Nicholas Losacco
Photography is about creating something that you enjoy and creating different worlds; capturing the emotion within the photograph. Nicholas Losacco is a professional photography student living in Montreal, Canada. Mostly photographing models and creating fine art photography, loving the idea of surreal imagery. Below is our interview with Nicholas.
Tell us a little about yourself…
I’m a professional photography student living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I’m really grateful that I’m studying photography because I get to do what I love every day. In addition to photographer, I’m a hockey player, mountain biker and drummer.
How did you find yourself exploring with the medium of photography?
I bought myself a little camera to play around with because the idea of photography sounded interesting to me. From then on I invested in better equipment and fell in love with it. I then decided to go to school to study photography and don’t regret anything about that decision one bit.
Who inspired you to take up photography?
No one inspired me to take up photography, but certain photographers inspire me to shoot certain types of photos. For example I get a lot of inspiration for my conceptual work from David Talley’s photos, and Sterling Lorence gives me inspiration to shoot action sport photography such as mountain biking and BMX.
What has been one of the most interesting experiences whilst out photographing your subjects?
One of the most “interesting” things that’s happened to me during a shoot was when I covered myself in sewer water in a public park. I was the subject for this photo and I wanted to look like I’ve been through some stuff for the picture. Being that the photograph was taken in a sewer I thought that was the best option. I went home later that day smelling… great.
What is it about conceptual photography that drew you to creating it?
I’ve always loved surreal themes. The idea of creating something that can’t actually exist in real life has endless possibilities, so why not explore them?
What are some themes you like to explore with conceptual photography and how do you go about doing that?
Adventure, mainly. I like exploring this theme because it can really take you anywhere. I always somehow end up in a forest with a camera, and my best photography comes out of that combination.
You seem to do a lot of self-portraits, what do you enjoy most about those?
I tend to enjoy shooting on my own a lot and that’s when I feel most creative and less stressed, so self-portraits are sort of a natural thing to me. I find posing myself for my own images gets through the exact vision I’m having for a shoot better than using somebody else as a subject.
Where do you hope to go in the future with your photography?
In the future I’d love to be able to make a living off shooting creative images such as the ones I strive to create now.
What was it like creating the image of the girl with the yellow dress and yellow smoke? What was your inspiration behind that image?
I didn’t exactly have inspiration for that image, it was actually a last-minute shoot for a project at school. I just knew that I wanted my sister (the girl in the image) to have a long, flowing dress on (I actually used a bed sheet because she didn’t have a dress like that) and to have something interesting going on with the dress that would be later decided in photoshop. The smoke coming from the dress is entirely post-production work. It was difficult creating realistic smoke that actually had dimension because I had no image of smoke to composite in at the time, so I used brushes to paint it in the best I could.
Any advice for someone who wants to try their hand at photography?
My biggest word of advice is to shoot as much as possible. Yes, I know, that sounds cliché, but it couldn’t be more true. Looking at images taken by photographers you love might give you inspiration, that’s great. But if you don’t put that inspiration to good use, what’s the point of having it. Most of the time if you have even the slightest idea of an image you want to create in your mind, if you actually go out and try to make it a reality, you’ll be happy with the result. Even if it’s not exactly what you thought of.