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Rangefinder
Magazine Profile: Oscar Lozoya by Peter Skinner
Lozoya’s character portraits are both powerful and sensitive, often portraying his subjects at their most revealing moments, while still reflecting the respect in which the photographer holds his subjects. “Mutual respect and interaction must be present anytime I photograph anyone. As a photographer, I think if you’re honest and sincere about what you’re doing, people can pick up on it and reward you with their confidence,” he says. Before entering professional photography, Lozoya had been a professional musician, a career many other visual artists have found themselves in before turning to photography. He says, “Though I loved playing music and being around other creative musicians, there came a time when I realized I was no longer comfortable with the lifestyle I was leading. I had to make a living, but I wanted to do something creative, challenging, rewarding and be able to have more control over my life. At that time, one of my best musician buddies had been into photography for a while, and the fun he was having got me interested. He had researched equipment and helped me tremendously by giving me advice on it, and I will always be grateful to him for his help.”
Even though Lozoya is a successful commercial and fine art photographer who shoots in digital and color for the majority of his assignments, he favors black and white for his personal work and has an impressive portfolio in that genre. “ My personal work tends to be in black and white because I have always seen black and white, properly executed, as an art. I love the tonalities and the timeless quality. I also like the fact that I can process the film and do the printing, which means I have complete control of a project from beginning to end. I enjoy seeing a masterfully executed black-and-white print. Knowing a little bit of the process and being familiar with the challenges, I can value successful results. I feel that there is a classic quality to black and white. I enjoy the surreal state of mind it puts me in when I’m trying to visualize a final image. It can put me in a different world than the color world I live in,” he explains.
He also is a strong proponent of low-key lighting, especially in his personal work, which is strongly influenced by his Hispanic culture. “When I was getting started as a photographer, I was very resistant to having a ‘style.’ I worked in a lot of styles, and this gave me great experience, especially with lighting. Later, I started to see that having a recognizable style was important. I decided that if I had to settle on one style, it would be one that was going to continue to challenge me. Low key is one of the most technical styles of photography, since even small errors in lighting result in loss of detail. Starting with a dark canvas also means I can apply more light—and do more with it—before detail is lost.
A key to Lozoya’s success has been in getting people from all social strata to work with him, and be themselves in front of his camera. People, he says, have always interested him. “I’ve been able to get along with just about everyone I meet, so one might say that to an extent, it is natural. In meeting and dealing with new personalities I am constantly learning about people and how to deal with them, so I guess you can say I am constantly working on developing people skills. I enjoy people-watching and studying behavior. I am very curious and enjoy learning about people’s occupations, cultures and experiences and can ask a lot of questions,” he says. Some of Lozoya’s subjects are homeless. While some people might feel uncomfortable around the unfortunate folks who find themselves in this situation, Lozoya believes his imagery might be able to help. “I feel homelessness is a problem that needs more attention. Looking away and pretending it doesn’t exist is not going to help. If my photographs of the homeless help to shed light on this issue, I think it is a good thing. If I am exploiting a homeless person by photographing them, then I am exploiting everyone I photograph.”
While his approach to his La Muerte series is as professional as his dealings with the homeless, Lozoya enjoys being able to inject a black sense of humor into these images, many of which are parodies and spoofs. “ The festival itself, celebrated on All Saints Day, honors the dead, but also mocks death and has fun with it, all the while aware that death in folklore is not the same as death in reality,” he says. Lozoya
also points out the history and politics behind his approach to the La
Muerte series. “A Mexican artist José Posada popularized
skeleton imagery in the 1800s as a poke at the government during the
Mexican Revolution. I had grown up around this imagery that has been
around since the days of the Aztecs, and it inspired my photography. However,
rather than depict a complete skeleton, I chose to paint only the face
of my subjects,” he says. Lozoya began his La Muerte series several years ago and has compiled a wonderful collection of evocative photographs replete with irony, parody, humor and parallels between life as we know it and the afterlife. Lozoya’s work is brilliant and dramatic. Technically, the lighting is flawless, and it’s all based around his complete mastery of black-and-white imagery and visualizing how the final photograph will look.
