I recently attended Ben Passiontolive’s photography show, Sunday Sessions, at the L2 Lounge in Washington, DC. The event was organized by Art Soiree, an organization with a goal to showcase emerging talent in the visual arts, short film, music, and performance arts. The venue was certainly suitable to the moody photographs on display and we got a chance to chat with Ben at the event and he was gracious enough to answer a few questions about his Sunday Sessions inspirations and process.

“What do you shoot with?” I asked. He replied, “I have a few cameras from old to new and I use them all.” He added that every shoot takes about 10 hours or so and he would like to take his time and let the moment come to his subjects rather than try to direct them to do certain poses. “The shoot is usually one on one and it is very casual. We drink, listen to music and shoot in between,” he said with a smile.

Almost all the photographs on display are women and the photographs seem to capture their mood perfectly. Even though the women and their poses are not art-directed, the photographs are certainly art. “I shoot between 600 to 4,000 shots in one session and then the search for the perfect one begins.” Once the one is chosen then the post production begins but as Ben put it sometimes the photograph itself has everything and the amount of tweaking necessary to make it perfect is minimal.

Lighting seems to be the key ingredient in all of the photographs and Ben definitely exploits the power of solid and void to his advantage. The next great tool at this arsenal is color. Yellows, browns and blacks dominate the photographs but not to an extent that would detract from the subject matter. Ben knows that the women in his photographs are the focus and not his mastery of light and color, therefore, he artfully envelops the subject matter in his unique style and brings them to life.

You can explore and enjoy all of Ben’s amazing Sunday Sessions photographs on his website passiontolive.com and while you’re at it check out his DJ Sessions collection as well. It will surely tickle your senses.

- Sam