Today we’d like to introduce you to Zachary Balber.
Zachary, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born in Pittsburgh, PA and raised by my mother and stepfather, until the age of 13. I attended elementary school in a place called East Hills; which was a magnet school in the middle of housing projects. I would see gang members on the corners after school and on summer days, they would break the fire hydrants open. There were days, we could not go to the playground because there were dead bodies and yellow tape everywhere.
As a young kid, I realized that my peers thought I was privileged because of my skin color. Although my peers looked at me differently, I was in the same economic situation as them. My newly single mother was raising my sister and I with government assistance and food stamps.
Fast forward to the age of 13 and my mother and step father moved us out to the suburbs, Mt. Lebanon, PA. They wanted to get me away from the trouble and people I was hanging out with. The suburbs of Pennsylvania was beautiful, but the people and trouble still found me. So, at the age of 13, my father came unannounced to pick me up and take me to live in Miami.
Arriving in Miami with my dad and his new wife, I had more trouble in store for me. My father was a very successful stockbroker and I jumped from living poor to becoming spoiled. I continued to get into trouble and eventually at the age of 18, I was faced with prison time. Judge Jeffrey Rosnik, later to become my study partner at Miami Dade College, gave me the opportunity to go to rehab instead of prison. So, at the age of 19, I started to turn my life in a completely new direction.
At the age of 21, I began attending New World School of the Arts, in downtown Miami. I learned that my greatest skill was my imagination. In college, I would hide from the security guards, so I can continue to print pictures in the darkroom all night. Creativity swept me off my feet and opened up a new way for me to process the experiences in my life.
During my undergraduate studies, I was working as a waiter at Soyka restaurant. I would see all the contractors and builders come in for lunch and discuss the Midtown project before it was built. I was waiting tables one day and renowned fashion photographer Bruce Webber came in for lunch with his team. I had no idea who he was, but my manager Jack told me he was one of the best photographers in the world. In the middle of my lunch shift, I went up to Bruce as he was leaving and told him I would shine his shoes and bring him coffee; to learn about photography. One month later, Bruce called me to assist on his upcoming Abercrombie shoot and the relationship began to blossom.
After assisting with Bruce on his shoots in Miami, he encouraged me to go back to school and follow my dream. He said, “Zack, this is my dream and you are in it, you should create your own dream and follow it!” A few weeks after the conversation with Bruce, I learned that my sister overdosed in California, and my world started to crumble. I was devastated and told the dean I needed some time off of school to recover. New World School of the Arts, the students and professors saved my life.
At the same time, I lost my sister, my father was sent to federal prison for tax fraud among many other things. From one day to the next, all our cars were repossessed, the house was seized, father in jail, sister dead, and I had to learn how to take care of myself. About 5 years after losing my sister, my father was released from jail and he passed away.
I moved into a warehouse in the garment/fashion district of Miami, with 8 other artists from Miami. They built a favela just outside of midtown, where we all stayed and worked. I had no job at the time and received a phone call that saved my life again, this was from Laura Raiffe, owner of Art Market Liaison. I was hired by the family that owns American Eagle Outfitters, to archive 15,000 art objects for their new business called Canvassed.com. We worked together for over a year and eventually they fooled me into training a helper, which actually was to replace me. I was very bitter because they convinced me that Jewish men need to stick together and all that jazz, and they eventually just dropped me like a bad habit.
Upon leaving this company, I started my own company, ZacharyBalber.com. I was specifically focused on photographing fine art for galleries, museums, collectors, and artists. It took a long time to establish my client list in the arts and I quickly realized that I needed to photograph more things in order to stay afloat. I applied to this company VHT in Chicago, they specialize in doing real estate photography for everyone in the US. I quickly realized that their business model is to exploit photographers all over the globe, that cannot support themselves. They would pay the photographers as little as possible to do a quick shoot and utilizing automated image blending they would pump out a crappy photo for the masses.
I began to learn the corporate structure of real estate photography, but I was coming from a fine art background. I was taught photography by masters of their craft and I could not understand the Mc. Donald’s approach to photography. After learning about the real estate market, I decided to leave the company and work for myself. I quickly climbed the ladder in the real estate photography world because I was offering real professional photography to high-end agents, designers, and architects. The issue I began to encounter, was how to deliver amazing photography in 24 hours for multiple clients at a time. So, I began to develop my own editing team, dedicated to professional photo editing and not Mc Donalds, HDR Photography.
