Profession as a self-taught artistic
Photographer Luis Alberto Rodriguez and designer Jordi Ng both started careers without formal art training. They reflect on how they have learned their craft, how they dealt with uncertainty and what it has done for their practice to take an alternative path
Formal arts education is not just about what you learn from the program. When you are part of a cohort of students, you will have access to support, guidance, future leads, and staff. What comes after that, formal training can reassure employers as you can reassure yourself that you are a skilled, committed creative who has reached a certain level.
Attending an art school or formal education isn't the only way to start a creative career, however. Given the competitiveness and cost of joining programs and universities, as well as the availability of online resources to gather skills and inspiration, some creatives are understandably rethinking the traditional path. As you will testify, deviating from this path can actually improve your perspective and approach.
This seems to be the case with the New York-born Berlin photographer Luis Alberto Rodriguez. Dance had been his "identity" for years after attending dance school at the age of 11 and spending 15 years as a professional dancer. "It was really like being saved based on where I came from and how it opened so many doors for me," he explains.
His dance background is expressed in his photographic practice through an instinct for form and composition in his pictures. They often show bodies stretched and distorted in exaggerated, complex positions, whether in his Ireland-based collaborative series People of the Mud, which translates the sling into a delicate art form, or in his recent fashion campaigns for Calvin Klein and Hood By Air.
Above: Spirit Walking for The Face. Above: From the People of the Mud series. Both pictures by Luis Alberto Rodriguez