We recently had the pleasure of meeting and photographing Mariana Garcia in her Downtown Eastside Studio for the cover of the British Columbia Edition of Canadian Immigrant Magazine April 2010 Issue. Mariana runs an arts studio where Women Artists in the Downtown Eastside can create their work and provides a venue to display and sell their artworks. Read the full article here.

Find the PDF version here.

We are committed to providing the very best images to represent Immigrants and their businesses in the most professional manner possible.

Cornelia Jansen from Germany
Read Connie’s story in the full issue of Canadian Immigrant Vancouver Edition (November 2009) issue here.

Roberto Carlos Garcia Fajardo from Spain
Read Roberto’s story in the full issue of Canadian Immigrant Vancouver Edition (December 2009) issue here.

It was an honor to photograph Sensei Alexei Goudkov for the Canadian Immigrant Magazine. The full article in the Canadian Immigrant magazine can be read here. You can also download the PDF Version of this issue here.

Sensei Alexei teaches the Kyokushin Kaikan (極真会館) style of Karate that means the ‘Society Of Ultimate Truth’, due to a heavier emphasis on full-contact sparring. I am familiar with this style, having studied Shotokan Karate in elementary school and immersed myself in the various differences and philosophies of the various fighting systems, and remember the stories about how the founder of the style, Mas Oyama, perfected his techniques by taking down charging bulls with various striking techniques.

I have to admit that I have a deep love for the Martial Arts, possibly even surpassing that which I feel for photography. Case in point is that Sensei Alexei is a Fourth Dan black belt (my sincerest apologies as I previously wrote Third Dan) in the Kyokushin Kaikan style, yet during the shoot, possessed that mixture of quiet confidence, courtesy, and humility that mark a martial arts practitioner. I’m sure it stems from a mixture of individual self-confidence, discipline, and possibly something a lot more practical;

A kick, like a photograph, is a singular, fluid expression that can contain so much technique, subtlety, and nuances, for something that looks relatively simple. It has emotional content. It has to connect. Unlike Photography though, you can’t talk, network, tweet, SEO, or otherwise irresponsibly enable someone into being a good Martial Artist. It takes practice, discipline, and eventually having to get into the ring to prove it. As for us, we like to get our kicks from being happy with our work…and aiming high.

Last September, I had the good fortune of photographing Mr. Forte Gerardo for the cover of The Canadian Immigrant, Toronto Edition, October issue. For those that don’t know him, Mr. Forte Gerardo is a master ‘Trade Maker’, having been the former trade commissioner and head of post for the Philippines to Toronto and Central Canada, and entrepreneur running an established trading company. The full issue can be read here.

As for my trade, I create images. Having done primarily fashion and celebrity portraiture for most of my professional life, I’m used to having a full crew – complete with make-up and hair artists, wardrobe stylists, and models and am extremely proficient with all the editing, retouching, and post-processing that goes hand-in-hand with what’s considered a ‘modern photographic production’ (including some of the most intricate Adobe Photoshop techniques that involve layer masking, creative use of blending modes, warps and transformations, up to full 3D reconstruction and CG replacement – I’m also a 3D and Visual Effects artist, and teach Photoshop techniques). Sometimes though, I just love to do it old-school – just classical and honest portraiture, completely focusing on, and capturing the character of the person in front of the lens with no distractions. I find working this way extremely satisfying. These are some of the most honest photographs I have made – it’s all the-subject-as-they-are, light, and lens – nothing’s contrived. With the exception of the cover tear sheet above, the images you see below in this blog post, are literally straight out of my camera. Post processing zero – this is as honest as it gets.

Not that Mr. Forte Gerardo and his lovely wife, Salvacion, need any image editing help. They are genuinely wonderful people with characters that just exude positivity and an appreciation for knowledge and life. It was such an honor to be able to photograph them.