September 12, 2016

Meet WeHo Fashion Photographer: Rudy Bonifaz

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rudy Bonifaz.

Rudy, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in San Diego, California. Most of my life I have focused on the music side of things of my career. I love to write and record songs. However, at the same time, I had a growing passion for photography at the age of 16. I only had one photography class in high school, and although it was not the most educational class, it allowed me to start experimenting and finding new ways to portray my artistic vision. During those years I treated photography as an artistic output. I saw that I could really start taking great images and turning them into something visually stunning! I decided that it was time to learn the craft well and to give photography a serious chance!

After my high school years, or as I call it, my learning period, I upgraded my camera to a DSLR. I was a little withdrawn from the social circles, in my own world, just thinking creatively all the time. My learning period was the most productive of my career as I was able to come across the work of Tom Leishman, Lara Jade, and Emily Soto – this is exactly what drew me towards fashion photography!

I took one more photography class in college, but contrary to the high school experience, this class allowed me to hone my skills a little further. This class also allowed me to experiment with different content and encouraged me to start my own photography business as a serious job for the first time!
I was quite excited to finally be able to take photography to a different level. I started by searching for friends and amateur models around my area to start creating conceptual based shoots.

With the incredible tools at our disposal, including the internet and social media, I completed my website, started my Instagram account and even created a model mayhem account to expand further. I started uploading the best of my work and it did not take long for many interested people to contact me about inquiries and bookings – It was a moment of joy!

At the same time, my cousin Alida was starting to hone her skills as a photographer as well, so we would push each other always to our limits for quality. After a period of time, it got quiet on model mayhem, so I had to move to Instagram to advance my business. I started contacting local models that would possibly be interested in working together, and I was confident of the quality of my work to be enough “credentials” if you will, to establish my credibility. That’s when I first started working with Chloe Demelo. First, we did a simple shoot, leather jacket, lots of black – it was a fun one!

After that shoot, Chloe invited me to shoot an advertorial for Livin’ Freely Shop, and with that advertorial, the game changed completely. Now I’ve had the opportunity to do several projects for different companies and brands.

I have always been a fan of natural light as you can never go wrong with it. I love the softness that a diffused natural light brings to the skin.

Even though I have always tried to convince myself and everyone that natural light is the best light to use, I am still experimenting always with other types of light and other types of techniques. As of right now, I feel like I am improving and honing my skills every day to come up with a brand new perspective and a plethora of new ideas.

Has it been a smooth road?
Being a photographer is no easy job. There are many challenges and complications that photographers must go through, and I think I speak for many photographers when I say that the challenges were not only financial but also personal. It’s easy for an artist in their beginning stages to be limited financially and mentally to the limits of what is available to them. But I learned soon enough that it was not about the gear that you use, but the skill-set of the photographer that makes an image stunning- I proved this to myself by shooting the competition-winning image of Klarissa underwater for the fashion show REVO 2016 campaign with just a point and shoot camera. Nevertheless, photography gear is expensive and it takes a certain discipline to restrain from always be upgrading your gear.

Aside from the financial limitations, the worst kind of obstacles were the personal mental obstacles. As a photographer, you are always inspired by your surroundings and other creatives. But sometimes it can limit your imagination when it comes to creating something new. The attitude that you present towards your work will determine the outcome. There were some darker times in my life that would influence the type of work that I was putting out, and for one reason or the other, I would not be happy with the results. I started to compare myself to others and started getting frustrated for not achieving the results I wanted.

In the long run, I’ve learned that any obstacle that you come across is only in your mind – there is always another way to do something!
One of the biggest challenges for me personally was to find my particular style. I experimented with lots of different styles but nothing seemed to fit properly. I was in love with fine art and fashion photography, and I knew I wanted to combine both in my work style. Eventually, as I shot more and more, my style started to flourish on its own. Being a photographer in Los Angeles can be very competitive. Not every photographer wants to share their experience and that makes it difficult to collaborate with other creatives and learn from others. Fortunately, being in such big city has brought me luck and opportunities to collaborate and create new work.

Obstacles will come and go on a daily basis, but if we were not presented with challenges, how could we ever grow as better artists?

So, what should we be on the lookout for, what’s next in store for you?
I like to start setting short term goals to allow myself to reach those in a realistic time frame. Currently, I am taking a trip to back to Germany to explore the industry and network with other photographers and creatives. I also have a couple of projects in London in December which I am really excited about! For now, my focus will be kept on that trip around Europe, visiting stunning places and gaining inspiration to create new content!