He favors electronic flash and has been using Speedotron and Quantum equipment for years as well as battery-powered Morris mini slaves, which can be used in tight spaces. Lozoya’s cameras of choice are Mamiya, and the camera/lens combination he uses most for portraiture is the Mamiya RZ Pro II camera with a rotating back and the Mamiya 180mm lens. When building a lighting set, Lozoya starts with the main light—his anchor light—and all the other lights fall into ratio around it. “For example: if I set my main light to f/8 and I want to use a 5:1 ratio, I will set the fill light to f/4. The fill light is now two under, or two f-stops less intense at the subject position than the main light. Say the subject was wearing a dark hat and I want to have separation between it and a dark background. I would set the hair light or top light at one f-stop more intensity at the subject position than the main light or one over. So, if the main light were set at f/8, the hair light would be f/11. I use the main light as the reference for any other lights I might use in a set up. Even if I start the adjusting with another light in the set up, I always know what the main light needs to be putting out in terms of intensity,” he says.
Amherst Media has recently published Lozoya’s latest book in its techniques of the masters series. The Art of Black & White Portrait Photography: Techniques from a Mater Photographer (ISBN: 1-58428-083-2) features the best of Lozoya’s personal work and reflects his philosophy and technical excellence. It’s a “must have” for portrait shooters. Oscar Lozoya will be a speaker at WPPI 2004 on Tuesday, February 24, from 8 to 10 a.m at BALLY’s Las Vegas. His program is entitled, “Portrait Lighting Essentials.” Peter Skinner is communications director for the Freelance writer/photographer and author Peter Skinner, who is based in Anacortes, Washington has more than 22 years experience in the photo industry in public relations, media liaison, corporate communications and workshop production andcoordination. His magazine articles and photography have been published internationally and he has co-authored or edited numerous publications and books including the 5th and 6th editions of the authoritative ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography (Allworth Press).
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Albuquerque, New Mexico, photographer Oscar Lozoya has
established himself as a master of black-and-white portraiture whose
evocative images reflect empathy, respect and a wonderful sense of humor
that he credits to his Hispanic heritage. This humor shines through in
Lozoya’s handling of situations that some would consider macabre,
such as in his La Muerte series, images that mock death and are based
around the Day of the Dead (Dia de Los Muertos), an important, festive
Mexican holiday. 
Lozoya had also studied design
and had worked as a designer. Lozoya mastered the technical aspects of
photography through intense study of theory
and thus knowing how to predict effects and how to analyze the outcome.
In short, he was a good student of theory and had the inherent creative
ability to convert mental images to reality. “I think that my attention
to learning why things work like they do has been integral to my ability
to advance quickly as a photographer,” he says. 
“
My work has been strongly impacted by going to art galleries and looking
at the work of other photographers. It has particularly influenced my
style and my choice of black and white. Additionally, I noticed that
fine art photographers tended to work in themes or a series. At first
I was a bit lost for what my own theme would be. As it turned out, it
was right under my nose all the time: my culture. Hispanic culture has
proved to be an endless source of inspiration. Also, I think that people
like to learn about other cultures, as I do. Even if they misinterpret
the imagery of my photographs at first, I think these images cause people
to ask questions and to learn from the answers. I think that’s
good for people of all cultures,” he says.
“
When photographing a portrait of someone the best I can hope for is that
I capture my interpretation of who I think that person is. I think we
each feel many different emotions and moods, therefore have many faces.
Because of this, I think it could be said that several different portraits
with totally different looks and feel of the same person can accurately
portray their personality at different times in different moods,” he
says.
Usually, he goes into a shoot with a preconceived idea. “I
have lighting designs in mind. We zero in on those ideas, then we do
variations.
After looking at the originals, I decide which image is the strongest.
Most of the time it is the preconceived idea. However, there are times
I prefer one of the variations. Other times one of the variations has
potential, but might need some fine-tuning,” he says.
Oscar Lozoya’s work has
been exhibited in numerous prestigious galleries and museums, both in
his home state of New Mexico and in other
U.S. and international venues, and is included in several permanent loan
collections. Also, his images have been published in books, magazines
and corporate publications. His list of selected awards runs the gamut
from PPA, Best of Show, to Kodak Gallery Awards, and a Fuji Masterpiece
Award—far too many to list here. Most recently, a major retrospective
of his black-and-white work —of between 150 and 200 prints—was
exhibited in Santa Fe’s Museo Cultural through July 2003.