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Rachel Suwak

The impact on portrait photographers due to COVID-19

The Coronavirus has affected millions of people around the world in physical and fiscal capacities. Portrait photographers have taken quite a hit because of the nature of intimacy with their clientele.

Photographers get extremely close to their subjects for close ups and touch ups throughout the shoot. Traveling for photoshoot is also a standard practice, which has been restricted by the rise of the global pandemic. Lauren Ashlea, a 20 year old portrait photographer from Kansas is used to traveling to shoot in several different states, such as New York and Florida. Due to the pandemic, Ashlea has had to put traveling on hold, although she had plans to work in Miami. Ashlea is a part of a group that connects photographers with models based off of the location. “I usually go to a new city, rent a studio, then do all my planned shoots there,” said Ashlea. Ashlea has had to cancel all of her future traveling and photo session plans. “I had a bunch of photo shoots scheduled out for March, April and May and due to the pandemic I had to cancel.” said Ashlea. Ashlea, in her own words, said she feels stuck in Kansas. She normally travels to New


York City, Miami, Dallas and even foreign countries such as Greece. Ashlea had high school senior photo shoots planned with students, which also unfortunately had to be cancelled. She is currently saving her clients a spot for when this is all over. “Once the economy opens back up, I’ll know it’s a good time to start shooting again,” she said. The sense of uncertainty has weighed a toll on the young photographer who is all about planning and dates. When everything is up in the air, it’s hard to manage plans for future shoots. In the meantime, she has been shooting photos with her cousin to pass the time and keep her skills sharp. Benjamin Szentpaly is another photographer located in Tampa bay with an impressive 67,000 followers on Instagram. His feed showcases a clear artistic style of electric lighting and slightly neon portraits. This style has become increasingly popular with portrait photographers in the last two years. Szentpaly sells photo presets, which automatically achieve a certain look or style of photo for which he is characteristic. Szentpaly said that since the quarantine, he has seen the best online sales of the year. He also sells an editing tutorial which markets for $300 and has seen a similar spike in popularity.


“Everybody is locked up so they want to learn new skills,” said Szentpaly. Szentpaly’s comment is obviously true, as ‘how to make your own bread’ and ‘how to cut your bangs’ are both trending on various social media platforms. As for meeting with other people, the photographer is planning and shooting with small groups of people. “I had light symptoms about a month ago, so I’m not really scared of the virus,”said Szentpaly. Another photographer, Depot Msa, is based in Miami and has been documenting the pandemic and going downtown to take photos of those in their masks, human interactions and capture a view of the city from an outside perspective.

Photo by Depot Msa

Msa has also been shooting a collection of FaceTime photo shoots. These entail a model posing via a FaceTime phone call while the photographer directs and later edits the photos he or she screenshotted. Msa said he had the idea late one night and then saw a FaceTime photo shoot someone did on their computer the next day. This idea has also been done on the Instagram of the iconic fashion house, Jacquemus, with popular top model Bella Hadid. “The whole idea has been super fun and it’s something I want to keep exploring once quarantine is over,” said Msa. Msa’s photography business has been closed since Miami Dade County closed their government buildings. Msa said his creativity is piqued by the lockdown because he likes not knowing what will happen next, and the idea that life will never be the same once this is all over. This lockdown also has Msa thinking deeper about the meaning of his photo shoots. When this is all over, the photographer says he will be more hesitant to shoot basic concepts and ideas and instead seek for more complex ideas in his shoots. Photographers have been handling the lockdown in different ways but one thing is clear, shoots have slowed down quite a bit and despite the slowdown, photographers are still working in the capacities they can.

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