Today we’d like to introduce you to Ethan Alfaro
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born and raised in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh is a very diverse city full of art, independent artists, and creative spaces so from a young age creative environments and people always surrounded me. I started getting interested in photography around the age of 12 when I received an old Nikon DSLR from my Grandfather. I began going into downtown Pittsburgh on my weekends off from school and spent the entire day photographing the buildings, people on the street, and anything I thought was interesting. I continued my interest in photography throughout high school. I went to an arts high school in Downtown Pittsburgh that offered majors ranging from instrumental to musical theater, I majored in visual arts. Participating in an arts education at a young age gave me exposure to mediums like printmaking, ceramics, and painting. I had the opportunity to start taking portraits of models throughout high school. I started going to these photographer and model meet-ups that were promoted on Instagram. The organizers would set a location and you would just go and work with different models and meet other photographers. I was 15 at the time me and my friend Nico Savoia were the youngest ones there working with people in their late 20s and 30s. Going to those meetups was extremely beneficial for learning how to direct models and was overall a great networking experience at the time. It was very daunting being so young and working with people double my age sometimes but also made me think I was ahead of the game because I didn’t see any other kids trying to do what I was at the time. My high school also surrounded me with creative kids my age who were interested in art as well. I made friends with a few people in a band called Snowdonia and began taking photos of their concerts, which was the start of my interest in music photography. I continued shooting throughout high school but I put my camera down after I graduated in 2020 and began working full time. After high school, I didn’t have a lot of opportunities for creative projects and the pandemic was no help as well. After about a year of working full-time, I quit the jobs I had and decided I wanted to go back to what made me happy which was creating things. I had a teacher in high school, Justin Zuccarelli who is also an excellent artist, who taught me the process of getting a camera into a concert, when I was trying to think of projects I wanted to work on I thought about what he taught me and I began emailing bands. Since I wasn’t working at the time I put 100% of my efforts into my photography and started shooting 3-4 concerts a week, it was all I wanted to do.
I moved to Salt Lake City in April of 2022 to be a serious Photographer with the intention to get on tour with a band shooting photos/videos. I’ve worked with a lot of local bands in the city shooting their shows and creating content for their promotion and have had opportunities to shoot touring bands as well.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t think pursuing arts as a career is ever easy. Music photography is the most exhilarating experience I’ve ever had creatively, but financially it is not very forgiving. The majority of the work I’ve accomplished has been unpaid. Shooting for local bands is very rewarding to build a portfolio but there isn’t a lot of money involved when you are working with bands who are trying to “Make it” as well in the industry. Furthermore, it is very hard sometimes to continue working and trying to create when you aren’t getting paid, I find myself questioning if I made the right decision to pursue art as a career when I can’t support myself on the little money I make from the paid creative jobs I’ve had the opportunity of doing. Burnout is a real thing as an artist as well. I have sometimes had to take a break from shooting shows because going to 2-3 concerts a week is draining creatively and physically.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a photographer/videographer specializing in live music. I’m very proud of the number of touring musicians I’ve had the opportunity to photograph and the work I’ve created for them. I think what sets me apart from others is my ambition to make this my career. I am constantly looking for bands to work with and ways I can improve my shooting style, my editing, and everything that goes into it. I. People attend college and graduate still not knowing what exactly they want to do so feel very blessed to have found what I wanted to pursue at such a young age.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Spending 10+ hours on the weekends with my good friend Nico taking photos in Downtown Pittsburgh.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ethanalfarophotography.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alfarovisuals
