I am always asked, “Why silent portraits, where did it come from?” For years, I spent my career holding a camera under everyone’s go-to, the standard first name, last name photography all-inclusive with your basic gimmick business card layout found on Pinterest, a disorganized portfolio, and not a noticeable thing that separated me from any other photographer in my little city of Binghamton, NY.

Under First name last name photography, my work was what it was. I experimented with different watermarks and styles to find my place in an endless sea of photographers. I wouldn't call my work bad; I would call it generic, even though I had decent traction it was very generic. Whenever I posted a photo, it got decent feedback. I even recall being OK with some of my early work. I would look at the shots and say, "Hell yeah, I was the one who took that."

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I ended up with a few small publications. I got to photograph the cover of a book series, The Stones of Terrene Chronicles, that I plan on finally cracking open and reading this year. Still, I yearned to make something from nothing—a brand that was all mine but more than my name. After a few weeks of trying different concepts, checking website availability, and reviewing all the messages behind names, I finally decided to pull the trigger and rebrand.

Silent Portraits was Born

I officially released the beta version of my website on January 1st, 2020. Even with the unforeseen pandemic and COVID shutdowns, I was able to find success and evolve silent portraits into what you see today. In the beginning, I tried several layouts and color combinations. Its original layout was a muted brown, showcasing some adventure and the drab attire I would wear to photoshoots and adventures.

first set of images taken as Silent Portraits

At first, I thought I had an idea of what I wanted to do without any real plan to meet my goals. I knew I wanted to take portraits that featured themes such as body ink, but I also knew I needed to take family portraits to keep the lights on. So everything ended up looking a bit out of place, and truthfully, my editing and lighting that people came to know still needed a little bit of work.

Eventually, I changed the color scheme to black because I wanted the simplicity of the layout to help pull people's full concentration into photography. Although I was still finding my groove, I had a business practice that set me apart from my colleagues. I provided affordable photo rights. It made many of my clients very happy that they were given exclusive copyrights to their photos after final delivery. It would give them a lot more creative control, I wouldn't post images before they were ready to have them made public including BTS photos. Most Importantly I would never come looking for more money with nickel and dime charges. I didn't make them tag me or need permission to print, publish, and market with them. With this many people, I photographed who had Social images to upkeep quickly found their way to me.

Now it wasn’t all pros with no cons. It made it tremendously difficult to market myself, and I had to find a healthy balance between working trade for print and taking on client work. when all was said and done, It ended up in a 1/10 ratio, where I can only ever share about 10 percent of my work over the last 2 years. I'm OK with it, though. It's cool now and then to see an article about a band and see my photo front and center. Even though my name isn't attached to it, I know that in the evolving market, I would have never gotten the payday had I sold the rights, and they would have gone with a cheaper or even free photographer to grab that image. I was willing to make a trade-off while on the grind for the "professional photographer" title, which I am so happy to relinquish.

I even received a shout-out from Big Krizz Kaliko, a rapper I had been listening to since my freshman year in high school. To put that in perspective that means I have been listening to his music for upwards of 20 years. I have seen him perform live countless times, and over all just have always been drawn to his style of music.

Here we are 20 years later, and not only has He seen my photography But i was able to get a shout out from him praising my portrait work comparing it to the darkness and emotion he puts into his music.

Creating my Style

Besides a lot of my work being inspired by music, In general, I shot utilizing simple hand-painted canvas backdrops and 1–3 light setups and would focus on 3/4th body posing. I pulled a lot of my lighting inspiration from Renaissance paintings and some of my favorite Horror movie scenes. Believe it or not, I have created a lot of beautiful pieces coming off a horror movie binge.

The other thing I borrowed heavily from was minimalism. Less light, fewer distractions, less everything really. Allowing the subject to really tell their story and create the emotion needed with their eyes. Much like one-sentence stories less is more. Take ‘Dandelions Actually’ written by R. Gatwood “He showered her with roses but never asked her favorite flower.”

My 2020-2023 Portfolio

As I moved into this new chapter of my life. The artist, without restrictions, a creator to create, finding inspiration from wherever I lay my hat on the ground for the evening. I couldn't help but look over and revisit my work as Silent Portraits, the company before it officially became Silent Portraits; The Art of Bryan Wark. After all, without it, I wouldn’t have truly found my passion for art again.

Clown Obsession

One recurring theme I visited regularly was clown makeup. You can even see it in my drawings and paintings. I love clowns. I have my entire life. Maybe it's because I grew up listening to the Insane Clown Posse or because I hated drawing noses, and replacing them with a red circle was easier. Whatever the case, I like clowns, and photographing people in clown makeup is fun.

Changing Up the Style

My go-to is and always will be that dark, gritty, dark backdrop in simple style. It's what I like. During my career, though, some people confused that with my inability to create anything else. So, for no other reason than to prove people wrong now and then, I would step out of my comfort zone to make some people who prayed I would fail twitch just a little bit. Plus it’s important to practice outside what you are used to.

Heading Outside

I am a studio photographer. I photographed weddings, did family portraits, and such because It was a way to make money that I could invest in stocks and such. There was even a joke among my friends called the "couch fee," in which they joked that I wouldn't even get off my couch for anything less than a few hundred dollars. It even became a "Camera Head" meme. But I was in my heart an in-studio portrait photographer. However, when the weather was right, and the mood struck me, I would venture into the dreaded outdoors and photograph outside. It wasn't often, but when I did, I always created something I was proud of.

Veteran Series

One project I worked on was my Veteran Series, which I plan to pick up eventually. I wanted to showcase that veterans come in all shapes and sizes. We are not this hive mindset of people who made the military our entire identity. Sadly, the project never came to fruition, as I was going through some personal problems while shooting it and couldn't give it the full attention it needed.

The Character Edits

Another series I plan to pick up is my joint project, The Character Series. I did a blog post on the details behind it. You can read it here, but I wanted to visit the world between my photography and the photography of the Camera Head.

A Look at My Work as a Whole

Overall, I always wanted my work to capture a vibe of darkness and intimacy, whether it's the sexual nature of a photo or the raw emotion of someone's genuine smile or deep thought. Being a professional photographer meant I lost some of what I truly wanted to photograph and ended up photographing more of what people wanted me to photograph. But that wasn't bad because my time in the studio with all these amazing people was special, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Although I am closing the book on professional photography, these images will always hold a special place for me.

In Eadweard Muybridge’s words:

‘Only photography has been able to divide human life into a series of moments, each of them has the value of a complete existence.’