Conversations with Lennyn Garcia

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lennyn Garcia.

Hi Lennyn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Venezuela and, because my dad made a bet with his coworkers, we ended up moving to Florida. As soon as I finished high school, I moved to New York City! I took a bunch of acting classes there trying to find my place in the world and NYC really helped me learn a lot about myself as well. After about six years, I moved to Los Angeles to really get more serious about my training and go full throttle. After about my second year, roughly six months before the pandemic hit, I found my Acting class; at Diana Castle’s The Imagined Life! I have been training there ever since and really have been able to find my voice and my place in this world.

Once the pandemic hit, I tried finding other outlets to express myself and I stumbled upon photography! I always felt that photography was an extension of acting; another form to express and tell a story and to connect with people. I used to always have these ideas for photoshoots in my head but I was too scared and didn’t have the time to explore it. When we were on lockdown, I was finally able to learn about photography and I fell in love with the medium. I started photographing as many people as I could and it was just one idea after another. I LOVE capturing the raw spirit of someone in a photo. Who they really are: MAGNIFIED! “There’s so much beauty in this world, I feel like I can’t take it” – (Ricky Fitts; American Beauty)

The pandemic has taught me that you don’t have to wait for anyone to give you the permission to create and express all the things you have to say to the world. Just go and do it yourself and slowly, but surely your tribe will find you. Right now, I have a photography business which I started earlier this year, and I am in the middle of rewriting a short film that I am going to produce soon!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has definitely not been smooth for me at all. My life has gone through ebbs and flows of being super interested and full throttle with my career, to not feeling anything at all. But I have learned that interest is a muscle and it’s something that has to be practiced a lot, which I do.

New York was a place for me to enjoy life, make a lot of mistakes and figure myself out. Los Angeles has been a place for realizing truths and beliefs that don’t serve me and has given me an arena to heal and grow into myself. – which I am still in the process of.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I try not to consider anything of what I do work, or else I’ll run away from it. With acting, I will say that I lean more towards the drama. I’ve always loved stories with life or death situations. I feel a lot, so it’s a lot of fun to fully express all that I’ve got. Being a Latin American person, I always been in the middle of not fully American and not fully Latin. I never really fit in with any group growing up. I want to give a voice to that. I want other people like me, who have felt like our voices were never heard or picked last at dodgeball; an afterthought, to see themselves on the silver screen and see that anything is possible. We still need more diversity on that damn screen!

I love doing editorials because I can create stories with everything we capture in that 8×4 frame. I love doing location shoots and having the outdoors involved somehow. I love candids because there we get the true essence of the person. I feel so lucky when I do capture those moments. I also take headshots, which are a lot of fun because I LOVE music and it’s like a dance party between us.

I am most proud of two things in respect to my career. My camera and short film Resonance. I wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in my short film. It was a story between siblings that showed you to always have compassion for other people because you never know what they could be going through. Even though it really didn’t come out the way I wanted it to, it showed me that I am able to create my own stories for other people to see. Now for my camera, I just love it for the simple fact that I can capture great moments in life.

I don’t really like the last question – it’s very hierarchical. I don’t think one is better than the other. I think we are all in our own lane doing our thing and I think we should all root for one another because this world is already tough as it is. We don’t need to pin one against the other. Acting is very therapeutic for me and it has helped me learn a lot of things I didn’t know I had inside me. I get the biggest rush when I connect with a story that’s typically not a shade of my many colors because it makes me feel like I’m alive and connected with the world. I feel larger than life!

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Most of my favorite childhood memories were in my room. That is where my imagination did whatever it wanted to. I would put up anything from a puppet show to a circus, to a newsroom, to the arena singing and dancing to 30,000 people. I had so much fun. Uninhibited, free, full fun!

Thankfully now, I still get to play with my imagination!

Contact Info:

• Email: TheLennynGarcia@gmail.com, LennynGarciaPhotography@gmail.com
• Website: LennynGarcia.com, LennynGarciaPhotography.com
• Instagram: LennynGarciaPhotos
• Facebook: LennynGarciaContact
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5294452/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Image Credits:
Shannon Elliott Dallas Eisen Christina Burdette