DTLA_10.3.16

John Esparza

I have been a hairstylist in Los Angeles for 25 years now and have worked all over LA. Ever since I was a teenager I had a love for Downtown and was so excited to find a new salon that had opened in the South Park area. I worked there for a few years and knew that the salon was not the right fit for me. A great opportunity arose to take over the lease of an existing salon and although the salon was in disarray and had a bad reputation I decided to go for it. Read more >>

Amelia Cuevas- Taylor

From what I can remember I’ve always been intrigued by visual effects and figuring out ways to re-create what I see in my head. When I was younger my mom and dad enrolled me into Milwaukee City Ballet. Being in an environment like that at such a young age introduced me to the world of beauty and imagination verses reality. Read More >>

Ludwig Ortiz

I am blessed to have the opportunity to work in a field that I am passionate about. Being a creative lets me express my life through images, design, color, video, and sound. Read More >>

Apo Avedissian

I have always been interested in creating things. I would sit and write things down and throw them away. I naturally fell into photography and documentary style videography when the war hit Baghdad, Iraq. I was thirteen years old, with a 2.0MP digital camera, running around the streets, taking as many photos as I could of everything going on around me. The shock and emotion gave me a lot to work with, unknowingly at the time.  Read More >>

Jessica Wilson

Early on in high school, I knew I wanted to become a hairstylist. I was anxious to get started, however, the Regional Occupational Programs (ROP) had been canceled in my school district. My family was in the process of moving so they chose a city where ROP programs were available. I started the cosmetology ROP program in the spring semester of my junior year in high school. This meant I would attend normal high school from 7:30 am – 2:00 pm and the cosmetology program from 4:00pm – 9pm Monday – Friday. My goal was to be licensed before I turned eighteen. I passed State Boards 2 days before my 18th birthday. Read More >>

Blanca Olide Cervantes

In 2008 my life took an unexpected turn and was left asking myself “what should I do next?” After the recession, like a lot of people, I was left without a job. I started to work small jobs, but nothing that I felt was fulfilling my expectations or for the most part making me happy. I knew that this time, it was important for me to find something that would fulfill what I was looking for, which was loving what I was doing. Read More>> 

Mark B

I began studying photography in 7th Grade when I took a photography class. I don;t want to date myself too much, but we were using dual-lens reflex cameras and using actual film. You know, the kind that had to be developed and printed in a darkroom. I was always kind of an introvert in middle school and through high school–I was always observing people, and with my camera, I was very quick to discover their personality and capture that essence–if you will–on film. Read More>> 

Michelle Barrios

I started my journey as becoming a makeup artist my first year of college I went in to get a degree in music at SMC. I had been in music school since middle school and I thought that was my calling. Once I was in all my classes close to receiving my AA in music I started to lose interest in it. One day when I was hired to play for a wedding the bride was complaining to me how much she didn’t like her makeup since I had been doing my own makeup and friends makeup since around the time I was 13 I gave her some advise telling her she just needed to blend out the contour and shadow. Read More>>

Lili Nguyen

I started drawing at the early age of 5.  I began to conceptualize, fashion style and design when I was 8.  I graduated secondary school with immediate plans to move to LA to immerse myself into the world of fashion and music.  But due to my traditional upbringing, I was encouraged to lead a different path. After receiving my marketing degree from ASU, I felt unfulfilled and incomplete. Read More>>

Crismico Correa

I started photography at the age of 16 and was always an art student who used different mediums for a form of expression. Photography grew on me and then taught myself to develop a certain style that fit my personality. Over the years I took every opportunity that involved photography to further expand my perspectives of this art style and I am still continuing to learn and evolve. Read More>>

Tavia Garland

I started in this business 10 years ago working for a Men’s Magazine in Northern California straight out of cosmetology school. At first I was just doing the models hair then eventually started doing the models makeup. I worked for the magazine until it stopped running. After the magazine stopped I started getting contacted by the models that worked with the magazine as well as the photographers. Read More>>

Sam Joseph

When I was a child I use to spend summers with my grandparents and uncle in Alexandria Egypt where my uncle had a photography studio. This is where I learned and developed my passion for capturing images and the energy of moments in time; which is the essence of photography. Undergrad I studied at cal state Northridge after graduation I started working in the motocross industry designing race outfits and packaging and helping with advertising photography, went back to do some graduate studies at the art center and moved into automotive racing. Read More>>