When I get back from the trip I’m looking forward to making a major upgrade in my gear, and start focusing more on shooting for publication- both beauty and fashion.

I would also love to have a more engaged following on my social media. One passion that I personally have, is helping other creatives achieve their goals as well. In that light, eventually, I would love to have my own workshops to hopefully inspire others to create as well.

Personally, planning too ahead has never worked too well for me, but I do like to keep short and long term goals in mind to guide myself to the point where I would like to be.

This is quite silly, but I always tell my friends that a long-term goal is to eventually have the chance to work with Cara Delevingne! I think she is quite brilliant.

Let’s go backward a bit – can you tell us about the most trying time in your career?
Well, the hardest part of my career dates to a couple years back when I was still in my learning process. I had too much going on in my life at the same time and that easily became overwhelming. I was also in a long distance relationship at the time and it would become emotionally difficult at times. I had always heard about depression but never understood the meaning of it until it hit me personally. It was a dark place, where I would not want to go outside, or eat much, or talk to anyone because I felt like the whole world was against me. I was easily annoyed and was not much fun to be around. Whenever I would get a creative idea, and that was once in a blue moon, I would not be able to finish the project because my anxiety and depression would get in the way and sink me down further.

I knew I was capable of doing great things, but this little voice in my head kept telling me otherwise. I was able to relate to this feeling whilst reading “Mcfly unsaid things…our story” and understanding how Tom Fletcher (the vocalist) started feeling the same way at a moment of his career. Tom ended up seeking help in the end, and it helped him enormously. It was crystal clear, I was not okay. I stopped doing photography and even music altogether- I needed to seek help.

The most difficult part was to talk to someone who would believe me, it was a scary moment. How could I even begin o explain myself? I had pushed mostly every person away, and I was alone with my thoughts. I reached a moment where I said to myself, I can’t go any lower and I need to talk to someone. So I started by erasing all the negativity from my life, all the drama and all the things that were putting me down and slowing me down. My cousin Alida was the biggest help during this period because she always remained positive and encouraging despite my mood swings. (Props to her for putting up with my endless paragraphs)

It was all a massive rollercoaster ride, but in the end, I focused on the more positive things. I started getting myself excited and motivated about new and exciting projects and I eliminated any percentage of doubt or hesitation when trying to get something done. Some people would always compliment my work, that was a huge confidence booster. It’s now been 3 years since I last had a depression episode, and it is all thanks to the positive and creative people that surround me. I found that this is the key to staying happy and motivated!

Recently, I had the chance to hang out with my friend Pratik Naik, retoucher for Solstice Retouch and Bella Kotak, (fashion photographer.) Both Bella and Pratik are really lovely people and had really lovely things to say about my work and my direction as a fashion photographer. Their comments made a massive impact on my self-esteem.

I would eventually love to work on a campaign for depression awareness, as it is such a real problem and such a terrible place to be. No one deserves to be in such dark place.

Are there days when you feel like you’ve done everything you wanted to, careerwise – the “I’ve made it” kind of moments?
One of my favorite photographers is Tom Leishman. A couple years back, I contacted Tom to learn more about the industry and his techniques. Tom was kind enough to spare some time to chat with me and even offered me tips to move forward. Then Tom proceeded to compliment my work and say that I am really moving in a good direction. That was definitely one of the biggest “wow” moment for me. Tom was one of the photographers that inspired me to start as a serious photographer and his comment impacted the way I saw myself. It shifted my focus from seeing myself as an amateur to a professional.

I had the same experience with Lara Jade a few months later, where she mentioned liking my work as well. I have personally followed Lara’s work for some time and it was a massive compliment – I was on cloud nine!
I dearly value these experiences because they are the same people who influence my work on a daily basis.

There’s a quote that reflects a goal for me, “Work until you no longer have to introduce yourself.” Whilst this may not always be possible or even true, I have worked to get a good reputation and increase my reputation in the industry. With this in mind, one of my biggest wow moments was definitely when I started getting emails and messages for bookings. I had built a reputation locally, and people wanted to work together. That was a very satisfactory feeling – It let me know that I was going somewhere with this.

I was always taught to remain humble, and for the same reason, I don’t want to say that I’ve “made it” yet, but simply I’ve moved on to a better stage of my career.

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