I am currently flying to different countries all over the world to document a group of the best artists of our time, Ethical Hackers. They started a company called Seguru in Estonia and they are finally creating the world’s first “Safeware App” instead of Malware.
I learned that my imagination and naïveté has connected me to world-class geniuses in every market, from art, real estate, fashion and now information science. My success is in direct proportion to the sadness and hardships I have experienced in my life. A rabbi once told me that I would be able to experience joy as few do because I have seen the bottom of the ocean more than most people at my age. My new hero has been the artist Theaster Gates, after hearing a lecture from him in Miami, my life and art practice has changed forever. Now, I use photography in two ways, it is either a receipt for a patron or I use password “photography” to allow me into social networks I am interested in exploring.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think that the road becomes smooth after you drive on terrible bumps for years at a time. When the road becomes smooth, it doesn’t mean there are no bumps; it means the pebbles I am currently experiencing are nothing in comparison to the earthquakes I have already survived.
I have experienced the #metoo from gay men in the art and photography world. I never participated in the sexual innuendos, but people have presented opportunities to exchange sex for help in my career. Patriarchy is one of the ugliest things to experience, as a human being. Thank God, I have maintained enough self-respect, not to exchange sex or favors for career advances. I have lost many jobs and opportunities because I do not play well in the game of predators.
Please tell us about Zacharybalber.com.
My company is ZACHARYBALBER.COM and we specialize in creating unique marketing materials for artists, singers, museums, private collections, architects, developers and real estate brokers.
I learned in art school that there is a huge difference between the craftsman and the artist. There are many photography and video craftsman all over the city, but the artist is the thinker, that hires the craftsman to make their ideas come to life. My team is an exclusive group of creative artists, helping everyone in the city to digitize their world and create top marketing materials; by not following the trends of the craftsman.
After graduating from New World School of the Arts, I started working with the only Miami art gallery admitted into Art Basel every year, Fredric Snitzer Gallery. While I was working there, I realized the tremendous need for great photographic documentation of the art world for artists, dealers, institutions, and private collections. Most photographers that I encountered were only concerned about the money they made; not the content they were photographing.
I was very inspired by a documentary by Bill Cunnigham, the New York Times fashion photographer. He is no Bruce Webber, but he has the respect of the entire fashion scene in New York and Paris; because he is an artist of documentation, not just a craftsman. I am also very inspired by contemporary artist Theaster Gates; who is using his artistic platform to rebuild the community he grew up in, Chicago.
I work closely with many developers, brokers, musicians and fine art professionals to help them transfer their ideas into a digital medium. Ironically, For the past 10+ years, I documented the transformation of the South Florida real estate and watched the cities art scene grow into a huge business.
I am known for my artistic direction and documentation with photography and 3D Virtual Reality. One day, when Miami is underwater, I will have videos, photography and virtual reality representations of the city that became over-developed and ignored the forebodings of the scientists.
I have created a select group of artists, that specializes in creative marketing materials and community building. Like Anthony Hopkins states in the movie Instinct, “There are takers and there are givers,” I am happy to be part of a team of givers.
Sigmund Freud stated the purpose of life is: “To love and Work”. I am proud that most days of my life, I get to be in love with my work and I am invited to document many different experiences all over the globe.
I am also working on something very special, utilizing a new virtual reality camera, creating digital access to art exhibitions around the world. More coming soon…
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory from childhood… tough one to remember! I think my favorite memory from childhood is going to the Western Wall in Israel with my father. My father took me to the Holocaust museum and that is where photography impacted my emotions, for the first time. I was in disbelief at the photographic display of bodies on bodies, being dumped in trenches like discarded trash. That is the moment my father taught me about my heritage and I realized that I was from a tribe of survivors. I will never forget taking the notes to God out of the cracks of the Western Wall, I thought they were trash being stuffed inside the cracks. My rabbi and father helped me put the notes back and I added one written by me.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2350 NE 135 Street,
North Miami Beach, FL 33181 - Website: zacharybalber.com
- Phone: +1 – 786-797-1971
- Email: zackbphoto@gmail.com
- Instagram: @zacharybalber
- Facebook: Zachary Balber
Image Credit:
Typoe, Tiffany Benford, Daniel Knorr, Jade Signature, Fringe Projects, Tommy Hilfiger, Saul Williams, SEGURU
Getting in touch: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
