Meet Sebastian Rivera | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sebastian Rivera and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sebastian, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My photography business was born out of two coinciding challenging life events. In February 2020 my daughter had a second, unplanned open-heart surgery at 6-months old. Since then has required intense daily medical care, a responsibility that my amazing life-partner, Izumi, has taken on while also helping our three-year old son learn to thrive in the pandemic world that we were all learning to navigate. 2020 was a hell of a year humanity collectively due to the pandemic, but for my family and me the year was filled with added uncertainty due to my daughter’s constant illness. In May 2020 I decided to buy a mid-level camera, my beloved Canon EOS 90D, to document pandemic life and my daughter’s illness. This personal project helped me to not only document my daughter’s maladies but to also cope with an increasingly grim situation. Little did I know that just one month after making a large purchase I was going to be furloughed from my work as a housing administrator at an institution of Higher Education in So-Cal in June 2020.

Throughout 2020 and 2021 I photographed my kids like it was my job. I did it in such a way that photography was my escape.
I made sure to take my family on any part of my explorations with me, documenting everything from big adventures in the wilderness of the Mojave desert to mundane moments like bath time. Throughout the pandemic we visited Joshua Tree National Park over 40 times, and I still make time to get to the park at least once a month. Eventually my friends and family took notice of my photographs on social media and individuals began to reach out to photograph little gatherings here and there. I worked my way up to photographing my first wedding shoot in January 2022, and the rest is history.

In December 2021 I decided to make my photography business official, I purchased the domain srph0t0.com, designed my website, and even started a TikTok. I am operating my business Sebastian Rivera Photography under a Doing Business As (DBA) that I filed with LegalZoom.com. In starting my business in 2022 I really put John Burroughs words “leap and the net will appear” to practice. Looking back at the last two years, I still think of photography as something that makes life fun. I get to appreciate beauty, and a slice of time, while learning about the stories of my clients’. One day, I would love to do this work full-time.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My art is photography. I love telling stories with images that I capture because I know that my image is more than 45 megabytes of information, that collection of pixels possess a special meaning to my clients. It represents a sliver of time of some person, some place or something that my client cares about.

I believe that all artists draw from the well of their lived experiences to produce art, and photographers are no different. A younger version of myself would have never called a photographer an artist, but that was because my definition of an artist was narrow. I see artists as creators, and photography is a creative art, especially when the photographer learns the tools of the trade like working in photoshop or lightroom to manipulate and modify images. More than ever, I see my photography as art.

One of my ongoing personal projects in Joshua Tree National Park is to capture the silhouette of a perfect Joshua Tree, and although the task seems impossible due to the sheer number exemplary Joshua Trees within the park, I’m just crazy enough to pursue it. A crossover project from photography to digital illustrative art that I’ve been working on is creating stickers from silhouette images of Joshua Trees that I capture. This project is a culmination of all the artistic skills that I’ve acquired over the years to create pop art in the form of a sticker.

I would say that I am where I am artistically today because my parents instilled a great love of art in me, and my brothers, as young kids. My parents always took us out to Los Angeles to visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Norton Simon Museum, and the Huntington Library. Later in life I went off to college in the East Coast and would spend weekends in New York City museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art while spending time photographing whatever I could in the streets and subways. I captured everything from graffiti in 5 Pointz to the Occupy Wall Street Protests.

This journey to becoming an artist has been an ongoing passion that makes life more meaningful. The thing that I want people to know about me and my brand is that I care about the people I work with, and at the end of the day I do my best to produce quality images for my clients. I do this by appreciating the beauty that they bring to the moment. My only ask is that no-one discredit my work, because I’m new to the professional photography game.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Because of Covid-19, I don’t spend much time in the city. I would pack my best friend’s gear in the back of my 4Runner and take them out to the desert to enjoy Joshua Tree National Park.

I used to love spending my time in cities, but at this time I only spend brief and often rushed moments in them. If I am in San Diego I’m always happy with a box of Pizza from Luigi’s Pizzeria or a burger to-go from Hodad’s which I’d take up to the Cabrillo National Monument to enjoy while looking out towards the Pacific Ocean.

If I’m in Los Angeles, I love to get a Chili Cheese Dog and Chili Cheese Fry Combo from the World Famous Tommy’s or a hot dog from Pink’s Hotdogs and enjoy that up at the Griffith Observatory beneath the Hollywood Sign.

On the rare occasion that I’m in San Francisco, I make time to sit at the counter of Swan’s Oyster Depot and will devour 30 oysters in one sitting. My to-go order would be their smoked salmon on a bagel en route to watch sunset at Lands End.

At the end of the day, all I need is good food, good company, and a good view of nature to be happy.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My shoutout goes to my wife, Izumi. None of this, not my business, not my job, not my education – i’m finishing up my doctorate in education too, would be possible without her love, unwavering support, and patience. Izumi is my biggest fan and she made the pursuit of my business goals possible.

In our life, we’ve been dealt so many challenges that would break and dissolve most intimate relationships, but through it all we’ve emerged stronger, more supportive, and with more love to fuel our creative fires. My wife is an incredible artist in her own right, she is a seamstress who makes beautifully handsewn creations, but due to caring for our kids her pursuits were placed on the backburner. I can’t thank you enough Izumi.

Everything I do for my business; I do to support my family while having fun. Thank you Izumi, for being there to support, encourage, and give me a reason to be better photographer, husband, and father.

Website: srph0t0.com

Instagram: @sr_ph0t0

Twitter: @srph0t0

Facebook: facebook.com/srph0t0

Other: TikTok: @srph0t0

Image Credits
All Images were photographed by me, Sebastian Rivera.