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Rangefinder
Magazine Profile: Michele Celentano
by Stephanie Boozer “I love weddings,” was photographer Michele Celentano’s immediate response when asked about her job. More accustomed to the typical jaded wedding photographer, I expressed my surprise. Surely, snapping pictures at wedding after wedding can wear on a person. “When you love weddings and people, and feel like you’re making good money, you don’t get burned out,” Celentano explained. “Every bride is my favorite bride.”
“It was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done,” said Celentano. “I was teaching a photography class in New York and my husband was here, closing on the house. I’m glad we did it, though. It’s so beautiful here and a lot greener than I was expecting. But, it’s hot like an oven!”
“I generally find that your price will dictate how much respect you get at the wedding,” said Celentano. “I found that when prices were less, brides were more demanding. But, as the price went up, and I became more established, then brides were more respectful, and let me do what I wanted to do.”
“I loved working on the ship,” she said. “It was great wedding training.” After her stint snapping images at costume and pool parties on the high seas, Celentano returned to New York to work with wedding photographers and focus on her career. Discovering that she genuinely loved shooting weddings, Celentano eventually decided it was the best path for her. “I worked with a lot of photographers who were burned out,” she explains. “They kept telling me I liked it because I was young. I did get tired of doing so much traditional work, so I decided to start my own business.”
“It was on the brink of being popular,” said Celentano. “Clients still weren’t familiar with it, and traditional photographers were saying it was just a fad.” Celentano’s artistic eye spotted the value of photojournalism instantly, and she found her clients more than pleased with the artsy, more realistic images. Shooting in the photojournalistic style allows Celentano to create a complete picture of the wedding day, documenting all the minor details and big moments equally. “My main goal is to be able to tell the story of the bride and groom’s day and their relationship, so they can always be reminded of that,” said Celentano. “I’m always looking for the emotion and feeling of the day, so that fifty years from now, the couple will remember how important it all was.”
It wasn’t long before Celentano outgrew her hometown, and her increasing price range began nudging her out of the market. So, following the next logical step, Celentano expanded to the more affluent Manhattan market, where she opened a midtown office in 2000. The office was small, set up only for consultation and sales meetings, but was a more convenient location to meet with Manhattan brides who weren’t willing to make the trek to Staten Island. Because Celentano shoots only on location, never in a studio, the small space was perfect for client meetings and consultations. Soon, Celentano’s gangbuster business had her crossing the country and the Atlantic to shoot weddings. Though her move to Arizona puts her physically out of reach to many of her clients, she’s maintained a steady pace and a large number of New York clients. Her decision to go completely digital made the transition even easier for her long-distance clients, as they simply look up and view their proofs online, even placing orders and designing albums through the Internet. Using a website call Pictage (www.pictage.com), Celentano uploads an event’s images, which allows the bride and groom, as well as their family and friends to view proofs almost instantly.
“After seeing what the camera could do, I decided to switch slowly,” said Celentano. “I would just shoot the reception digitally, then I decided to do all the photos digitally. Then, I finally sold all of my medium-format film equipment.” The ability to maintain clients in New York and Arizona has been a boon to Celentano’s business. In addition to posting the images, Pictage also provides color-correction services and handles all the printing. Most prints are done on Fuji Crystal Archive paper, and hand-retouching is available. “It [Pictage] allowed me to move to Arizona without clients and without worrying about my old clients because they could still reach me,” said Celentano. “I’m working from home now, and I absolutely love it.”
“I do very little advertising,” said Celentano. “In Arizona, I’ll start with some magazine ads and maybe some bridal shows, but word of mouth is so valuable. Arizona has a longer wedding season than New York, so that’s promising as well.” Celentano’s goal is to shoot around 20 weddings a year in Arizona, with a handful of New York clients to round things out. She also plans to expand her business to family portraiture. But her main focus will stay on what makes her happiest. “I will never give up weddings,” said Celentano. “I love brides, grooms, the flowers, the fanfare, the symbol of new life and the idea of a new beginning.” To view Celentano’s portfolio, visit www.michelecelentano.com. Stephanie Boozer is a freelance writer and fine art
photographer based in Atlanta, Georgia. |
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If
Celentano’s exuberance sounds like the attitude of a newbie, she’s
had plenty of time in the trenches, working as an assistant in New York
City before building her own successful business. Though recently moved
to Anthem, Arizona, just north of Phoenix, Celentano was shooting around
25 weddings a year in New York, with offices in Manhattan and Staten Island.
Celentano had such a strong customer base that brides would often book
her for weddings in Europe, the Caribbean, and the Western United States,
sparing no expense for travel. Though her business was booming, the birth
of a daughter caused the busy photographer to rethink things and, after
much thought and planning, the Celentanos picked up and moved to Arizona.
Having some family in the area was helpful, but the move was still quite
a transition.
Though
now practically across the country from her old clients, Celentano’s
business remains strong. New York clients are willing to pay big bucks
to fly her to and from weddings. In New York, her clients typically plunked
down between $8000 and $12,000 for her talents, without batting an eyelash.
Still getting a feel for her new hometown and finding out what the Arizona
market will bear, Celentano insists she’ll remain at the top of
the price scale.
Celentano
got her start while earning her degree from New York City’s Germain
School of Photography, from which she graduated in 1991. Like most photographers,
she worked her way through the industry as an assistant, working for many
traditional wedding photographers in her area. In an attempt to try something
completely different, Celentano worked as a cruise photographer for a
year and a half.
Running
her own show meant she could abandon the same old tired shot list and
create more artistic portraiture. Finally ready to stand on her own, Celentano
opened her very first office in her mother’s basement on Staten
Island. She attended a few seminars and studied the then up-and-coming
trend of photojournalism.
At
the age of 22 and working from her mom’s basement, Celentano placed
an ad in the local paper, ordered some business cards, and watched her
business grow. She continued to assist other photographers, receiving
a healthy number of referrals when any of them were overbooked. Her reputation
quickly spread by word of mouth, and her unique photography style stood
out in the small town atmosphere of Staten Island. She soon expanded her
operation and began sharing a space with a children’s photographer
that she assisted. Celentano would handle the children’s photography
by day, then completely change the office and meet with wedding clients
at night, even swapping out pictures on the walls to showcase her work.
Her workload soon increased enough to afford her own space in the same
building.
“This
past year, I switched to one hundred percent digital,” said Celentano.
“My theory is that once you shoot digital, you just can’t
go back to film for wedding photography. From a wedding standpoint, digital
is so convenient. It really opened up the level of creativity.”
Currently shooting with a Canon 1D digital camera, Celentano actually
had to be convinced to make the switch. “I was a confessed digital-
phobic,” she explained. Speaking at a WPPI convention, Celentano
announced her reservations to the audience, insisting that she couldn’t
understand why anyone would switch. A Canon representative happened to
be in the audience, and loaned Celentano a digital camera to play with
for a couple of weeks.
Though
she still maintains clients in New York, Celentano hopes to cultivate
a large client base in her new hometown. Meeting with other wedding industry
professionals such as catering managers and location directors will help
her with referrals, as well as give her an idea of the price range for
the area.