Today we’d like to introduce you to Klare Perez.
Klare, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started taking photos when I was 16, either with my phone or this instax mini my parents bought me and I would just take photos of anything and everything that interested me. I wasn’t very good back then; I didn’t know what I was doing but I still enjoyed it very much. A couple years later I bought a digital camera and took my photography to the next level. I would take photos of friends and use them as models for any idea that popped into my head. When I was 20, I moved to New York to pursue photography and fulfill my childhood dream of living there and began dabbling in film photography documenting the streets of New York and printing my photos in a tiny darkroom my husband and I created in our little New York apartment. Living in New York shaped my eye in a way I never could’ve imagined. After moving back from New York, the past 3 years have been a life changer for me. I had my first solo show, my work had been featured by brands like Anthropology and Vogue Italia, in 2019 I took the plunge to get a studio space and it gave me the courage to take my work more seriously and leave a company I had been with before and after New York. It’s been almost a year that I’ve been a full-time photographer and I honestly could never look back. I’ve had so much time to work on my craft and figure out the direction I want to take my work. I cannot wait to see where this road will take me,
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s taken me awhile to fully immerse myself in photography. I started working when I was 16 and never got the chance to make it a full-time gig. It wasn’t until this past year that I finally left my steady job of almost 5 years to pursue photography full-time. It’s been a little hectic, honestly. I think my biggest challenge with photography as a business is understanding my worth because for a long time it was just something I did on the side as much as I could. Now that it’s my main source of income I’ve really had to buckle down and learn everything about business and how to succeed as a freelance photographer and not let anyone take advantage of my work and everything, I put into it. Another big challenge that I face sometimes is sticking to my style of work. It’s easy to feel like if you just do whatever everyone else is doing your business will take off but if you want to stand out you just have to keep reminding yourself that your work is good and the people that you actually want to work with will find you and vice versa.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Klare Perez Photography – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Most of my work is Portraiture, however it’s not your average portrait. I’m highly influenced by fashion magazines and other amazing portrait photographers like Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Kat Irlin. I love creating stories with my work and finding locations you would never have thought to use as a backdrop. I shoot a lot of my work on film and also edit my work to emulate film if it’s shot on my digital camera. I think what I am most proud of as a photographer is never letting what other people do get the best of me. I strive to make my work unique and not fall into the same trends as everyone else. I always use the past as reference for my work and try to combine it with present day photography. When you work with me, I want your photos to hold a timeless feel to them and being so heavily influenced by the past I definitely feel like it shows in my work and sets me apart from others.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
When I started 2020 I had a lot of big plans for this year but with Covid and everything else going on in the world it has made me take a step back and refigure what kind of work I want to create and what I want to do with Photography. I have had this dream of starting a print shop featuring photos of San Antonio in a style similar to street photography for a while now and since I haven’t been able to take portraits as much, this year has given me an opportunity to finally work on the shop and hopefully get it running by the end of this year. I also just signed a lease on a studio space in a beautiful building shared with other amazing artists and I am hoping to start creating new work in there by the end of this year/early next.
Pricing:
- Portraits (Starting at $300)
- Couples Portrait (Starting at $400)
- Product Photography (Starting at $500)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.klareperez.com
- Email: klare@klareperez.com
- Instagram: @klareperez
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/klareperez
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