Jose Silva is a self-described “ambivert.” Better known as @jnsilva on Instagram, where his profile explains the term (“more introverted than extroverted but with extraordinarily well-developed faking skills”), the full-time photographer and videographer definitely has a better view than you at any concert. Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, the 32-year-old now calls West New York, NJ home and exercises his passion for the urban, the energetic, and the colorful through his work.
Those “ambivert” faking skills pay off when Silva is shooting hundreds of images among thousands of revelers at live music festivals, or working for clients such as Don Julio Tequila, MTV, Spotify, and Vans. His more than 300,000 Instagram followers perhaps originally came to his profile for the celebrities, the musicians, and other famous faces, but stayed for his vibrant, sharp portraits and the perpetual catnip that is photos of New York City.
Adorama caught up with Silva to discover how exactly he got to where he is, and also what he wears to work in the presence of rockstars.
Adorama: First things first. What is your gear setup and your usual editing workflow?
Silva: My current favorite camera body is the Sony a7R III. As far as lenses, I love primes so either a 35mm, 50mm, or 85mm. What I carry with me usually depends on the assignment, but my favorite lens to just walk around with is the 35mm f/1.4, for sure.
As for editing, my mentality is that if I take more than a few minutes editing a photo, then I didn’t do a good job capturing it. Beside obvious things like straightening and cropping, I usually just do some color and toning adjustments to match whatever mood I’m trying to convey. Obviously there are photos and assignments that require more nuanced edits, but for the most part I don’t like to over-edit.
Adorama: What would you consider to be elements of your signature style?
Silva: I don’t know if I have a signature style, per se, but I’d say the two elements that I focus on most in my work are composition and lighting. Before photography I was a huge film buff, so most of my inspiration for composition comes from studying the work of my favorite directors. As for lighting, my favorite style or method (if you can call it that) is chiaroscuro, which is singular light sources with strong contrasts between the lights and the darks.
Adorama: Was there a moment you remember first falling in love with photography?
Silva: I fall in love with photography almost every time I pick up a camera, but there’s nothing like those first few years. Back then I could walk around my block and take hundreds of pictures, just because I was that curious and eager to experiment. It was all about finding a voice, a point of view, and learning about myself. I tend to be in my head often, and photography was something that forced me to be patient and observant. I’ve had no formal training in photography, and almost everything I’ve ever learned about it has been self-taught, from the internet, or from friends.
Adorama: How do you make a living right now, and how big a role does your photography play?
Silva: I’m a full-time photographer so it plays a pretty big role. I’ve been fortunate enough to connect and partner with some pretty amazing companies throughout my career, so a lot of my work comes from ambassador programs and long-term contracts. Of course I’m always looking to expand and tackle new challenges with my photography or videography, so I keep an open mind. Let’s work!
Adorama: What do you find to be the most challenging aspects of shooting a live music performance in a large venue?
Silva: One of the reasons I love music photography is for how challenging it is, and I don’t think many people realize that. There’s never much control over what happens during a performance for a photographer, but it is your job to capture the energy and tell a story in a single frame. There are so many elements that must come together for a photo to resonate: the lighting, the artist’s expression, the composition, the crowd, the instruments, the band. Add to this the challenge of being constrained (most pits are packed and not too comfortable), the low light, and fast movements, and you have a heck of a challenge every time.
Adorama: What does a typical day look like for you, when you’re photographing a major festival, like Panorama NYC or Coachella?
Silva: On festival days I try my best to arrive early so I can shoot the installations and the venue empty, and then as the day progresses I’ll walk around and explore pretty much every inch of the grounds, shooting everything that interests me in the process. Beside the artists and performances, I enjoy shooting the art, the crowds, the fashion, and portraits of the attendees. Every festival has its own vibe, and the goal is to capture that through my photos. Even after a long day of shooting, I’ll still get home and stay up a few extra hours editing whatever I didn’t get to earlier. Then I’ll catch a few hours of rest and get ready to do it all over again.
Adorama: You shot the MTV VMAs this year, and put out some very slick videos in Instagram Stories. What do you find to be the challenges of creating content for this medium (and its very tightly vertical, limited format) and how do you adapt your style to it?
Silva: Having to adapt to vertical video has been an interesting exercise in composition, but by far the biggest challenge is keeping a viewer’s attention. We all have very short attention spans these days, so creating something that keeps the viewer engaged is the toughest part. For the VMA’s, we tried to keep the videos short and threw in fast cuts to showcase the subject’s style.
Adorama: What did you wear to shoot the VMAs? How has your personal style changed as you have more interaction with performers, models, and celebrities?
Silva: I wore what I wear 99 percent of the time: dark jeans with a black T-shirt, and black sneakers. I’m in the Steve Jobs school of thought on this one and treat my attire as almost like a uniform. Wearing all black and keeping it simple just takes the stress away of having to pick an outfit. I’ve never been one to want to be the center of attention, so all black is my way of laying low.
Adorama: When working with clients, how do you agree on copyright and what arrangement do you find to be the “standard” for such collaborations?
Silva: Normally I will fight to keep copyrights of any photo I shoot, and I think for the most part that has been the standard, and then I just negotiate for the usage rights with the company. Certain festivals are pretty strict about this, however; so it hasn’t always been easy.
“It is far more beneficial to connect with fellow creatives and grow together, rather than to compare yourself with them and try to compete.”
Adorama: What do you know now, more than 2,400 Instagram posts and 313,000 followers in, that you wish you’d known when you first set up your Insta?
Silva: That it is far more beneficial to connect with fellow creatives and grow together, rather than to compare yourself with them and try to compete. For the first year or so after I set up my Insta, photography was very much a solitary thing for me. It wasn’t until after some time that I began to meet up with other photographers and bounce ideas around. Doing this not only brought about growth as an artist, but it contributed to my personal growth.
Adorama: What’s your single favorite photo you’ve captured and shared, and can you tell the story behind it?
Silva: I speak about one of my favorites in my Through the Lens video, but another favorite of mine was a shot from a trip to Kenya a few years back. I had taught a workshop in Nairobi a few days before, and a group of local photographers (whom I had essentially just met, but knew through Instagram) set up a camping trip to Hell’s Gate National Park. We all spent the night getting to know each other and telling stories, and at the time I remember thinking how relatable everyone was and how kind it was of them to plan this trip to show me the beauty of their country. We woke up super early for sunrise, and it was so magical. To this day it remains one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever witnessed.
“At that moment I just felt so incredibly grateful to be there, with these people, on the other side of the world. And it was all because of photography.”
When we got to our destination there was a bank of fog rolling in low, and flocks of birds just constantly flying overhead, and not too far ahead I saw a group of zebras calmly grazing. Of course I had to capture it. At that moment I just felt so incredibly grateful to be there, with these people, on the other side of the world. And it was all because of photography.
Check out Silva’s full Through the Lens episode below:
