Mr. Don Photos

“Beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder, but for the eye of the lens. In other words, when I put my eye on my lens, I see nothing but beauty. Even before I put the eye on the lens as the eye of the beholder, I create beauty from the Alpha to the Omega. From the beginning to the end, I instruct each and every photo shoot. The hair looks right. The makeup looks right. The lighting is right. You understand what I’m saying? I know how to tell people what not to do and what to do or this or that for the simple fact that I have experience in all three of those areas. And that’s what, that’s what gives me that edge!

—Mr. Don Photos

11

Spoken with wellearned confidence, the vision of this ‘triple threat’ has opened amazing life changing opportunities to up and coming models, stylists, make-up artists, set directors, and even established photographers. Ambi’ance Uncut met this amazing man years ago and have remained friends and collaborators since then. However, we wanted to share with our readers what makes this man respected amongst his peers in the industry after creating the “NYC Shoot-a-Thon.” How and why did he do it?

MDP: Well, the NYC Shoot-a-Thon is New York city’s largest photo sharing networking event on the entire east coast. Let me say, I have an amazing realm of talent. I’ve been a hairstylist for thirty plus years, a makeup artist for twenty-five years, and a photographer for almost twenty years, so I’ve had the ability to do a lot of things. Now, what prompted me to do a shoot-a-thon is, because I’ve been published in so many different magazines in my up and coming days. I’ve worked as a platform artist for Bonner Brothers and all of the big shows and hair companies and I’ve also done photography for a lot of different magazines and for different catalog work. One day it just rang a bell, because I have tons and tons of photography equipment and I told my wife that I needed to get rid of some of this stuff. I just didn’t know what to do with all of it. She 12 said maybe I should just put it all in one room and let people use it. I said maybe I can put it all in one room, bring in all different talents and let them use it. So, that’s where the idea came from. I did the first one for free and I invited people from all over and everyone was just doing hair and photography. People came in and built sets for me and it became a frenzy! We did this for one day and I did it again later on in that year and decided to do it for two days, I did it on Friday and Saturday and then on Sunday, I had a big fashion show and that is when I met Jonathan!

There were so many sets and so many people came from different parts of the United States. It was unbelievable! I started promoting it, putting out advertisements and getting sponsors. Then we started building different more elaborate sets. Now everybody was participating because they were able to do what no one was able to do for pennies on the dollar! We had eightyfive photographers, 165 models each day, twelve hours a day. We had thirty make-up artists, fifteen hairstylists, twenty designers, all coming together, building portfolios for each other. There were about ten to fifteen different magazines who now could publish all exclusive pictures from the photographers. There are make-up artists, hair stylists, designers, models, all receiving their pictures from the photographers. Each photographer is obligated to give up at least four to five edited professional pictures to each of those different entities.

that’s what the shoot is all about, the glitz and glamour, putting people together and allowing them three days to exercise their talents, without focusing on just one group.

Now, what happens is that everyone builds a huge portfolio. So, if you’ve got fifty-four photographers and you personally shot with thirteen of them, can you imagine what you’ve accomplished by the end of two days with the different hair and makeup sets? On top of that, we had sixteen different sets with exotic cars lining the streets during the day, we had a 10,000 sq ft rooftop space where we literally placed a 10x10 pool. We had inside lofts with different sets and backdrops (New York sceneries, Chinese, Egyptian sets, boudoirs, bathtubs with a variety of bubble sets, living rooms, brick walls…) all built! So, you can imagine how much work went into that. It was big!

Ambi’ance: Did you ever think this event would grow to this magnitude?

MDP: Yes, you know why? I thought it would grow to that because I’m an Aries and I always want better and bigger things each and every time. I just kept seeing it get bigger and bigger and bigger. My goal is to take it to different states, and different countries. I have photographers coming from Germany and China!

Ambi’ance: Where in NY are you holding these shoot-a-thons?

MDP: We now have three days and two locations, the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn and Manhattan. We do two days in the Clinton Hills section of Brooklyn and the third day, we shoot in Manhattan. Now because of COVID, I have a free beach shoot-a-thon. I had to cancel this year because 307 people registered! Yeah, 307 and that’s only the people who registered from Eventbrite! Can you imagine the ones that got the address from the social media platforms? So, I was really looking at about 500 people! The sheriff called and told me that I need to rethink what I was doing. Due to COVID, I ended up having to cancel. Now, you know we still did it, right? Yep, on another beach with about fifty-five of us! (laughing)

Ambi’ance: (laughing) With the COVID pandemic, are you considering scaling back the usual shoota-thon to several small ones?

