(click to biggen) (this is the second in a three-part series “WI in NYC”. Here’s the first.)
People move for many different reasons. The specific reasons are innumerable, but I bet the majority can be broken down into three main reasons: work, love, or just for the sake of adventure. Balthazar and Sonia already had the first two categories covered, and so fall into that last category – with a more specific reason being to pursue their art, and I think, to see if they could “make it” in New York City.
Two years into living in Brooklyn, and I think they have proven that they >can< make things work in the Big Apple. When I think of Balthazar and Sonia, I think of them as photographic artists (specializing in fine-art, intimate nudes and portraits), but like many artists, they do other work to make their main incomes. For many people making a big move, finding a new job can be a major stressor. Luckily for these two, Sonia had a job lined up before they moved, and Balthazar had a job that allowed him to work remotely. Balthazar had been working remotely, from Madison, WI, for an Australian company, and now he is still doing the same thing, just in Brooklyn.
Sonia went to college for art history, and eight years later came back to study political science. “Art history is something I was interested in, but not passionate about,” she says, “My first class after 8 years away from school was on polling, and that hooked me.” While in WI, she worked for the WI General Elections Board, a non-partisan board that oversaw elections, and now she works for the NYC Campaign Finance Board – overseeing applications for public election funds, doing audits on campaigns.
Balthazar went to school for English, and now manages North American customer service for Campaign Monitor, an e-newsletter company. Even though he works remotely, it still means dealing with some office politics on occasion, but overall is pretty nice. He does go regularly to a co-working space to give himself more of a “at work” feel when he needs to. Monitor knows about the sometimes-risque photo-shoots Balthazar and Sonia get involved with, and in fact, Balthazar remarked “…there was that day everyone at work saw (a photo of) my penis…well, when that turned out OK, I knew I was in the right place to be working.”
Something that often besets cross-country movers is an ailment we’ve all felt at one time or another: homesickness. For Sonia and Balthazar though, this hasn’t been too big of an issue. “I don’t come from a big family, so it’s not really been a big deal,” Sonya stated, “In my family, you grow up, you move out (away).” Balthazar remarked that he’s “…been home a few times, but I really didn’t see my family much while I lived in WI anyway.” Interestingly, though, Balthazar did see someone wearing a “Hooked on Oriental Drugs” t-shirt which reminded him of Milwaukee’s Brady Street, and he said, “I was done with Madison, but Milwaukee…though I’ve never lived there, I miss it. Sonia showed me Milwaukee.”
Sonia and Balthazar have been working at building a new network, a new community of artists to surround themselves with in Brooklyn, and at developing their own artistic inclinations. For the first 6 months in Brooklyn, Balthazar “was just trying to figure out what I wanted to be. And space was harder to come by, to work in. I haven’t shot as much as I did back in WI, but we’re real happy with what’s been done. That first apartment, it limited how much shooting we could do, but this new space has a lot of potential (they had recently moved into a more spacious apartment).”
The big challenge for Balthazar and Sonia’s work is in building a new network of contacts, and creating the credibility to do their kind of work. Balthazar said, “the Gowanus art community is strong, vibrant. There’s more artistic competition here, but also more opportunities.” Sonia contributed, “There’s no problem finding someone to take photos of you having sex/being naked, but Balthazar’s sense of aesthetics is what makes his images different. He truly believes everyone he photographs is beautiful, and he shows them how he sees that.”
While they mainly create individual nude portraits, Balthazar and Sonia have done a few, and plan to do more, “intimate” photo-sessions with couples. “Prior to the photo-shoot, we work with the couples to define how the photos can be used; we want them to be totally comfortable once we start photographing.” Then, when the shoot gets underway, “they forget we’re there. There’s no expectations placed on them; they do what feels natural and we just observe, we see them.” While many people might think the situation would be uncomfortable, most of the couples, at the session’s end say “let’s do that again!”
“We tell people, at the end of the session, ‘that was so awesome!’, because it IS, every time.”
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You can see more of Balthazar’s work at his website, and sign up for his “naughty” mailing list or his regular mailing list. If you’re interested in having a portrait done, or a couple’s session, contact him HERE. Also, carefully curated naughty photos.
