Story & Lesson Highlights with Mike Glatzer of Brookhaven

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Mike Glatzer. Check out our conversation below.

Mike, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Integrity – without a doubt.

You can be smart and you can have endless energy, but how do you know where to direct it? What guides you to apply your intelligence and energy to the right thing? To do the right thing?

To me, doing the right thing by people is one of the most important things you can do. Being fair, honest, and treating others with respect, especially in a tough situation? That’s invaluable and that’s a person I want to associate with because I know I’ll never have to worry about how I’m being treated or what I’m being told.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Mike, and I run Mike Glatzer Photography here in Atlanta. I like to say I wear two hats — one as an engineering project manager, the other as a creative portrait photographer. The engineering side of me is all about precision, problem-solving, and systems, while the photographer side is about imagination, color, and storytelling. When those worlds collide, you get my style of portraiture: carefully planned, detail-driven, but designed to feel like pure creativity.

My brand focuses on conceptual and storytelling portraits. A lot of portrait photography is about capturing how someone looks. I want to go further — I create images that reflect how people feel or even who they dream of being. My clients are often creatives, performers, or dreamers who want portraits that don’t just sit on a LinkedIn profile, but instead spark conversation, showcase personality, and sometimes even bring their alter egos to life.

What makes my work unique is that every shoot is essentially a collaborative world-building session. I don’t just ask, “What outfit are you wearing?” but rather, “What story are we telling?” That might mean photographing someone as if they’re a superhero, a movie character, or even capturing the surreal feeling of being caught between two identities. The result is immersive, dramatic portraits that feel cinematic and personal at the same time.

Right now, I’m working on expanding how I bring those stories to life for clients — not just through digital files and large, luxury wall art and collections that let people see their stories on display every day. For me, photography isn’t about a picture; it’s about giving people proof that their imagination and identity are worth celebrating. My goal is to always improve the experience of letting my clients share an inner story, feeling, or personality trait with the world.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who taught you the most about work?
My dad. For as long as I can remember, he’s worked 60+ hour weeks fixing cars and eventually operating several collision shops.

Beast is an understatement.

He taught me that it’s not enough to simply meet the standard. You have to do the job well and ensure that every task, detail, and assignment is completed with a level of pride. You should walk away from every task or job feeling good about what you did.

One of the questions he ingrained in me was, “Is there anything else I can do to make this better?” If the answer is yes, then go do it.

He taught me to be thoughtful, to consider the “why” behind doing a task, and not to leave something worse than I found it.

The only downside is that I tend to hold others to the same high standard that I hold myself as a result!

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Being true to yourself will be the loneliest thing you ever do.

And as much as it’ll hurt, and as much as it’s going to suck at times, it’ll help you craft an unbeatable friend group and make you a go-to person in life. You’ll end up with a great life that you’re excited about. So hang in there and know it’s the right path.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
Hard work is enough to get you ahead in life.

It’s been a miserable adventure learning how to communicate and talk to people as an introvert. I hate it. Nothing would make me happier than to spend time at home with a good book or watching a GT football game with my partner.

But I learned coming out of high school, that you have to engage and talk to people to really make a difference or advance in life. Being smart or hard working is the minimum to do the job. But to get your foot in the door? You have to be known and network.

This lesson has been reinforced time and time again. My biggest wins have come from knowing someone, or having an “in” somewhere. I hate it because it’s not fair, but it’s the reality of the world.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What false labels are you still carrying?
Damn this magazine is going for it, huh?

Probably that I’m too techincal to be creative.

My background as an engineer means there’s a lot of structure, process, and rigor to doing things. I’m also an insanely organized person. I have a really hard time intentionally allowing or creating a mess, which is so crucial for photography!

My brain works on pattern recognition – seeing enough of something over and over again that I can quickly reference it and then adapt it to new situations based on what I’ve learned and observed in the past. When it comes to creative portraits, it’s difficult to build that database because of all the differences between people, clothing, sets, personalities, etc. Don’t get me wrong, that’s the fun part and I love it – it’s just not easy.

I have to work hard at it in order to “be creative.” It means referencing a lot of existing media and then finding a way to tweak and modify it to fit how I like to do things.

I love being creative, but it’s not the wild inspiration that is associated with what most people consider a Creative person. Mine is based on a lot of research and brute force. I’m still creative, just not the way most people (or even I) think about it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mikeglatzerphotos.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikeglatzer/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-glatzer-mjgt2012
• Other: Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/mikeglatzerphotos/

Image Credits
Mike Glatzer Photography