Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Fallon
Hi Aaron, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I began my photo career in Los Angeles starting out as a photo assistant, having very little understanding of the photo industry at all. I learned about the business side and production side while assisting and started shooting to build my own portfolio. Being young and in Los Angeles gave me a lot access to different people in various worlds, but honestly, most the work I was making wasn’t that good. But after a lot of repetition and eventually learning to be more thoughtful and deliberate, my work started to have a clearer voice and style.
Just a bit before the great financial crisis of 2008 kicked off I had stopped assisting and was focusing on my shooting career full time. Timing was amazing — I didn’t work for, who knows how long. At one point, I picked up some weekend dj’ing gigs at a westside bar, as well as private parties. It wasn’t how I’d pictured things. I kept shooting — doing a lot of no budget and low budget projects for random magazines and small clients — starting to get access to young up-an-coming talent and some celebrities here and there.
In the summer of the 2008 I took a no budget gig for an online fashion/music mag — they asked me if I’d want to shoot an unknown musician by the name of Lady Gaga. I did my research and reached out to a few creatives in the music industry that I knew to get their thoughts— and I took the gig — producing and paying for the entire thing out of my own pocket. Those images wound up getting licensed by her label and being used in the first major publicity push for debut album The Fame. As her face became well known, I started sending out those images to promote my own work, and launched my own fairly comprehensive marketing campaign over a 2 year period.
I landed my first ad gig (for CVS Pharmacy) in 2010, and from there my career began to take shape. I began shooting for major editorial magazines for several years, mostly celebrity and human interest stories and also landing advertising shoots for Fortune 500 Companies as well as maintaining smaller local clients. The stills campaigns began to have more and more multi media pieces included, so I began directing some motion pieces, interviews, and also creating other types of client driven content (gifs/cinemagraphs/etc.). Over the past decade I’ve had a couple of agents, and as of late, I’m repping myself. My work tends to focus on portraits, life moments and stories, as well as design (places + spaces). And, on a personal note, I love to create images for your walls.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I wouldn’t say it’s been smooth. Like any creative art, it’s a lot of feast or famine. I’ve had a great run for a certain period of time, but there were also slow times between. The biggest struggle has been going so long between good projects — there’s the financial uncertainty that comes with it, but also self doubt and a feeling of uncertainty. The pandemic was a major interruption for me — things have seemed to work quite differently since then — not quite the same trajectory as before — so that’s been an adjustment.
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?
One thing that is consistent in my photography with people is the feeling of genuine connection with my subjects. Whether I’m shooting a portrait, a story, or even a lifestyle type piece — there’s a sincerity and authenticity with my subjects. It’s the type of thing where a person who sees their image will tell me that I really captured them, what they look like, who they are. That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of. Be it someone famous, or not, to have that connection and be able to create imagery that conveys who they are in that moment — that’s my goal. Separate from that, and not limited to photographing people, my work is often focused on conveying a certain feeling— something aesthetically pleasing, or beautiful, or perhaps funny.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
On occasion I use the Headspace app — though i’m sure any similar mediation app might suffice — which is a great way to start the day. I’d like to be more consistent using it though.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aaronfallon.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaronfallon
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronfallon/
