Alexis Cuarezma Explains How He Photographed IFBB Bikini Professional Athlete Ashley Pfaff

A lot of what I do and how my images look is something that I develop over time from shooting, testing, shooting more and tweaking until it's developed to what it is. I don't mind sharing what I do and people think that's a favor or plus to them but the huge downside to that is that I rob them of discovering their own creative process and discovering what they like to do. My main goal for each shoot that I do is to treat my subject with the respect they deserve and visually create an image that represents them best for the given situation with my personal style. I personally love light with a passion and it's reflected upon my work. One the hardest things IMO is teaching someone how to developed their own style. I see some many photographers that take workshop or intern and they end up developing into mini clones of that photographer which is horrible. That's built upon a very weak foundation because it's based on someone else's vision instead of developing internally.

There's so many articles and photographers who say that going to art school and formally learning photography is a big waste of money. I unfortunately see many of those photographers lack visual creativity (even though they may be very successful because they are amazing business/people skills and are good at networking). For me, one the biggest assets I feel I had was going to college. I studied Art, Graphic Design and Photography. Although the photo dept in my school wasn't the best and I ended up dropping out. The classes that personally helped me the most were art history, painting, drawing (I loved drawing since I was a kid), and history of Photography. I got exposed to things I otherwise would never had.

I was strongly influenced by artist like Jackson Pollock, Marcel Duchamp, Corbin Lapel (my drawing 1 teacher who gave me a C-), John Cage; all who are pretty famous and well known. But studying and learning about them over the course of a year was invaluable. That's pretty unheard in photography workshops b/c a 5 day one is considered "intensive". I've also been personally influenced by poets Ruben Dario and Rigoberto Lopez Perez and that's a direct reflection of who I am and my heritage. Even just dropping those names is a dis-service b/c if you don't know about them, what most people will do is a quick google search, read 2-3 paragraphs about them (if that) or just skim the wiki page and read someone else's opinion about who they are instead of forming their own opinion.

It's one thing to learn a technique and execute/copy it but it's much more satisfying developing and arriving at your own style that comes internally and reflects who you are as person. That's my personal challenge as long I continue to shoot and live. Best of luck!

-Alexis

We were looking for a desert type location and of course everything is subject to interpretation. There were other location but they were about 1-2hrs away and we still had to go to the gym and shoot about 4-6 more setups. 1-2hrs easily burns 2-4hrs total just on driving.

Had she had the budget it would have been ideal to fly out a day early and do a location scout. But she already flew me, and an assistant out to Vegas, put us in a hotel, paid all expenses (including gear/lights/meals etc.) plus the creative fee all on her own dime. Instead of burning time driving around, we picked a location that worked.

thanks for your comment,

best,
-Alexis