Miami Photographer Joshua Prezant

One of my favorite clients to work for is the Washington Post Magazine. I always know when the call comes in for an assignment that it will be enjoyable. This assignment did not disappoint. I was sent out to document the “Miami Bohemian ” art scene down in Miami. The images were going along with a first person account/ travel piece that writer Sandra Beasley was doing.

SLIDE SHOW

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Miami based photographer Joshua Prezant was recetly contracted to photograph art collectors and hoteliers Donald and Mera Rubell at their 45,000 square-foot museum and home.  The Miami art powerhouse couple are opening a new museum in Washington, DC. and we were brought in to photograph them with some of their vast art collection in the background.  The couple was great to work with and in the small window of time we had with them we were able to make an assortment of images that ended up being used by both the Miami Herald and The Washington Post.

Each paper had access to the same images and each chose different images and produced vastly different layouts.  It is great to see the different approaches that the two papers took with the picture selections and the layouts. Not sure  their is a favorite, but just happy that a bunch of teh images got used and that each publication did a great job displaying the images.

See if you have a favorite:

Washington Post

Miami Herald front

Miami Herald inside

One of the best things about what I do is the fact that I get to meet amazing people from all walks of life. One recent amazing person I met and photographed was 19-year-old Danell Leyva.  He is a Miami based gymnast looking to gold at the 2012 Olympics.  That alone would have been a great story.  However, Danell’s story is much more interesting…as The Washington Post’s Amy Shipley showed in her September 14th sports front page article about Leyva and his path from a sickly boy in Cuba to a top gymnist.

The photo shoot took place at the gym where Danell trains, which is also the gym that his parents own. As I walked into the huge warehouse that housed Universal Gymnastics I was amazed to see a group of kids from 5- year-old to 17- year-old doing the most amazing things with their bodies on an assortment of gymnastic apparatices.

The assignmnet from the Washington Post called for a family portrait of Danell with his mom and stepfather. Danell parents were happy to be pulled away from their coaching duties for a few minutes for the photoshoot with Danell. Being that Danell was doing an Iron Cross, a difficult gymnatic move on the rings we had a limited amount of time to shoot while he was in position.  But Joshua Prezant Photography “stuck” the shot and everyone was happy.  I wish Danell the best of luck in making the 2012 olympics and hopefully bringing home gold for the USA.

Danell Leyva © Joshua Prezant 2011

The spread

www.joshuaprezant.com

Today I got a e-mail letting me know that a child I photographed for the Heart Gallery was recently permanently adopted.

The e-mail:

Dear Joshua, last September you too a Heart Gallery picture of Trenton, one of our children who is so medically complex the only placement we had for him was a nursing home a thousand miles from his home.  You took a beautiful picture and thanks to your help, Trenton was placed with his forever family last week.  Below are some pictures his new mom sent.  The pictures are not as good as yours but I am sure you will agree, the quality of his life has certainly improved!!!!   Thank you again for your help. Peggy

For several year now I have photographed children for the Heart Gallery in Miami and around South Florida.  It is something I look forward to every year.  Most of the time the children I photograph are older children that are normally harder to adopt.  But with Trenton, he was what many consider to be the “unadoptable” because of his severe medical conditions.

Having a photo make it to the cover of a magzine or seeing your advertising photo on a bus bench or billboard is great…. But nothing beats hearing the great news that one of the kids you photographed for the heart gallery has been placed with a loving family!  G-d bless the family that adopted Trenton.

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Photographing professional dancers during a show is both a blessing and curse.  On one hand you have these top athletes performing amazing dance moves with the agility of a leopard. On the other hand they are doing this under less then ideal lighting and they are moving very very fast.  The lighting on a production is great for viewing as an audience member, but not great for freezing the peak action of the dancers’ moves in a camera.  This even becomes more difficult when it is a large number of dancers dancing at once.

Joshua Prezant Photography is no stranger to the wings and the orchestra pits of theater houses.  So when the call came in to do Production stills for the Doug Varone and Dancers dance company we were equally excited and up for the challenge. The client did not want to pose and of the shots so we shot well they were doing a full dress rehearsal.

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Over the year Joshua Prezant Photography has done many assignments for publications based in Britian.  And the one thing that can always be counted on from these shoot is that I will meet intersting people from all walks of life and all walks of careers.  This shoot in Palm Beach, Florida for The Guardian was no exception.

Author Diane Ackerman, who most recetly wrote, ONE HUNDRED NAMES FOR LOVE , was a real delight to spend time with.  The book deals with Ackerman’s struggles after her husband, Author Paul West,  suffered a massive stroke and her story of helping her husband relearn language.

Author Diane Ackerman by Miami Photographer Joshua Prezant