Meet Anna Webber | Commercial Portrait Photographer + Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anna Webber and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anna, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Before going into a situation that is a creative “unknown” or seems risky, I think of the potential energy that flows between myself and the outcome. To me, risk is this open unbound space between now and that outcome and it’s about having actively built your mental/creative/technical foundation that’ll guide your intuition decisively through it.

I’ve always had this “Say yes and show up” approach to life and opportunities. Showing up is the key – once you’re there, you’re forced to deliver, stretch your mind and trust your choices knowing your intuition has already been informed by whatever you’ve learned and your experiences up to that point – for me, it’s a mix of ability, aptitude, curiosity, a steady reaction to urgency, courage and the willingness to learn from and accept change. If we want anything in life to change, we’ve got to make the choice, and take the chance. We’ve got to go through the situation, not around it. Plus, it builds character.

In the fickle world of creative professionalism, risk taking of some level can be a critical path for success, evolution and growth. It’s a call and response that gets you to the next step of knowing. Knowing always involves risk. From experience, the result is always a lesson, and a lesson learned is a pretty great return on investment in this material world. Things that matter have consequences. To live a life of consequence, risk will probably be a constant. Life is short so better to live it and learn.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think my art is informed by all the things I love — that’s probably what sets anything apart.

I’m totally captivated by light and shadow. Space and time. Motion and stillness.

Eyes, faces, shapes, colors, textures, complexions, scenes, ages, races — life is all about variety. I’m most often contracted to photograph a lot of musicians, which opened up the door to actors, models, comedians, athletes, poets, chefs, hoteliers, etc.

I love working with humans to communicate stories in a way that is emotional and compelling. There’s this voyeuristic sense of a person suspended in time in my photography. Generally calm and thoughtful expressions. I am excited about movement in stills in a way that feels like a wrinkle in time.

A few areas of thought that inform my art are probably what I am most curious about or motivated by: sustainability, quantum physics, the ocean, recycling, flying. This is what makes up my visual IQ and photographic style.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My best days in LA mostly consist of being outside, so my recommendations are always going to start there.

Topanga/Malibu/Venice during the days. The ocean, the sand, the crisp salt water – I grew up in the SFV but always hanging in and around Malibu, then went to college at Pepperdine living in various spots in Malibu, then Santa Monica and Venice after graduation… all those parts, sights + sounds always make for a great day and sunshine hang.

Dinner at Gjelina on Abbott Kinney in Venice. Evening bonfires. Shoot down Sunset to the late show at the Comedy Store. Hit up the Broad Museum or hiking the Santa Monica/Malibu mountains. Show at Harvelle’s blues club in Santa Monica or McCabe’s Guitar Shop. Maybe a show in Hollywood and Good Times at Davey Wayne’s.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shoutout to my mom, Denise Vitullo. Through this loving, hard-working, devoted and virtually incorruptible human, myself and my 2 older brothers arrived into this crazy world. I want to thank my mother for always being around. Especially as I got older and started to wise-up, I realized how (in reality) things were not exactly the picture she’d have painted (albeit she is a masterful oil painter, watercolor artist and muralist, a masterpiece herself.) She stuck through when most people would have fled. She gave us a sense of normalcy as kids, while the not-normal parts gave us a deeper understanding of the world and humans, along with some spunk and tenacity.

I am eternally grateful for the opportunities she worked her hardest to give us that she never had gotten to experience herself. She worked her whole life, raised us kids and led by example. She wanted us to live meaningful, happy, uncomplicated and untethered lives that we would build and piece together ourselves. She showed us how to be generous and nurturing within a modest lifestyle. She showed us to care for all life and the planet.

Stealing a packet of Kool-Aid when I was 3 or 4 meant that I not only disappointed her, but it meant that I rearranged time and space because I took something without earning it. And how could I sleep at night??! The store manager could be fired and then his own babies would have no food to eat. She said this and I could no longer see through the cascade of tears from what I’d done — she spun me back to the neighborhood grocery store to return the $0.032 cent packet of red Kool-Aid and apologize to the store manager. She always would punctuate the importance of being good and kind and conscious.

So for the above, I thank my mama for that day (which she says she doesn’t even remember at all), but to me became a lifelong lesson. Some things stick and some things fly in our memories, some come back, some stay forever.

Thanks for not letting me keep and drink “the Kool-Aid”. Thank you for teaching me to think on my own and to relate and empathize with others. Thank you for preparing me to run the marathon.

I also want to Shout Out to my friend James Hickey (www.jameshickeystudio.com), who was the central figure in my development as a photographer. James has a menacing IQ, a background as a top NASA and Boeing engineer, who left that life and became a masterful Fashion Photographer. The way he pursues knowledge and excellence is high level. I met James while I during my first year in college at Pepperdine and I was steadfast on photographing live music — I wanted to have shot Woodstock, I wanted to live a life like Jim Marshall, Baron Wolman, Annie Liebovitz, Danny Clinch. James encouraged me to consider producing my own photoshoots and I resisted – I guess I wanted to be a purist and known for my live music photography… At that point I didn’t even know what that meant. That wasn’t even on the table for a variety of reasons, which is a whole different conversation.. But James was able to reach me – He talked me into taking the route that I’m on now.

I hadn’t considered lighting and producing my own photo shoots yet. That was the next step and I was a bit shy and resistant at first — I wasn’t there yet. He made me realize this other kind of photography was proactive, not reactive like the live shows. That I can be creative from shoot conceptualization, pre-production and execution. It was intimidating. Then I began to realize that when I photographed the live shows, I was so consumed with reacting to the lighting, the movements, the camera settings, all the outside elements, that I didn’t even experience the music so much anymore.

Learning is the easy part — once you are actively in a state of learning and you put the time in, your curiosity can then grow into a successful career. James showed me many of the skills and tools I am still using today, along with challenging my critical thinking, how to navigate a contract, negotiate budgets, etc. He was confident in my abilities and capacity as a creative photographer early on… that’s made all the difference.

Shoutout to the numerous friends and collaborators and creators who I’ve had the pleasure of working with over these many years, challenging and supporting each other’s creativity. It’s important to have a close-knit zone where you can test ideas and continue learning.

My longtime mentor Baron Wolman, he’s why I’m interested in photography in the first place. He’s why I became a photographer. Rest in Peace, Bee.

Lastly, a Shout Out to the naysayers whose scrutiny has made me stronger, wiser, more motivated and resilient.

Website: www.annawebber.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annawebber/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annacwebber/

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