Meet Enrique Poveda | Commercial Photographer / Artist / Musician

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

Hi Enrique, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
This is interesting to me because I feel like photography is not really something I pursued particularly. As a child I attended an elementary school with an arts based curriculum and again in high school during my teens. I was introduced to the arts at a very young age. My mom was also naturally talented with creativity.

I remember some time around the age of 9 or 10, I had an assembly at school and saw a drum set out in the courtyard and thought how fun it must be to play them. I wanted to learn how to play more than anything at the time, but drums are one of the most expensive instruments and it wasn’t really in my parents budget to buy me a kit. My pops picked up a practice pad and some sticks for me and I took a class at school, but I quit after the first day hahah. They were teaching marching snare and I just wanted to jump straight onto a kit. It wasn’t until I was 14 that my brother, knowing I wanted to play drums, bought a drum set for me to learn on.

In my head from then on I thought that I would one day live life touring and playing music, so I listened to records and practiced every day for hours on end. My dad however, being the practical person that he was, would always tell me that I needed to have a back up plan. He’d operated his own car stereo business successfully for decades and had a different mindset.

I really had no clue what else I could do and decided to take a photography class in high school because it seemed fun. For some reason growing up, I was always afraid of taking photos for people when they’d pull out a camera and ask if someone could take it for them, even if it was a simple point and shoot. I’d always thought to myself that I would mess it up and it would come out bad. Taking that HS photo class really gave me the confidence to make mistakes with it and learn the ins and outs of the camera. The teacher of that class was also a big inspiration. He was cool. He played bass in a punk band when he was in high school.

After graduating high school I still felt pretty clueless on how to grow up from this rock star dream I had. I played with as many as 7 bands at a time on nights and weekends, while taking photography classes during the day in college. At some point I made it through the whole program and figured I might as well find a job doing photography while I waited for my big break in the music industry hahah.

I didn’t even consider that I would shoot food when I started working on my degree, I just got really good at it from the opportunities that became available to me. But I will say that the great part about it is getting to eat incredible dishes that I probably wouldn’t normally, and shooting things that don’t move gives me the time to really focus on what my lights are doing and different ways of controlling that environment.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I really enjoy shooting many different subject matters. I love traveling so I shoot lots of landscapes, people are interesting so when I can I like shooting portraits on location, but my bread and butter (pun intended) is really in the studio shooting food and product. I love film so I try to shoot as much of it as I can but it doesn’t make sense to shoot with it for the food and product stuff I do. However, I utilize what I know about film in my process shooting digitally. This is where I believe my aesthetic style shines in my work.

Professionally, I started out with a few jobs as an in-house photographer with companies that manufacture dinnerware and cookware. In each studio I learned more as I progressed into higher roles and really honed in on my skills with lighting and camera techniques. Eventually when my portfolio was well rounded with big name brands, I started picking up enough gigs doing freelance work that it just made sense to build my own clientele and work for myself instead.

The biggest challenges I faced were ending up in places where I was stuck with companies that had no desire to progress from their routine. They wanted changes to help their business grow, but were never convinced enough to take a risk and invest in themselves and what was possible with the studio spaces they had to work with.
This doesn’t sit well with me. As commercial photographers, our job is to constantly problem solve. When these hurdles become routine, our next level of advancement means facing new challenges and growing. We have to think about how our composition and lighting can fixate the viewers attention on a brand or product that will make them want or savor the thing we want to sell them. This also comes along with keeping up with trends and studying the history of these marketing techniques. At the same time one of the most important things is developing your own style. Technique will get you to whatever avenue you want to go down, but style will land you the work. It’s sink or swim. The world is constantly changing and we have to change with it.

The freelance life can be scary at times. Many freelancers can tell you, when it’s busy it’s BUSY. But there are normally some slow times during the year that we have to prepare for monetarily. Because of this, I did recently pick up a night time gig as a photo lab-tech at the college I attended for stability while I progress with my freelance business.
Lots of big career moves are happening for me this year and it’s quite exciting to say the least. I will be building out my own studio with a commercial kitchen for the food photography I do, as well as work on conceptual personal projects I’ve had in mind that I can’t really do without that space.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Los Angeles is a city that is forever changing. I grew up in the Inland Empire constantly in and out of LA for many different things from concerts, attractions, and events to restaurants, movie screenings and beautiful sceneries. I feel like there is always something new to discover no matter how long you’ve lived here. Whenever a friend from out of town comes to visit, I really want to just do whatever they have in mind because I know I’m bound to experience something new.
There might be a restaurant I’ll add into the mix like Nilly’s in Artesia or Mini Kabob in Glendale but if they’re letting me call the shots, I enjoy gardens, nature and art galleries so maybe Laguna Beach, The Huntington Library, The Getty, Lacma, or go out to a concert if I’m not playing a gig myself.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Constantine Singer. He was my high school history teacher that created the photography program for The School of Arts that I attended. He always encouraged me to keep working on my skills and gave me great feedback on my photos. Without this, I don’t know if I would have ever picked it up on my own.
Many of my professors at Mt. San Antonio including Laurie Hartman and Charles Edwards, also provided so much knowledge and passion with their experiences in the field. They really have an incredible program that implements traditional film as a foundation for the digital world.
My friends and family have always also been immense support for me as well, whether it was modeling for me, doing hair and makeup (Leo), doing wardrobe (my sister Vannessa who is a costume designer in theatre), or just friends assisting me with my set-ups and ideas that I wanted to conceptualize photographically.

Website: https://www.epovedaphoto.com

Instagram: elgatitochido

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enrique-poveda

Other: If you want to hear any of my current music projects search The Lucid Night and Brian Jamal Edwards on Spotify, Apple Music or any streaming platforms, and/or follow on IG. I play drums on most of these tracks.

Image Credits
All images were shot by me