What kind of work do you do?

I shoot principally on assignment - for magazines, corporations, non-profits, institutions, - any organization, or individual,  that seeks to use photographic images for marketing and public relations. My training and background is in photojournalism, and it is from that place that I approach my work. I do shoot in the studio as well. My goal as a photographer is to find the life in any given situation, and try to hold it, if that is at all possible, in the image. I believe everyone has a story to tell, and it is my purpose to reveal that story within the images I create.

What kind of clients do you work for?

Graphic Designers; Photo Editors; Art Directors; Marketing & Communication Managers, Development Departments as well as private individuals on occasion. My clients are throughout the United States.

They need good communication materials first of all. To make that happen they need strong images, relevant to their purposes. Stock photos don’t always fill the need, as they are often too generic, or overused, or not relevant. They have to assign the shoot. But they want the images to be on subject and be made with skill and vision. I represent my clients when I am at work on assignment. That is a trust I do not take lightly. I deliver the images on time, on budget.

I help to raise my client’s profile within their markets by crafting strong and unique photographs which can be used throughout their matrix of printed and electronic publications to bring life and power and movement to their message.

The rights to use a set of technically strong and artistically unique photographic images across a variety of media to illustrate their story and their message. I produce the work on time for the agreed upon cost. I think up ideas. I give clients feedback on theirs, and together we come up with a loose idea of what the story is and how to shoot it. Then I go out and do it, and deliver back to them a wide choice of images from which they can work.

Well I won't name any. There are many good photographers out there. The internet allows you to search for us easily and see and compare our work. My competitors are those who work in the same location/people/photojournalism vein that I do. I specialize in pulling together location shoots, dealing with all the vagaries of scheduling, weather, lighting conditions, and the unknown. As location specialists we differ collectively as a group from studio photographers by our approach, and from each other in what aspects of a subject we are drawn to. Those differences are always apparent in the work we put up for you to see.

My personality, my vision, my sense of aesthetics are all throughout my work. Not in the subject necessarily, but in how I treat the subject. I value life and breath and touch and honesty and truth. I honor the struggle to get into the light, and the triumphs and defeats engendered by that struggle. My photographs, at a root level, carry those values. Technically, I am pretty much a straight shooter. I don’t go in much for special effects, or odd and fanciful lighting set ups. I use Photoshop to fine tune my images for publication, a task it is well suited for. I don’t use it to create a separate and altogether different reality, a task for which it is also well suited. It’s just not me.

All photographs appearing on this site are the property of Richard Wheeler. They are protected by U.S. Copyright Laws, and are not to be downloaded or reproduced in any way without the written permission of Richard Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.