1. Give us a personal background on yourself? (Where are you from, where do you reside, what’s your preferred medium? Are you a cat or dog person? We want to know!)

Hey! My name is Jose Musa, I was born and raised in Miami Florida and still am currently based in Miami although I do travel for work often. My preferred medium currently is digital photography, but I do occasionally shoot film as well. My current camera set up is a Canon 6D Mark ii with a 17-40mm lens and almost all my latest work is shot on that lens.

2. How did you first start your journey towards becoming an artist?

I first started my journey back in my freshman year of high school back in 2015, it was picture day and I saw that there were students helping out and got to be there all day and skip class so I asked one of them how can I get to help out like you guys, and they said you have to join yearbook. So that’s exactly what I did. When you join yearbook, you have to take a workshop on how to use the basics of a camera so you can shoot events and we also got to take the cameras home and that’s when I started to play around and have photoshoots with my friends, and I realized wow this is kind of fun. Sophomore year comes and I then buy my own camera and just continued my journey by using YouTube and google to help me learn new techniques and skills as well as shooting almost every day to practice. My first inspirations when I began shooting were @yourfriendandrei and @bryant.

3. When was the first time you really saw yourself as an artist?

The first time I truly saw myself as an artist was when I first found my style. To me once a photographer finds their style, they have achieved a certain milestone in their journey and people can now put their face to their work. I will say that at the beginning it took a lot of time to find my style and it is ok to try a variety of different things to find out which one you enjoy the most and showcases you as an artist and your style can change and adapt over the years which I can say mine has changed a tremendous amount.

4. What do you think new artists struggle with the most nowadays?

I think now a days new artists struggle with worrying what others will think of their work and get discourage from showcasing their work because of it. Even in social media everyone is worried that the amount of likes and comments you get determines how good your work is but that’s not true. I too struggled with this for a long time and now recently turned off my likes so that I am only posting content that I am 100% happy with and not what other people are happy with.

5. How did you learn how to set a price on your art/craft?

The way I learned how to set my price was based on the quality of my work so I found other people that I feel have the same quality at the time and asked them what their prices were and then tweaked them based on how I saw fit and then as my quality improves over time my prices increase as well and you have to make sure you value your time because if not people can take advantage.

6. What has been your favorite piece that you’ve created?

Oof this is a hard one. I can never pick a favorite when people ask me haha but if I had I choose one right now my favorite set I did was brand work for Swankemon because of it was one of the few shoots were I had an entire team to help me finish the project and everyone clicked and worked amazing together. If you have a great team that energy pours over into the work that everyone does and the finished product.

7. Who’s one of your biggest sources of inspiration right now?

Right now, I am obsessed with with two photographers: @christianohermoso and @jack_bridgland_studio. These two photographers have such insane work and influence the direction I want to take my photography.

8. If you could pick one of your pieces to represent you as a person, which one would it be and why?

A piece that would represent me as a person would have to be my “Aquawoman” series because it was a shoot that was created, styled, and shot by me as well as some help from my MUA Alejandra Azur. I feel like this set showcases my creativity as well as well as my ability as a creative director as well.

9. What has been your happiest moment as an artist?

My happiest moment as an artist was when I got my first job that paid for me to travel out of Florida. It was after that that I started to gain more work trips that allowed me to travel, and I realized that all those dreams I had about wanting to travel and shoot content for a living all those years ago when I was 15 were starting to come true.

10. Have you ever made any mistakes in the industry that have taught you a valuable lesson?

I have made plenty of mistakes in the industry but the main one that would be to use contracts. At the beginning I didn’t think it was necessary, but it is the only thing that protects you and your work instead of relying on a verbal agreement.

11. If you were a dessert, what dessert would you be and why?

I would be red velvet cake because it is unmatched and tastes delicious.

12. What kind of music do you like to listen to when you work?

My music varies when I work but if it’s a studio session, I have a playlist I made that varies from blackeyedpeas to bad bunny.

13. What’s your least favorite trend at the moment?

There isn’t really any trends I hate at the moment.

14. If you could leave us with one thought, what would it be?

Practice and experimenting with new techniques are what will help you immensely in your artistic journey.