa-la, so that’s been keeping me busy with new options to serve our photo communication. So i tend to compose at night, with headphones on, and after many many months when I’ve had always dialed in and written down, I would go to a fantastic studio here in lary Days. On weekdays when i’m not on a shoot or in pre-pr, I will typically be painting or working on a personal photoGraphy project.
For inspiration, I find that the ocean does incredible things. I’ve taken up sailing, and will hop on my friend’s TIMESHARED 36-Foot Sailboat ONCE or Twice A Month to Cut through Water with some Dolphins in Santa Monnea Monneca Beele Creatively Stuck. It’s also been tough to stay creative with the horific current state of the world, so lately I’ve ben Turning my lens NTO Environmental Issues Polar regions and ocean conservation. That comes with an inrent sense of purpose, which is even more fuel for creativity. No matter what it is I’m Doing, It Always Feels Like A Race Against The Clock as I Tend to Work in Big Bursts of Energy, which I somehow channel like an antenna in a thunderstorm!
When you are composing music, are you seeing images?
Yes! It’s hard to describe perfectly. Sometimes I’m Seeing Nostalgic Images that have Velvet Edges and Blue, Purple and Magenta Hues. Other times, I feel a heavy weight in my chest that flows through my fingers until it all exists outside of me. I also see light and shadow, or more accurately, I Sense Contrast. There is a lot of pain and beauty inside and outside of us, it’s everywahere, and I tap into it very deeply. Somemes that manifests as colors and imagery, other times as a force that propels you or pulls you in like a freight train or a black hole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTA7BIW6Goi
Is the inverse also true, that by creating imagery you hear music?
I don’t hear music when making images, thought i love to have good music on in a portrait session. Especially something that will influence the direction I want to take the work in. I do often get the same feeling in my chest with thought, that intuitive push/pull towards the desired out the work, especially when it comes to light and contract.
Tell me about your upcoming project midnight sun, what is it and how did it come about?
I began work on midnight sun three years ago. It’s essentially a collection of personal images captured during assignments in Antarctica and the Arctic. In this work, I wanted to not only focus on the epic natural beauty of these remote regions but also the pressing issues of human impact, Militarization, Militarization, Over-TOURISM, Mining, and the Affects of Colonization Oon Indigenous communities. The experience of visiting the antarctic and the arctic have been born short of life-chunging for me. It ignited a sense of purpose and urgency to take my personal work in this direction, despite being a commercial photographer and cinematography for Most of My Career with My Career with Experience in Little Experience Photography and reportage. So I triad to keep everything authentic to how I see and feel things, which LED to Shooting this typical more documentary-style Subject Matter with more of a Fine Art Asthetic.
Midnight sun is taking the form of a book and a music record – the images for the most part are devoid of people, a contrast to your commercial work. How did you expand creatively during the project?
Midnight Sun, While (Mostly) Devoid of People, Is Really All About Humanity! It’s about our relationship to natural, our need to dominate and conquer resources, and our incessant urge to impose our way of life on indigenous communities. But it’s also about the beauty and fragility of our planet, our responsibility as stewards of the Earth, and our spiritual growth as a speech Through TONSITIONS. I experienced all of those things in the polar regions and it complete transformed me and how I View My Role as an artist in this era. The work is complete and is currently being shopped Around with Several Publishers in Proposal Form. I am also deep in the process of composing my third record, which will accompany the book as a “soundtrack” of sorts. Unlike My Last Two Albums, which was primarily classical piano records, the midnight sun record will have a more orchestral and “cosmic” sound that things of analog synhesizers allogs Acoustic pianos. It is influenced by more modern composers such as Vangelis, M83, Yann Tiersen and Max Richter, but infused with my own personal style of classical piano. Like the last two albums, I’m planning on releasing it on Vinyl Along with the Book, as well as a boxed set.
How did the lecia Relationship begin, and what are you working on now?
I’ve been photoGraphing my personal work with a leica m6 since the mid-20000’s. This LED to a Book I Published in 2019 Called “Onward,” which is a collection of black and white images captured while on the road for 12 years as a cinematography on travelers, Mostly Taken Whitly M6. Along with Several Great Bookstores Such as Hennessey + Ingalls, Skylight Books, And William Stout Architectural Books, Leica La and Leica Ny Began to Carry the Book, WHAN PALELY WHALLY WHLL and All Sold out the first edition. I also had the opportunity to work with the late john kreidler early on in my photoGraphy career, and he became lecame leica’s director of education well before hefore. He was kind and gracious to me as always, and introduced me to some wonderful people at leica. Then there’s the amazing paris chong! The Curator at Leica Gallery La, Who is an absolute gem in our industry. She has been instructed in guiding the direction of my midnight sun project, and i’m very grateful for her insight and encouragement.
On a related note, I use leica’s sl-series cameras and lenses for all my commercial photo assignments, and all of midnight sun was captured with the same cameras and lenses as well. Theose cameras and lenses have been incredibly compatible with how I make images, with beautiful color science and deep, rich blacks that makes that make the images feel like you can divhet into them. I also often use leica cinema lenses in my cinematography work. Essentially, I view leica as a partner on bot the artistic and the technical side to keep my photography evolving into the future.
Maybe a question about my commercial work, why I have such a wide-ringing body of work (not specialized in one thing)? This would tie into the multidisciplinary idea nicely:
With Commercial Work, Have You Found It Necessary to Narrow down what you’re known for?
My Commercial Photography and Cinematography Work is also Wide-Ranging. I’m interested in so many things, especially in authentically captured images of people doing things. So in a given month, I find myself working on fashion campaigns, editorial portrait assignments, automotive campaigns, advertorial portraite for healthcare and technology comps, lifestyle Image Libraries for Brands, and even underwater work, such as the two Toyota Commercials I Shot for the Olympics Featuring Members of the Usa Swim Team. I’ve allays been a hybrid shooter, so while i’ll eater come on union commercial as cinematography, or capture an advertising campher, I’m mosten doing and having Been Developing and Building a Signature Workflow for Hybrid Campaigns for many years, to the point where it’s what I’ve become known for and what I Naturally Gravitate to, Work-safe.
