Oscar De La Villa Jr

My love affair with photography is one that came about after almost a decade of trial and error. I graduated from Lehigh University in 2003, bartended, managed the family business, butchered, worked as a chef, and worked a captain and sommelier at two 3-star Michelin restaurants. All positions, which I’ll discover later, affected my need to connect with people.

In 2009, my son Dominic was born, and I started working for Chef Thomas Keller at Per Se in New York City; two titan-sized events that influenced my need to look inward and improve. I was constantly being coached at work on the pursuit of perfection. Interestingly, a tenet passed on to me by my parents and one I planned on passing on to my son.

Throughout this time, I had also picked up a DSLR, taught myself how to use it and began capturing images of people, trying to express their thoughts and feelings. It wasn’t until the past year that I stumbled upon the work of Richard Avedon, Yousuf Karsh, Annie Leibovitz, Gregory Heisler and Peter Hurley where the proverbial light bulb when on. I realized that listening with my camera helped people to be heard.

Now, armed with a camera and a penchant for capturing the “voice” of my clients, I focus on their need to express who they are as a person. This has led my career to working with clients from the entertainment and modeling industry to the corporate and startup arena.