How Dr. Andres Ponce is Making Photography More Approachable

Dr. Luke Shapiro, DDS

Dr. Andres Ponce came all the way from Temuco, Chile to do this interview in person. He is a prosthodontist who is also an amazing photographer and travels the world lecturing.

LUKE SHAPIRO: SO ANDRES, AS MUCH AS I WOULD LIKE TO THINK YOU CAME TO NY FOR THIS INTERVIEW, WHAT ARE YOU ACTUALLY DOING IN NEW YORK?

Dr. Andres Ponce: Well, usually I travel a lot, but now I’m here specifically because I am teaching at NYU for the International Program. And Saturday I’m giving a course on photography at Wall St. AIC with my program called FOCUS.

HOW MANY COURSES HAVE YOU GIVEN IN YOUR LIFE?

I don’t have a number. But with the team of FOCUS, we are three guys, one fashion photographer, Paolo Wilson, and my other colleague, Sebastian Cifuentes. Since we started in 2017, there have been approximately 3,000 attendees. I don’t know how many courses but we have done this a lot of times.

HOW MUCH MONEY HAVE YOU SPENT ON CAMERA GEAR??

I don’t know but I don’t spend as much money as you think. I’m the guy who teaches you how not to spend so much money on photography because I think it’s overrated.

By the way, photography is not rocket science. It’s something that everyone could do. The thing is that we’re trying to do this for dentistry. Dentistry is complicated. Life is complicated. Photography should just be a tool, you know? It’s just that. And nothing’s going to happen if you take a bad picture. The thing is that you’ve got to learn from that. That’s the thing.

DO YOU TAKE ALL YOUR OWN PICTURES?

Yeah, I take my pictures. I teach a lot of people. I could teach my assistant. She knows some stuff. I’m not saying it’s bad that you train your staff - I do that a lot. In my courses, I sometimes receive the whole team from a clinic or a practice. But in my case, it is more honest to take my own pictures because if I’m going to show you something, it has to have been done by me.

It doesn’t take too much time. Just a couple of minutes.

SO WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START A COURSE?

Dr. Andres Ponce: Well, I saw a lot of courses and I didn’t like the way they were done. I worked in marketing before as a marketing advisor for some companies. I didn’t like how they treated education in this area because they made you feel that it is difficult and complicated with a list of things you need. Things that were not necessary at that time. I also never understood why a photography course didn’t have an actual photographer. So that’s why I decided to have a team.

Because, from my perspective, all the courses were just guys who took courses from guys and were now teaching. It was a chain of things happening because someone told you something in a course and then the other person learned it and started their own course and it was on repeat.

HOW DID THE PEOPLE LEARN ABOUT THE COURSE IF YOU’RE FROM CHILE?

Instagram. Social media.

DID YOUR COURSES HAVE IMMEDIATE SUCCESS OR WAS IT SLOW?

I don’t want to be cocky about it, but the first course had 15 attendees. And since then we haven’t stopped. We always try to grow and make things better, you know, but we’re always doing courses. Always.

DO YOU HAVE A VISION TO EXPAND TO OTHER TOPICS?

It’s natural to think that you can do more stuff. In my case, I’m teaching courses about aesthetics and marketing. But I try not to go to places that I don’t like or topics that I don’t know because I don’t feel comfortable with that.

SO WHAT’S YOUR NEXT STOP?

Well now I’m going to a restaurant. But the next stop I’m going back to is Chile. Next week I have to be in Miami. And then

Sarasota. After that, El Salvador. And the next one is Mexico. And then courses in Chile.

LAST PIECE OF ADVICE?

First of all, thank you for the interview. I like to sharing with you guys.

I’m happy to be here, and to go to different places because I feel that I have friends in a lot of places, and that’s a good thing for me. It’s not only work. And don’t limit yourself. Photography is something for everyone. It’s not rocket science.

Dr. Lucas Shapiro is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine, where he received his Doctor of Dental Surgery. He completed his post-doctoral orthodontic training at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. He currently practices orthodontics at Lemchen Salzer Ortho in NYC. He started the Instagram page @futuredentists, works with the educational organization @ignitedds, and has an orthodontic tiktok page @drshap