Michael Winokur
San Francisco, CA, United States
I think like an artist, I work like a craftsman. To me that means my job is to provide clients with the best thinking and the best execution. In my San Francisco studio, a warm, flexible 3000 sq ft workspace, I have some amazing tools. From the workhorse digital cameras we use every day to hand-made 4x5 cameras and antique lenses for more specialized projects, I am always looking for the right tool for your job. I also own and shoot with a Epic from Red Digital Cinema. The biggest movies in the world are being captured on these cameras.
Whether I'm photographing real people for a pharmaceutical campaign, yogis for an editorial spread, children for a film project or wild animals for a museum, to me the goal is always to communicate something universal about the character and personality of the subject. If you look at my work and think you'd like to meet some of the people I've met and photographed then I'm doing something right. I came to photography as a photojournalist and worked for newspapers across the country. At that time I had the opportunity to meet remarkable people. Photographing so many interesting people was as thrilling as traveling the world. Though my work is no longer that of a documentarian, I learned something about portraiture that still informs my style.
I am an evangelist of life-long education. Read my blog and you'll see many book reviews. Life-long education isn't just about acquiring skills, it's about constantly reshaping perspective, learning other disciplines and taking risks. Neuroscientists will tell you that learning creates new neural pathways. That might be a physiological benefit of life-long learning, the creative value is as obvious as looking at something old with fresh eyes.

- Advertising
- Corporate
- Editorial
- Fashion
- Portrait