Meet Dino Kuznik | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dino Kuznik and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dino, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I worked as a full-time Graphic Designer for about seven years but have always been involved in photography – in my student years; I worked as a journalistic photographer, retoucher, and studio assistant. While working as a graphic designer, I also did many photo jobs on the side but primarily dedicated my free time to my personal body of work. One of these bodies of work was a photo series called Shaped by the West, which was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards – one of the biggest photo competitions in the world and exhibited in Somerset House in London as part of the opening ceremony of the competition. After all the PR surrounding the awards and the exposure, my work got online and in the news, the influx of photography-related requests started filling my inbox. These requests were one of the biggest reasons I wanted to start working as a full-time photographer again, but my 9-5 was preventing me from having time to take these projects on. I wanted to do what excites me and gives me joy as my full-time profession again, so I left my 9-5 position and started my own photography business. After seven years of a somewhat structured corporate job in Ad-Tech which wasn’t fulfilling me, I was ready for something new – and working for myself really excited me.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a NY-based photographer originally from Slovenia. I use photography as a medium to immortalize aesthetically unique scenes, emphasizing color and composition. Solitude is a driving factor behind my personal work as it reflects a peaceful state of mind, which I think is only attainable after total immersion in the environment I work in.

I mostly focus on my personal body of work, book publishing, and commercial projects, ranging from artistic portraits, automotive, landscape, & documentary photography. As a co-founder of Aliens in Residence (an independent publisher of contemporary photography based in Brooklyn, NY) my latest focus has been publishing up-and-coming photography artists and expanding my personal body of work.

My first hardcover book, Shaped by the West, was released in the third edition last year and is sold-out at the time of writing.

Some of my clients include Tesla, Sony Music / Tyler the Creator, Jay Versace, Demetrius Harmon, Adobe, The New Yorker, Urth, Ami Paris, Hasselblad, etc.

It did take a lot of time to get where I am today, but I was fortunate enough to be involved in photography for a long time without the stress of finding photography jobs 0r making a living with it – so I evolved my craft organically and shot projects that I wanted to shoot – of course with an occasional job here and there. I think this relationship to the medium was very important as the emotions and attachment to the work spilled into my compositions and evolved into a distinctive style, for which clients later started to seek me out for.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
There are so many things to do in New York, and it really depends on what the person visiting likes and what they would like to see in NYC, of course. I would definitely always recommend skipping the touristy things like Times Square, but if someone really wants to see blinding lights and too many people on sidewalks – I wouldn’t be opposed to it 🙂 See below for some suggestions I would have or usually do when someone is visiting.

1. Take them out to museums & galleries. Whitney, Guggenheim, MoMa, MoMA PS1, The MET, … lot’s of possibilities, but also depends on what is showing.
2. Go to my favorite restaurants – definitely Biria-Landia (taco truck), Win Son (Taiwanese), and some Dim Sum in Flushing (the name escapes me right now).
3. Go out to party at the Basement (New York’s version of Berghain … kind of)
4. See if any good bands are playing and go see a show (Brooklyn Steal, Market Hotel, Saint Vitus, …)
5. Take the train upstate to DIA Beacon or Stormking and stay in a small upstate town
6. Take a bike ride to the Rockaways and back and also bike to Redhook and get a Key Lime Pie
7. Go chill at Prospect Park / McCarren Park / Transmitter Park
8. Take the ferry to Staten Island and back (it’s free and the cheap way to see the Statue of Liberty somewhat up close)
9. Go to see a movie at Nitehawk where you can enjoy drinks and food while watching
10.Go to the farmers market and get some fresh veggies and bread for brunch/lunch/dinner which I would cook
11.Go hang out with the cool kids down at Dimes Square (Chinatown, LES)
12. Go to a DJ set at LOT radio
13. Do a rooftop bbq
14. Go to a great cocktail bar and get tipsy
15. Take them to my favorite Detroit-style pizza spot Aces Pizza
16. Get some donuts and bagels at Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop
17. Hang out with our friends

…. I could go on to a 100+ but let’s stop here 🙂

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My success was definitely enabled by my mom, who always supported me in my endeavors and stood by me even in the toughest times. I do also need to mention my late grandfather, who was the person who introduced me to photography and sparked my interest for the visual medium. I still remember as I would come to his room as a little kid, where he had a collection of National Geographic Magazines, which he subscribed to in the early 60s. We would spend eternity just looking at all the amazing imagery that the magazine featured.

Website: www.dinokuznik.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dinokuznik/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dinokuznik

Image Credits
Copyright Dino Kuznik © All rights reserved