Rising Stars: Meet Alec Coutinho of Atlantic Station

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alec Coutinho.

Hi Alec, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m born and raised Fall River, Massachusetts. A place where people say “wicked sick” and “Haaaaavad” on a regular basis. My family is entirely from the Azores in Portugal, and am first generation for my Dad.

Cars have been a thing forever for me, legit. My mom would tell me that as an infant I would be staring at her 1997 Pontiac Grand Am, it was that infamous seafoam green that almost every car had in the late 90’s/early 2k. Since then my passion for cars grew. Not sure where it came from either, but happy it came around.

I remember when I was ten my parents got be a Cherry Red Kodak MD863 for my birthday (still use it today). I wanted it so bad because red is my favorite color. I used it for a while taking photos of flowers, random things in my backyard, and car shows at the Boston/Providence convention centers. It was a blast to use but eventually fell off. It wasn’t until my freshmen year of high school where I picked it up again when I got a Canon T3i for my birthday, and that’s when I really appreciated the craft of photography. The camera would come with me everywhere – when my parents and I would go to dinner in Newport or spend the day in Boston I would be shooting dope cars driving by or in other words “car spotting”.

During high school, I was a welder, after that I went to community college for general studies. No idea what I wanted to do. I always found myself editing photos though, and always loved when someone would make a remark like “Hey is that your photo?” because I genuinely loved talking about it. After speaking to my guidance counselor I went for business administration then transferred to UMASS Dartmouth for Management/Communications. I was starting to see the vision I really wanted in life but wasn’t really sure how to get there.

Through all of that, I was still shooting cars, concerts, nightclubs, and weddings. Weddings is where I really developed an affinity with motion picture since I was shooting video. One of my good friends Mike took me in as his second shooter and taught me the ropes. We worked together for quite a while and really helped me develop my own style.

The pandemic taught me a lot about my craft, and around then that’s when my mind really started to alter and made me realize I can make a career out of this. Eight months after graduating, I moved to Atlanta. I knew this was a city I was going to move to after visiting two years prior when I was visiting a friend. 1 month before I moved I visited that same friend for a weekend and the last thing I said to him was “The next time you see me it’ll be because I’m living here.” The rest is history.

I moved here with little to no plan but I knew I really wanted to be on the path of becoming a professional commercial photographer/cinematographer. I had a potential internship at Porsche Design for business development that was still a huge maybe at the time that I had applied for. About 2 weeks later after moving to ATL I got my offer and said yes no hesitation. I was based at the Porsche Experience Center and brought my Pelican case of camera equipment every day to the office to take photos of the cars there when I had the time. I would even spend many of my lunch breaks editing photos.

Moving here really took it to the next step for me and truly made me realize what I want to do with my life. I made some great relationships while I was with Porsche Design, and the circle people I have with me in Atlanta motivated me to really pursue the dream. It wasn’t until a few months ago when I decided to go full-time freelance after balancing it with a full-time day job.

I’m really grateful to even say that I love what I do, and even more to do it with people it with people that I love. Doing what I do has brought absolutely the best people into my life and I find inspiration in them all.

I’m nowhere where I want to be in life but I feel like I’m off to a good start.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Hell no. It’s always tough in the beginning, and in many ways I still am. I have been doing this full-time for less than a year and it’s really taught me a lot.

But hardest part balancing a 50 hr week job with freelance. There would be many points where I would be taking red-eye flights and be at the office that same morning after shoots, it was tough.

I think the getting your name part out there is pretty hard too when you’re first starting out, but I always told the worst thing people can say is no.

I think the hardest part is the mental and financial commitment to go full-time freelance/pursue your dream. The idea is really daunting at first if you’ve never had exposure to it, but my advice to anyone trying to make the decision is; that if someone else can do it why can’t you?

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Shooting cars is definitely what I’m known for/what I do, but I have done commercial work and so many industries as well! I.E. Concerts, music artists, real estate, products, modeling, and countless others.

I think what I’m most proud of right now is that I feel like I’m on track to be where I want to be in life in terms of my career, mental state, and, my circle of friends really having good heads on their shoulders. It 100% makes me so proud to see all of my homies killing it too, I can’t wait for the day where us and our family’s can look back at it all see it was all worth it.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I don’t mean this in a bad way but I’m not sure if luck has played its part yet. I think the positives that have happened are from my persistence with just constantly trying my hardest and the negatives from my own choices and learning from them regardless of the situation.

I think the luck in the part comes in when someone gets their big break, and I really don’t think that’s happened to me yet.

Contact Info:

• Website: sinistermedia.co
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/aleccoutinho?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Image Credits
Portrait of me taken by my amazing friend @ashtonstan Photo of me walking away from the BMW was taken by another very close friend of mine @eliasxseq Both are major inspirations to me as artists and people.