MDP: Oh yeah, several small ones would work. If this thing never subsides, then that's going to be the future. I normally do the free one in the summer, but because we didn't have the big one that we normally do in April and I had literally moved it to August because of the pandemic and it was still here in August, that's when we decided that we were just going to do it at the beach. But I really didn't think that it was going to be a response of this magnitude, but it was! People started calling from Atlanta and Texas. Now you have all these people coming through. This was during the time that there were hotspots all over and New York had been a hotspot before it died down. People were coming in and being tested, but imagine, I got a host of people from South Carolina, North Carolina, Minnesota, Indianapolis,

13

14 I’m talking about Connecticut, Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Delaware, I mean they were all over and my demographics were outweighing those that were coming from New York! You know why? Because it’s not just a photo shoot, or power shoot, it was a three-day weekend like the Bonner Brothers or the International Hair Show, or anything that brings you to a vacation, but you’re staying in an Airbnb or hotels. Now we have parties on the weekends and I’m throwing in a fourth day because we’re going to do it the same way again, and the beach day is going to be a chillaxin day!

Ambi’ance: When you first started the shoot-a-thon, were these photographers amateurs?

MDP: Well, a lot of them were, but a lot were the crew that I run with. I run with a crew from the New York City Image Group. We've been friends for years and these guys have been in the business way before me. I'm not going to brag, but I'm a hell of a photographer! So, I’ve got respect in the industry. You know what I'm saying? Being a triple threat with hair, makeup and photography, puts me in position to be at places that a lot of people don't get to go.

Ambi’ance: How, did you get into being a MUA (make-up artist) that’s the up and coming craze now?

MDP: It's the same thing. I got tired of looking for makeup artists and I went to school. I don't know if you remember Mark Trainer, the guy who did work with Loreal Cosmetics, well he had a school in New York, and I studied there and later went on to owning a makeup school for a while. My granddaughter is doing makeup and nails now. It’s YouTube! YouTube makes the difference now because people are now walking out of the kitchen and walking into the arena looking like they just stepped out of a magazine. And that's what the shoot is all about, the glitz and glamour, putting people together and allowing them three days to exercise their talents, without focusing on just one group. Everyone is their own superstar, their own entity. Every MUA, hair stylist, photographer, model, designer, videographer, blogger, magazine, anybody that wants to learn, that is the purpose, and the whole concept of the shoot-a-thon, making it such a hot commodity here and elsewhere!

Ambi’ance: As a veteran in the industry, as well, I remember how we felt when we were getting ready for the shows. The excitement and anticipation of going up against some of the best of the best in the industry. That’s pretty much died down as you don’t see the intensity of those shows anymore. So, you have re-birthed that feeling and immersed it into the new generation where they are bringing different flavors to the table. We didn’t have videographers back then. Maybe someone with a ‘movie camera’, but videography wasn’t thought of then

and we didn’t have the mix with social media. So, the shoot-a-thon has brought a new flavor to what we ‘used’ to do, giving it a brand-new form of excitement!

MDP: That's why it's changed because everything is now social media, and it’s bigger than TV! So, because of that, everything is fast and instant gratification. And that's what, the shoot-a-thon is about. Giving people their own platform. But at the same time, unifying all the entities. So, you know, you don't have to be a lost cause in the shoota-thon. you have something to contribute. You know what I mean? Whatever your talent is, you're not looked down upon because you’re needed. It’s like a fist. All of these entities coming together, and you make a powerful, powerful point. And that's what it did for Jonathan. He loved it so much whenever he couldn’t make it, he wanted me to take it to Texas and do it all in different places. That’s the hard part, the easy part is dreaming about it. I have another company called Wealth Builders Networking Event.

Ambi’ance: And what is a Wealth Builders Networking Event?

