Zachariah Hagy: Heavens Lost Child

Zachariah Hagy is a multi-faceted contemporary photographer and film director with a young mind and an old soul. His works have very close relationships with fashion art and cinéma vérité.

Zach has worked on a numerous projects that expand all over the US. Projects from photography to art installations and magazines.

Some of my featured works include, Rebel magazine, billboard, Paper magazine, Flannel magazine, Dance magazine, and more. To see a list of publications you can check them out here: zachhagy.com/published

I got started into photography when I was about 15/16. It came from my background in skateboarding and snowboarding. At that time I was filming on mini DV tape mainly, that slowly transitioned into photography of skating and snowboarding with then lead to lifestyle shooting and 10 years later here we are!

It all really started from meeting people and collaborating with different creatives. Early on the instagram days when I was shooting a lot of lifestyle work I would hit up talent, stylists, MUA, etc. to do a creative shoot. I have always enjoyed collaborating and meeting new creative people.

For my personal shoots, the planning process is much more loose and rhythmic. Specifically this shoot, my partner and I have been in our camper for the past 2 months so planning for this one was a lot of chatting while driving. We often first come up with a tone and feel, from there we location scout and start brainstorming ideas. Erin, the model, was very involved in this shoot and she made her wardrobe from scratch. Working with people that are equally as driven is always great!

There are so many amazing photographers out there, and so many “styles” in the photography world. The thing that separates my work from others is I always do what feels right to me and or the people I am collaborating with. It’s important to find inspiration and have references but once you start shooting just do what feels right and what your eye finds appealing.

Often my inspiration comes from videos and magazines. Both of which you can get sucked into and have a story or article to read more into. I loved printed matter and being able to examine images up close.

Some of the best images that I’ve seen are ones where you feel like you are in the photograph or from a portrait perspective you feel like you know the person in the photo. Both are very difficult to do, and both require time, trust, and composition.

When you go into a commercial shoot it is important to know that the client needs to walk away with what they paid for. Most of the time it is pretty easy to get what the client wants and try some more creative shots. A big part of it is reading the room as well, if the client is really set on a tone and feel, just run with it, there are going to be more shoots and different clients who are willing and wanting to be more creative.

A lot of artists influence my work, one of my favorite artists is synchrodogs.com

I always find myself looking at editorial, abstract photos that involve a subject and nature. I do enjoy studio works but images that utilize nature are my favorite.

Again, do what feels right to you, but always try to expand your post-process flow. I typically do not like to look at the photos on the same day. There is a natural bias that we have to some photos from when we were shooting. I also typically send my selects to close friends/creative collaborators to get opinions.

One of the best pieces of advice that I have gotten if something goes wrong or you can see a potential error is to delegate time and tasks and don’t make a big deal about it. 90% of the time it will be ok and making a big deal or creating a scene will distract everyone and take the shoot out of it’s flow state. Never expect things to go wrong but always be prepared and willing to adapt.

When you are early on and really fired up about taking photos, SHOOT AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. This will only help you sharpen your craft and polish what you like and do not like. If you are like me and over the years your personal art works slows down in quantity but expands in quality all of work you put in early on will come to show.

It makes sense that the more you know the more time it will take but I have gotten to love the slower process.

Two of my favorite pieces are a fine art photo and a dance film I directed.

I am working on a gallery show for the winter that will be abstract fashion imagery representing my childhood.