Featured #22: Zack Arp
What do you wanted to become in the childhood?
I’ve always been into music and even studied classical percussion and songwriting all through college. I’ve played piano, drums, and sang since an early age and thought I would be a professional musician while growing up. It wasn’t until two years ago that I finally picked up a camera and I’ve been transitioning more and more into photography ever since.
Your personal story. I did buy a camera out of high school, but never used it until my junior year of college, when a friend asked me to take some headshots. Soon, I was taking headshots for all of my friends around school and I quickly realized how much I loved shooting portraits. Someone recommended to try shooting weddings, and I was able to build a wedding photography business during my last year of college, which is now what I do full time.
What’s been your greatest accomplishment as a photographer so far? About three months ago I started shooting film after being inspired by the work of Jose Villa, and I immediately fell in love with it. The aesthetic, the involvement, the cost, and the anticipation all play a large role in why I choose to shoot film for all of my work, now both wedding and commercial. I’d say shooting film has been my greatest achievement so far, as it’s allowed me to better hone my craft in general, as well as to produce fine art imagery that I can now base my career off of.
If you could give one piece of advice to fellow photographers, what would it be? Don’t worry about the details, worry about how much you love photography. If you really love taking pictures, then go out and shoot. Everything else will come with time, so don’t stress about what camera to get or how much better that other guy is than you.
What do you carry around in your camera bag? I travel quite a bit, so my bag is always changing, but the constants are always my Lumu, my Contax 645 and as much film as possible. I love shooting Fuji 400H (if there’s enough light) as well as Portra 800. I also have two Canon 5D mark iii’s and the 35 1.4L, 50 1.2L, 85 1.2L, 100 2.8L, and the 135 2.0L.
Shooting with the same camera (my Contax) and the same film stocks allows me to create a similar aesthetic whether I’m shooting a wedding in St. Lucia during July or doing commercial work in Berlin in winter.
Are you working on any special projects? My current gig is shooting content all around Europe for Topdeck Travel, an Australian based travel agency. I’ve also created a project called 12 in 12 that features 12 brands in the 12 different cities I’ll be traveling to around Europe as my team and I are giving away some great gear that all revolves around photography, travel, and adventure. 
What do you want to achieve? What do you think is the greatest power of photography? I love that a photograph has the ability to express so much about a moment and I hope that I can capture the greatest parts of life and share those with potentially millions of people that may not otherwise get to experience them for themselves. I also love the personal connection I’m able to make with so many people that I meet through photography and I hope that I’ll always be able to impact someone’s life for the better.
Links to your work!
Wedding: www.zacharytaylorphoto.com
Commercial / Editorial: www.zackarp.com
My absolute favorite film lab: www.filmboxlab.com
