Why SETO? by Jose Contreras
More than a mystery, it is a mixture of my two names, joSE humberTO,
But also, why? The truth is that I left Venezuela in search of exploring my most artistic side, which was originally very far from photography, and paradoxically, like everything in life, photography has a direct effect on Seto's original artistic expression, opening up an endless number of possibilities to express and communicate the message, and the path created during that process led me to understand what the correct message was that I had to communicate.
I have been in this beautiful country for almost 8 years and as a Venezuelan we have much to thank our new homeland Argentina for everything it has given us and for all the support it provides us, beyond the culture being here has opened a world of possibilities for me, possibilities that I allowed myself to happen, but that was what originally made me come to these beautiful lands, CULTURE, here culture circulates in the blood of the Argentine and oozes from their pores along with the perspiration of each effort and each drop of energy transpired in the search for a better life, something that goes hand in hand with the mentality of the Venezuelan, linked to the collective inferiority syndrome created by those who placed themselves above us Latin Americans, and we already know who I am talking about, those who play to dominate the world by creating laws that drain the energy and effort of those who suffer from it, those who over there from the north only enjoy moving the pieces of the game, a game that has given me this great opportunity since as good balance that exists in this life, there is no evil that for Well, no, I mean that the love for the dollar and the power caused by that same inferiority syndrome, by the Venezuelan rulers that led that beautiful country Venezuela to destruction, I am extremely grateful that this happened because being an immigrant and currently "exiled" was the best thing that could have happened to me in this life, perhaps also in a previous one, but now I feel that I have clarity and power over my purpose in this current transition.
Seto was created for this very reason, to play a role in that game, carrying all that pain and new experience in my DNA, carrying new energies in my backpack of life, waiting for the moment to show the world that not all is lost. Since I was very young, music has been a safe escape route to a world of imagination without borders, discovering that this soul incarnated with the natural talent and the "archetype" of the music artist. Frustrated by the blockage of not being able to always express what I wanted and being at the mercy of my parents' loving repression, it was difficult for me for almost my entire life to be able to do what every musician wants to do with their natural instrument, sing, and thanks to this new experience I learned that there are no things that no one can not try, so that we realize that we are capable of doing anything if we put enough intention and love into it.
And that is why I understood what led me to this point in life where I am, being a photographer, after going through many jobs and situations of personal growth, everything drained into what has affected us most as a society from an economic and psychological point of view, for many in a very positive way and for others in a very negative way, and it was at that moment during the pandemic that I realized that there were things that I really did not know about myself such as eating correctly for example, and that with enough time I could do creative things that went beyond what I thought I could do, I started making videos on YouTube about my music and recommendations for pet care and without realizing it at the same time I was learning to create audiovisual content and edit this content I learned to use editing tools, I learned about color management and to understand how a file is edited or given some kind of style, going deeper and deeper in search of my personal style and I did everything with a phone, it was at the end of the pandemic that after thinking so much about what to do I decided to buy my first camera to create content for social networks of people, companies or whoever needs a photo or video to publish, entrepreneurs, musicians etc. and it was there where I began to learn how to use a camera and little by little I became a photographer, my surprise was to discover that I was born for this and it was given to me as a completely natural gift.
After 1 month of having started to learn how to use and understand the camera and all its parameters, I saw an Adobe advertisement that said "we are looking for Latin American photographers who want to be Adobe Stock collaborators" without the slightest idea about what that was, I opened the first stock photography account there on Adobe, and that same year while I had another job in parallel I dedicated myself to learning how to use the camera, take photos, create and grow on Instagram and meet people and make myself known as an amateur photographer, until the concept of STOCK PHOTOGRAPHER began to appear again, and I decided to investigate and learn what that was, and the stock photography podcast of "stckeros" was of great help for this task, which at that time was called in another way, apart from being entertaining it was easy to understand the subject and little by little I was learning and understanding what it was about, until I motivated myself and entered the Stockeros academy for a month to learn the fundamental bases of metadata and to correctly place the keywords since I understood that without That i would not be successful in selling the photos. In February 2021 I published my first rather amateur photo shoot, it was with a friend who dressed up as an engineer and a doctor, and in that first attempt I discovered with great pride that the work was not lost since after two months the first photos were sold and to this day those photos continue to sell.
Until today I have realized that this work here in Latin America has a window and it is that thanks to inflation, few earnings in dollars get you out of a tight spot in pesos, the local currency, and at the same time we have the advantage of cultural diversity that apparently has more and more commercial interest in the world, especially here in Argentina because it is a country of immigrants, people of many races and colors live there, which adds to the advantage of diversity since we can offer diverse and interesting material to the stock market, Argentina has a large and beautiful metropolis as well as its inhabitants are very collaborative and hard-working people and many are willing to help you as well as receive help in the same way, this helps us to always organize sessions by exchanging material, that is, a mutual effort is made between photographer and model for the obtaining of the same result, the photographic material, which serves as a portfolio for the model and the stock photographer serves to sell the photos or as a portfolio for other types of work.
As a photographer in this country, it is enough to offer a good service and give good results, photos that convey, nice photos that meet the client's expectations and give a lot of time and effort to achieve the goal of being recognized that leads you to get more and more work, as a stock photographer we have many advantages in terms of the variety of models and ethnicities, and the ease we have to use models that do not charge us, also beyond this metropolis there is a more natural world that has not yet been explored, there are mountains, sea, towns, natural life etc. that is also a commercial world to explore and exploit, returning to the capital we also enjoy a diversity of urban, traditional spaces, parks, lakes, coworkings, cafes, and an endless number of etc. that with a little imagination and study you can really achieve photos of any theme or concept.
Being a stock photographer made me become a photographer, it was my first school, it was the first thing I learned to do, and today I put a commercial eye on everything I do thanks to stock photography and that makes my work always try to be of good quality and that I never stop learning and improving my technique in terms of taking and editing the image, integrating into myself the perfection of the frame and the rules of composition, so much so that I am surprised by the photos I take and when I edit them I see that it is perfectly composed and straight, the horizontal and vertical lines aligned and many times I achieve that result without realizing it, and it is thanks to stock photography, thanks to learning from the corrections of rejected photos, and understanding what agencies are looking for and it is an almost perfect balance in the image that in the end is what leads to success in this business, which apparently led me to success outside of stock, since I have been able to grow as a photographer of other styles, and it is because of the discipline and the constant study and improvement that stock led me to develop and that even I still maintain.
Jose Contreras Picha Profile
