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Rangefinder
Magazine Profile: Vincent Dente by Lou Jacobs Jr.
RF: You were born in California. How long did you live there? VD: We moved east when I was four. My father was in naval intelligence and later worked for various defense contractors. My mother also supported the creative goals my brother and I had. RF: You began your fascination with photography as a teenager. Who or what influenced you then? VD: Photography was an elective in the seventh grade, and I’ll never forget the first time I watched a black-and-white print develop under dim red light. Like lots of teens, I shot mostly scenic subjects. I was an avid drummer and was often conflicted about when to practice and when to shoot. In the eighth grade I did pictures for the school yearbook.
RF: What was your first camera?
RF: I understand you weren’t at the Museum School too long. VD: Right. I accepted an internship with Clint Clemons’ studio and assisted on the Mercedes-Benz photography account. I felt a fascination for shooting automobiles, and it grew. My emotional attraction to cars coincided with the opportunity, and I left the Museum School to help pay my bills and learn more about communicating with clients. In 1992 I lived in Los Angeles, but moved back to New York because L.A. wasn’t an inspirational place for me at the time to become an automotive photographer.
VD: I started showing my portfolio, and for a few years I managed to get small jobs that covered my overhead and helped me build a stronger book. My first studio was a live and work setup in SoHo, and in 1995 I was able to separate the studio to Little Italy. Regarding automotive clients, I started small with local dealer ads for Infiniti from Chiat\Day and for BMW from Mullen Advertising. By 1997 I was able to renovate a 2600-square-foot custom production office and workspace in Tribeca. But it turned out that I spent a majority of ’98, ’99 and 2000 shooting, mostly cars, in Los Angeles, so I opened an office there in 2001. RF: How did your automotive photography progress?
RF: Your present client list includes projects for many of the major automotive manufacturers such as Acura, Mercedes, Honda, Nissan, Chevy, BMW, Ford, GM, Harley Davidson, Jaguar, Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Toyota. How do you approach individual ad illustrations to give them graphic distinction? VD: The core is deciding as an artist that you are willing to respond to the product’s own culture—meaning visual identity—that has been developed by the agency, or is in need of being further developed. I have a wide-angle view of my role in advertising campaigns. I see my work as more than just photographic artistry. My team and I take time to nurture close working relationships with agency creative directors and clients. We need to fully understand the client’s overall culture, as well as business and marketing objectives. Being expressive and creative is a challenge within a corporate structure. It often involves presenting the client with a number of alternatives that become a key to communication in the agency world, especially when I’m trying to communicate my own ideas. RF: I read a trade article that said you were “in love with your Hasselblad.” How so? VD: When I finally got hold of the H1, I was dumfounded by the leap in technology. I generally modify my cameras, but this one worked beautifully right out of the box. The autofocus system is the only one in a 645 camera that keeps pace with my kind of shooting. I’m using Ektachrome 100 VS almost exclusively, though I’m planning to use my H1 digitally with a Phase One back. RF: Please describe your team.
I also have key players on the set without whom I would not be able to concentrate fully on photographic problem solving. I have a key camera assistant and a key gaffer who both have their own assistants.
RF: You do elegant photographs and have been focused on advertising for quite a while. Are you still commuting cross-country?
RF: At age 35 you have accomplished a lot. What’s your concept of the future? VD: My real interest lies in fulfilling my creative vision for clients. I don’t want to build a bigger business to make more money, nor do I see dividing my work with an associate photographer. To me that would be a distraction. Personally, Zornitsa and I dream of a small villa on the sea, and we’d like to live in Italy at some point in the future. For now, living, learning, and working continue in Los Angeles and at many locations where I’m delighted my work takes me. ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT © 2004 VICENT DENTE Lou Jacobs Jr. is the author of 25 how-to photography books, the latest of which, Photographer’s Lighting Handbook (Amherst Media) was recently published. He has taught at UCLA and Brooks, is a longtime member of ASMP, and enjoys shooting stock during his travels in the U.S. and abroad.
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Vincent Dente grew up in New York where he developed a love for photography and art. His creative yearning led him to Boston’s Museum School for Fine Art, and during that time Vincent interned with a leading photographic studio. In his first week he assisted on a Mercedes-Benz shoot and has been hooked on advertising and cars ever since.
In high school I felt pressure to continue in music. Luckily the school had a neat photo teacher who saw I was motivated and introduced me photography masters like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Irving Penn, Jacques Henri-Lartigue, Alfred Stieglitz and Helmut Newton. The next year (1985) I had a job after school at a camera shop and began meeting professional photographers. My first true mentor was a crazy Sicilian named Mellshior Digacamo. He had the ability to capture the magic of a moment in almost any situation, and I began to see what it was to be creative. I assisted Mel on jobs for Newsweek and Sports Illustrated and annual reports, and I worked for him and other guys all through high school.
VD: A Konica TC, then a Konica FP1. A year later I traded up to a Nikon FE2. Now I could borrow lenses from Mel and the camera shop. I also bought a Leica M4P from the store at its trade-in price. The Leica changed the way I was seeing pictures, and I began to wander the streets of New York with it. When I went to the Museum School in Boston, I majored in fine art and was influenced by a teacher named Jim Dow to explore color in new ways.
RF: How did New York treat you?
VD: I had a big break in 1994 when I shot a Mercedes campaign across America. Each product line was photographed in a different ambience in different places, including Boston, Santa Fe, the Southern states and California. This was my first real experience being involved from the beginning in the creative side, and it refined my ability to tell stories through still imagery. 
The trick is keeping my own style within the interpretations generated by creative directors. 
My style can be described as a key to my business, and I confer a lot with my rep, Cynthia Held. We put an immense amount of energy into deciding how the studio should create an individual look because it’s as important for clients to know me as it is that they know my work. 
VD: My producer, John Noonan, is the cornerstone to my photography. Production is the foundation on which creativity is possible, including while I’m shooting. The last thing I want to be concerned about is equipment, financial resources, agency politics, talent, wardrobe, permits, insurance, cars, props, sets, food, motor homes or hotels and travel details. We have a production coordinator who works directly for my producer.
All the above comes together, especially when we have a narrow time line such as a shoot we did on the edge of a cliff at Big Sur, CA. We built a full diner on a private road to which 25 cars, each an exact year and model, drove. I had the cameras on a 30-foot scaffold. We timed it all to be finished by 7 p.m., and it was very close.
VD: My wife, Zornitsa and I have residences in New York and L.A., but I’ve closed the studio in New York and am producing all work out of L.A. Zornitsa stopped modeling a year ago to pursue her Masters at UCLA. I’m sure if the right job came along, I could persuade her to step in front of the camera again.