MDP: It’s everything Black, by Blacks, be Black, for Black, invite Black, sell Black. Yes! People have said to me, “You shouldn’t say that because you’re in the hair industry and the fashion industry with White people.” I'm going to say this because this is different and I’m going to say this because I’m going to say this, and it has an effect. They have to understand, I like this! This is how my wife and I do. We try to buy as much stuff Black as possible. Totally, cutting out our competitions, and I’ve done that so far with the Wealth Builders Network Mixer, you understand? It also brings together all types of talent, politicians, singers and so forth, as well as people who just want to get together at one event, networking.

Ambi’ance: Okay. Hey, it sounds good. It reminds me of mixers I used to attend.

MDP: Yeah, exactly.

Ambi’ance: Yes, those are missing these days as well! As we come to a close, we have learned a lot about the NYC Shoot-a-Thon. Now tell us a little bit about you!

MDP: Well, I'm innovative, charismatic. My wife just said that I’m full of sh**! (laughing)

Ambi’ance: (laughing) Wellllll,

MDP: (laughing) I’m very, very super friendly! If you go on to any of my social media pages, or talk to anyone who knows me, you would never, ever, out of thousands of pictures of me, find me without a smile. I had a contest once, and I think there were about 2,100 pictures that were found. And out of nine social media platforms, they found ONE picture of me not smiling. In that picture I was actually looking at the camera at pictures 15

16 and someone snapped that shot and tagged me in it. So, I never thought of it. When the person found it, I said okay, because I was offering a free makeover and photoshoot. And guess what? The person who found it was a photographer!

Ambi’ance: Was the person that shot the picture?

MDP: No, she wasn't. But, she said that she wanted to meet me so bad! I was like, oh my God, that was so simple. Like all you had to do was just say hi or talk about it. She stated that she didn’t know if her skills would be up to par! So that's one of things that you can't or could never say about me. You can be the worst photographer in the world and I'm going to share my experience, just like I shared my experience on that platform, every single day for all of those years!

Ambi’ance: In this industry we have so much to give. As a former instructor and salon owner, we understand that we are in the industry of service. Our gifts are not ours to keep, but to share. We share our talents with our clients and our knowledge with our students and colleagues. That’s what keeps and makes us successful in this business, along with the lives that we’ve touched along the way just by being there for them, teaching and servicing them!

MDP: Yes, that’s what we do! We’re in the service industry! I’ve been serving all of my life, forty-two years in the industry. I graduated at seventeen, and for forty-two years I’ve been making people happy. So, yes, we are teachers and it’s the same with the Shoot-A-Thon. The Shoota-Thon creates and makes monsters and it makes peace. So many people have done so much, with so many magazines ad it was because of the Shoot-A-Thon, I had transgender who thanked me because they said, “If it wasn’t for you,” because they came to the Shoot-a-Thon and shot with me, they found their voice and was able to be themselves.… But I received so many thank you letters and so forth.

Ambi’ance: As we work in this business that we love, we never really fully understand the difference that we are making in the lives of others. It’s funny because I would see people after I left the business and they would say, “Oh, I remember that day when I came in and I was feeling really down, we talked and you hooked my hair up and you really made me, just feel good!” In my mind I don’t remember that day in particular, however, because they remembered my service, and the way I made them feel, then my mission was accomplished!

MDP: Exactly, that’s what they remember. They remember who you are! I just say, I’m going to die that person! I want a red suit on because that’s all I ever represented was red suits! They are going to have to figure it out, because I want to leave here with my smile! Finally, they are going to

play my favorite song, “….ooooh child, things are going to be easier, oooooh child, things are going to be brighter,….someday, yeah, we’ll put it together and we’ll get it undone, someday, when your head is much lighter, someday, yeah we’ll walk in the rays of the beautiful sun, someday the world is much brighter…..” When this is all over, that’ll be MY exit!

It was truly a pleasure talking to Mr. Don Photos as we reminisced and ultimately realized that we may have crossed paths thirty some odd years ago during hair shows when we both were very active in the industry, we also talked about the present and looked towards the future understanding our destinies and our legacies. Mr. Don Photos’ journey is far from completion as his vision is very rich and expansive, like he stated, he loves creating “monsters” in the field, uniting all entities for the common good and we at Ambi’ance Uncut will be there fully in the mix!

Follow him on:

Instagram:

@Nycshootathon, @nycshootathon_bts, @Mr.DonPhotos

Facebook:

Don Pittman (Mr. Don Photos)

WEB:

www.MrDonPhotos.com www.nycshootathon.com

17