Meet Lorrin Brubaker: Professional Dancer and Photographer

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

Hi Lorrin, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I’m a professional dancer with a dance company here in Los Angeles called LA Dance Project. I joined full-time about a year ago and we performed and toured in France until early March when the pandemic forced us all into lockdown. My love for photography grew exponentially once I had the chance to slow myself down and live in the moment. Photography brings me joy and so making it a profession was the natural next move. After graduating from The Juilliard School in 2017, I moved to LA with my girlfriend and I hustled. It wasn’t easy but I was determined to realize my dream as a pro-dancer. I freelanced with two companies in LA and worked various part-time jobs to support myself. It was while dancing for Jacob Jonas The Company that I discovered a passion for photography. As the dancers, we were constantly in front of cameras and working with unique photographers. I loved the collaboration aspect of dance shoots, but I soon became more interested in what was happening behind the camera lens. I made friends with some amazing photographers and bombarded them with questions. I got my first camera and enrolled myself in a night class at Art Center College of Design. I began shooting with my girlfriend, a current dancer with LA Dance Project. We’d find spaces outside or in our apartment and work together on finding shapes or feelings that we wanted to convey. I got books and kept myself inspired by all the greats: Robert Mapplethorppe, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Helmut Newton…just to name a few. Because of my dance background, my go-to is finding forms and relating them to one another to tell a story or maybe reveal a detail about the subject. I love capturing movement, but I wouldn’t label myself as solely a dance photographer. I love portraiture. I enjoy the intimacy of taking a friend’s portrait or even catching a stranger’s glance on the street. As a performer, I’m usually the one that is being observed, but I found it a relief just to be the observer once in a while. I feel at home behind the camera lens and I can’t believe this passion has only been a part of my life for less than two years. More recently, film photography has become my big obsession. I develop and scan all my black and white film and find it so satisfying to see the whole process through from beginning to end. I’m fascinated by the way film slows me down as the photographer. It feels more high-stakes and more creative for me. Rather than clicking away on digital, I take the time to compose my shot and really try and perfect it. The look and feel of the film is special to me and I love the history behind old cameras like the Hasselblad or any Leica. Truly, I’m a nerd so messing around with film and chemicals makes me tick. If I could afford it, I’d shoot film every day. Since joining L.A. Dance Project full-time, I have been collaborating with many of the dancers at LADP as well as the other musicians, actors, and artists in my life. While I’ve been spending much less time dancing, due to Covid-19, I’m grateful that I have another passion to throw myself into. Since March, I have worked on a few projects professionally, including collaborations between LADP and COS and Zadig et Voltaire. My work has also been featured in the LA Times, and on the cover of 201 magazine. Every time I shoot I learn something new and I’m inspired to keep creating in 2021.

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.
see answer to question number 1 please

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Manhattan Beach Pier/Beach/take a walk on The Strand Simmzy’s in Manhattan Beach for a beer and a burger Palos Verdes-drive along the coast and check out those cliffs coffee shop “go get em tiger” in Larchmont Village take a drive in Malibu take a walk or eat a meal on Abbott Kinney in Venice Beach Intelligentsia in Silver Lake for coffee See a show at LA Dance Project in the Arts District of course! Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
shoutout to Josh Rose for being my creative mentor and helping me choose my first camera shoutout to Catherine Détràves for supporting me and giving me a space in her art studio shoutout to LA Dance Project for allowing me to shoot BTS so freely and supporting me as a creative shoutout to SOVO magazine for inspiring me to shoot film and believing in me from the start

Website: www.lorrinsees.com
Instagram: @lorrinsees

Image Credits
All images by me