December 4, 2018

Art & Life with Lawrence Franklin-Gariffo

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lawrence Franklin-Gariffo.

Lawrence, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
As far as I can remember, I have always been creative. I started out just drawing and painting at a young age. When I was a teenager, I had started focusing more on doing digital work in class using photoshop. I remember that I saved up some money to buy my own copy of photoshop CS6, but unfortunately when I got to the store. I didn’t have enough money. Luckily my mother was with me and she took care of the rest. Over the next few years I became well versed in graphic design work and even did a few commissions. In 2013 I went to Hawaii with my husband and his family. His aunt had just bought a new camera for the trip, a Canon T2i. She knew I had a slight interest in photography so she asked me to be in charge of using the camera to capture the moments of our trip. After we got home, my husband was looking at the photos and insisted that I go to school for photography. This started my journey at The Art Institute of Phoenix for my Bachelors of Arts in Digital Photography.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
Food is the most common substance in our society. We use food as a centerpiece for gatherings with family and friends, as a calming mechanism when life becomes overwhelming or sad, and we always have our favorite food around when we are celebrating life’s biggest moments. The diverse use of food in society is one of the greatest reasons I fell in love with food photography. For me as a person certain food has always been very nostalgic and takes me to a very happy place in my life and as a photographer, I gain a sense of pride when I am able to capture moments like that for others to find their happy place with food.

I can remember as a child looking through magazines and admiring the photographs of food next to the recipes. It would create a sense of joy and excitement within me. When I am planning a photo session it is always my goal to tell a story about the food that I am photographing. I think of how the art, the styling, and lighting of the food will portray my image when viewed by others. Having complete control of the subject and all pieces of my creative artwork during a session is something I enjoy about photographing food. During each session, I have completely planned out every aspect of the photo before even shopping for the ingredients.

After the planning, I go to the store or sometimes even multiple stores to find the perfect piece of fruit or the perfect bun that will make a cheeseburger stand out. I am a part of every step of the journey with my artwork because I find joy in the creation of the story, not just the end result with a picture. At the end of the day, my photography is a story of my passions in life and food is the ingredients that make it exciting.

Any advice for aspiring or new artists?
Believe in yourself, find your style and own it. But most importantly seek and accept constructive criticism from anyone you meet. And use it to improve your craft. I wish I would’ve learned that lighting isn’t as simple as just flipping a switch and pointing a light. There is a lot of thought and consideration in lighting your subject.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
People can see my work on my website lpxphoto.com and also my Instagram @lpx_photo or Facebook @lpx.photo. People can support me by sharing my work with people who are looking for a food or product photographer

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