Tim Sullens

I’ve been a photographer since photographers used film. I have a B.F.A. My work has appeared in a ton of newspapers both in LA and Chicago. I’ve been lucky to work with some of the biggest corporations in California. I grew up in Chicago although I consider myself a Los Angeles native now. I have a beautiful wife and two amazing daughters. Read More>>

Darielle Rose

When I moved to Los Angeles from Massachusetts, I was nineteen and didn’t know a soul. I was so eager to experience a new beginning, it was exhilarating to embrace a life in a big city, 3,000 miles away from home. I had done my research and knew I wanted to attend Makeup Designory. Read More>> 

Jennifer Lynn Roberts

It all started growing up in the Midwest when I was a kid and found my parents cameras with flash bulb cubes. I was addicted to setting those flash bulbs off. My mother a talented artist and my father a blues guitarist who were both great armature photographers taught me photography and I started winning blue ribbons showing my work at the County Fair at nine years old. I took photography classes through school but was in a fine art program and did not know anything about lighting. Read More>>

A.L. Isnor

My father worked at CBC for 4 decades and got me interested in light and camera angles for as long as I can remember. I got my first 35mm camera in 5th grade. It was red. I took it everywhere and spent my paper route money on developing the film. As an adolescent, I started doing quite a bit of work in front of the camera and was always asking questions of the person behind it. Read More>>

Yesenia Garcia

About 2 years ago I decided I wanted to do something else with my spare time… How did I decide on makeup? I’ve had my makeup done at the MAC counter and was fascinated on how these girls would make us feel… which was beautiful! Read More>>

Margaret Kimura

Margaret Kimura was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Since her father was a music producer, and her mother a television commercial producer, she was raised steeped in the entertainment world. Read More>>

Reiichi Nickleberry

I bought my first DSLR in 2013 while living in Honolulu Hawaii. I just wanted to capture my son’s sporting events as best I could. As I read the owners manuals and watched endless tutorials on Youtube I fell in love with the art of photography in itself so I got into landscape and street photography. Read More>>

Patty Uchi

I did my first photoshoot when I was 18. At first, I did a lot of volunteer and trade work in order to gain experience and build my portfolio. I also got a degree in Beauty Marketing from FIDM. During my time there, I did a couple marketing internships, and I was the beauty editor of the school magazine. I also did makeup retail to learn more about the business side of makeup, which led me to Clinique, where I learned all about skin. With my artistry background and my degree, I was fortunately able to make a career out of something I’m so passionate about. Read More>>

Ben Steinberger

I kind of fell into photography by accident. When I was 16 I got SCUBA certified, which led to going on quite a few dive trips. My first camera was a simple point & shoot with a basic underwater housing. The more I used the camera, the more it came out of the housing. I started to enjoy photography above water more than below, mainly due to the fact that underwater photography is impossibly challenging. I did a lot of landscapes and slowly began upgrading my gear and my portfolio. I wasn’t pursuing a particular genre at the time, it all got blended.  Read More>>

Kale

To summarize the first 18 years of my life, I grew up in a tiny little town in Texas where makeup was only a drugstore item, and I had no idea doing it was a job. I spent all my time drawing as a kid, and after high school, I decided to move away and attend an art school in “The Big City”, which to be fair, was any place with five or more digits in the population count. I landed at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland. Read More>>

David Martin

I moved to Los Angeles from the Bay Area to pursue my music career some time ago. Along my journey, I did many photo shoots myself, as an artist. I slowly fell in love with the art of photography. I can now see through both sides of the lens while bringing my experience and passion in every shot that I take. Sometimes I ask myself how and the heck did you get here, to this point? Then I think it has been through sheer willpower, trial, and error. I’ve always have been a risk taker and pushed myself right next to the edge in anything that I have done. Live it, breathe it, eat it, sleep it because I strive to be the best. Read More>>

Gina Marie Wheeler

I’ve enjoyed art and creative outlets as far back as my memory goes. I have no idea where my passion for fashion, makeup and hair came from. My family was far from glamorous growing up. We got our clothes from Walmart or haircuts from Supercuts and makeup wasn’t allowed. When I started college I knew I wanted a job that I would enjoy that I could maybe even have fun at. I applied to work at the Macy’s Clinique counter in Sacramento. Read More>>