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

Hi Jeff, how do you think about risk?
I can’t imagine always playing it safe. I mean, I am a pilot as well, and I used to fly aerobatics, spin, loop, roll, and that’s definitely NOT safe. I actually stopped doing that because I knew too many people getting killed doing it. Point being, we go around once, I cannot imagine not pursuing one’s passions and trying to structure one’s life around them, including what one does for work.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve worn a few hats throughout my career, following passions, and each chapter has been rewarding and transformative. Out of college I jumped right into fashion photography, which lead to shooting celebrity portraits. I spent six years shooting fashion and beauty in Europe, both editorial and advertising. I lived in Milan and Paris and also traveled to Munich and London for work, which was an incredible experience. After those years overseas, I moved back to NYC, where I’m from, and continued my photo career there.

I’m also a pilot and a passionate aviator. Aviation is rich, diverse, has an incredible history, and a cool and vibrant community. I ended up combining celebrity portraits with aviation, which brought me further into the aviation world, to the extent that I pivoted away from fashion and began to write and shoot for aviation magazines full time. Eventually, I became editor of three major aviation magazines – Plane & Pilot, Pilot Journal and PilotMag magazines. I was on just about every newsstand for the six years or so that I was a magazine editor. When I took that Plane & Pilot position, I had never had an office job before, and adjusting to that after having been only a freelance creative took a minute, but I did and made some qualitative changes to the book, in tone, appearance, content, and after my first year there, newsstand sales increased by 24,7%, so I was onto something.

Doing aviation magazines also got me into shooting rodeo and western lifestyle, which has been a lot of fun. One of the best things about being a photographer is that it can give you entree into so many different worlds, and that’s what happened with rodeo, where an Cirrus Aircraft asked me if I’d take one of their airplanes, a Cirrus SR22, fly a champion rodeo cowboy all over the American West to rodeos for a week, and write a story about it for the magazine. They didn’t have to ask me twice. This was a new world to me and it’s very target rich – rodeo is super photogenic. I’ve even been featured in the two top western lifestyle magazines, Cowboys & Indians and American Cowboy, for my rodeo and western images.

Fashion photography, however, was in my bones, so after PilotMag folded, I started to shoot fashion again while still contributing to aviation magazines as a freelancer. This was an ideal balance for me and I was very happy with the creative balance of fashion and aviation, both very different but nonetheless very rewarding and satisfying.

Satisfying, and challenging, since when one is working as a creative, in reality, your employment comes at the whims of others. It’s all very subjective and insecure. If someone is going to try and do this sort of thing for a living, being a photographer, a filmmaker, a content creator, insecurity, not knowing when the next job is going to be, flourishing in the gig economy, can be a real challenge. You really have to dig deep sometimes to stay motivated and keep moving forward.

It was right around the time that I jumped back into fashion that I linked up with Sony Electronics and became an ambassador for their camera division – a Sony Artisan, and I am still collaborating with Sony today. It’s a huge honor and privilege to be able to work with them, and represent them, in both stills and motion pictures. I shoot on everything from their Alpha 1 and new a7R V to their VENICE digital cinema camera. One of my favorite aspects of being an Artisan is doing public speaking engagements and talking about my work, my passions, and the gear that I use on both my stills and film shoots. Connecting with people who share our passions for creating compelling content really is very rewarding. 

About the time I connected with Sony I received a call about directing and DP-ing a fashion video for a major designer in NYC, Norma Kamali, and I jumped at the opportunity, though I had no idea what it meant to DP something. I ended up calling a friend who is a director now, but was a cinematographer and has shot some major feature films, and asked him for some guidance as I had never acted on a film as director or director of photography. The advice he gave me I apply to this day, and he is still my mentor (a huge privilege) on my most recent journey into filmmaking.

I underestimated how different cinema would be from the world from which I came. I thought, camera, lens, f-stop, shutter speed, how different can it really be? Well, I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and that was A LOT. It’s been a fun and fascinating journey these past years as I transitioned from still photographer to cinematographer. I’ve learned so much, and there’s still so much to learn, but that’s one of the things I love about film – there’s always room to grow and evolve and try new things,

Some of the things I’m most proud of: I’ve shot for some incredible clients, magazines and advertising, such as Vogue Italia, Vogue Pelle, British Elle, Miss Vogue, a ton of American magazines, L’Oreal, Estée Lauder, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and so many more, and that’s just in the fashion world. In aviation, I have pretty much checked every box in the magazine world there, and I’ve created advertising content for some of the biggest, most respected brands in that space.

Being a pilot has changed my life and opened up so many doors. The aviation community is populated with some truly extraordinary people and I love being a part of it. Really, at the end of the day, there are so many things to have gratitude for, including that I’m still here so many years later. I never let a day go by where I don’t take some stock and find some gratitude, though of course, a career like mine is anything but a cakewalk.

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.

If a friend were to come to LA and it was up to me to take them around, well, what kind of friend are we talking about? In general, I’d definitely take them to Hama Sushi in Little Tokyo because the place just feels like Tokyo and the sushi is that good. One of my favorite art museums in LA is The Broad, so we’d definitely pass through there, and then probably walk down to 7th Street and grab a bite at Bottega Louie. I live in DTLA so for a drink, The Wolves is quite a nice space, and back in Little Tokyo, I really like Wolf and Crane. The Arts District is another area we’d explore – lots of fun places there.

One thing that’s always fun is to rent an airplane and take a flight around LA. I fly a plane called a Cirrus. I describe it to people who aren’t familiar that it’s like a 3-Series BMW with wings – very modern and automotive inside, fast and high tech. Fun places I’ll take people to are Catalina Island, and there’s a great airport restaurant at Camarillo Airport where you can park your plane and walk right into the place. Palm Springs might be another destination, and Big Bear, and… Airplanes really expand your horizons, and where you can go in a day, so the possibilities are nearly endless.

Getting out of DTLA, I’ve been going to Mauro’s at the old Fred Segal, now Ron Herman, on Melrose and Crescent Heights since before I lived here in LA, and I’ve been here a while. I’m a bit of an Italian food snob since I lived in Italy, and Mauro’s is a reliable bet for a solid meal, and the parking’s really easy there, which is no small thing.

Other restaurants on my short list include Olivetta, Cecconi’s, Local Kitchen in Santa Monica, Wabi for sushi in Venice. All of this is just scratching the surface. We could go see the space shuttle Endeavour at the museum, go to the beach in Malibu and then hit the Country Mart there. I think part of being happy living in LA necessitates getting out of LA regularly. How much space do we have here?

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people who have had a concrete impact in the successes I’ve found on this journey. In fact, one cannot flourish in the creative fields without the support and mentorship of others. In reality, there are far too many to name, but they know who they are. I will, however, mention a few people to whom I owe a ton of gratitude – El-Deane Naude, Kayla Lindquist and Michaela Ion of Sony Electronics, Steven Bernstein, Peter Crithary, Melanie Lee, Bradford Lipson, and Laudomia Piccolomini.

Website: https://berlincreative.com/, BerlinCreativeFilm.com

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