Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcus Dorsey.
Marcus, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
This all started in high school. I was in ninth grade and one of my teachers gave us a series of projects to choose from; each, in my eyes, being a varying degree of difficulty. Not taking the project given seriously, I picked the one project that I thought would grant me the easiest A–that project happened to be photography related. The theme of the project had something to do with the people around you; I grabbed a simple canon point-and-shoot camera and just taking pictures of all my friends and family. Then I gathered all the good looking images up, pasted them to a board, wrote my paper, and turned it into the teacher. I am walking away from his desk, confident that I had just received an A and that it was going to be submitted for a regional competition. Atlas, I got the grade back and what lied on my paper was not an A but a C. I was so frustrated! So I picked up the camera again the next year, taking pictures of everything to prepare myself for the next theme. However, I did not submit again for the project I fell in love with the act of taking pictures. My mom was really good about noticing the things I was interested in and fueling them. Usually, I would just let the fire burn out after I reached a certain point in the skill; yet, this one was different. My mom bought me a Nikon Coolpix camera which is a hybrid camera and I couldn’t get enough of taking pictures. I read every material I could find about photography, carried my camera everywhere and found every opportunity just to take a picture. My mom has a beautiful garden around our house and I would use her flowers as my subjects to test out the new skills that I just read about or to even try something experimental. Flowers were great because they didn’t move. Then I moved into doing portraits. My mom found a class for me to sit in so I could learn more, turns out I was able to help the teacher with the class–go figure. From that to working in the studio that hosted the class for five years, working hand and hand with the photographer, learning her techniques and learning how to color correct. Then doing small shoots of my own. To college, where I learned how to photograph theatre and dance shows, become a new favorite of mine, to learning another art that I never thought I would fall into ceramics.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road has definitely not been a smooth one. Every artist hits a wall, a block, a hole in the road that just seems to be unpassable. I reached that point a few more times than I liked to admit. The learning curve, trying to keep up with the trend, even finding my own style, has been tough. I found myself doubting my work because I was “insta famous” or my work wasn’t as good as this photographer who is just a constant battle of finding myself in my work. My business became official in my freshman year of college which was in 2013 and I believe that is where I really hit my wall. I felt like I lost my creative self that I was working so hard to market myself that I forgot to simply just love the work I was creating and the process of creating. It became more of a job than something I loved so I took a break from it. I would shoot a portrait here and there but nothing too serious or creative. Then I got into a dance class and asked the professor (who happened to also be the creative director of the dance department) if I could take pictures of the upcoming dance show. She agreed and I instantly fell in love with photography again though I was still struggling with the concept of my style. So through college, I begin to just experiment. Being a graphic design major, I had the ability to use my own photography work for many projects. Which had a major hand in how I see my work and the flexibility it has. Then, I got into other art forms, ceramics, painting, drawing, theatre etc. I started to notice how all of that contributes in my work but yet I still couldn’t find my style. To this day, I am still looking; however, I am noticing a common theme but I will let you see if you can find it.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about MDante Pics – what should we know?
I specialize in portraiture and theatre/dance photography. I am mostly a photography business however, there is an underlining layer of ceramics in it as well but that isn’t as well developed just yet. I think what sets me apart from everyone else is that I like to create an experience when I do my sessions. Though that sounds cliché, I feel as though I take an hour session and turn it into an hour of just meeting someone new. I am not a fan of the overly edited or posed look for portraits of someone. I love to show that person in their natural state of being; I want to be able to show the person that is seen every day and not just the one that is seen in front of the camera. In my opinion, that is a really hard challenge because so many people become so shy when you point the camera at them. Every shoot, I have to ask myself, ” How do I make this person comfortable? What information or topic can I bring up that makes them relax?” I treat all my shoots as if it is an interview and I snap pictures throughout the whole thing and I have captured extraordinary images that way. As my business continues to grow, I am becoming more proud of the growth of it and the growth of myself because this has been a very slow process, for sure.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My mom is a big supporter of this. She has been there through all of my downfalls and has helped me in everything. To feeding the fire to my expensive interest of photography, helping me get clients, and even just showing me events and making sure my head was on right from time to time. My mom is my strongest supporter and deserves so much credit. My friends and college family: my friends because they were willing to sit in front of the camera so I can experiment with a new technique or to just randomly go out and do an impromptu shoot. They would give me opinions on how things look and give me ideas. And my college family for always challenging me to step outside of my comfort zones. The theatre/dance department to the art department giving me so many opportunities to just work on my craft and jump when I asked for models and they would send me so many names of people who would be interested in working with me. It was just so much love and support.
Contact Info:
- Email: mdantepics@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/mdantepics
Image Credit:
Picture of me by Christopher Wallace
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