Alfred MInnaar, is an award winning artist born and raised in South Africa, now living in Indonesia.

His specialty… underwater photography and underwater caves.

Great to catch up with him at the DEMA show in Las Vegas.

My philosophy in brand photography is connecting the brand to real people to tell real stories. I do this by connecting brands to extraordinary stories with unique individuals. I believe storytelling is everything in today’s world of marketing, and I aim to capture that in a single image.

I did not start my photography career working with brands. My first job in the industry was working with tourists in Bali, Indonesia. I would follow people out on their dives capturing the experience. From there it was and still is a climb becoming a professional photographer. I find that a lot of people want a career in this industry overnight but the reality is it takes a lot of time like any other profession. I would take photos during the day and at night I would study and watch online tutorials, post productions, and really anything I could find related to photography. They were very long, and sometimes frustrating days, but I was dedicated to pursuing and perfecting my craft.

I was lucky in the sense that over that time I saw a lot of growth on my social media platforms. I was discovered by a big dive magazine in the UK on Instagram and they decided to publish a series of portraits I did on divers that helped jump start my career. The world of diving is a small one and brands saw my talent and it helped to give me credit in the industry. From there I would visit dive EXPO’s in Singapore and Europe where I was consistently networking and pitching ideas to various brands for opportunities. It was in a show in Germany that landed my first big project. The idea was to document a bunch of divers who lived on lake Baikal, Siberia. Lake Baikal is the coldest lake in the world where the temperature can drop to -13°F on the coldest days. The dive club, DC Svall, has not missed a dive on a Saturday in 20 years. The difficulty of this project was highlighted when the editor of Dive Mag UK told me a previous photographer did not give them the desired results. As I stated before, my passion is to connect real people and real stories directly to the brand. I collaborated with a luxury watch brand, a dive brand, and Dive Mag UK to make the project happen on an extremely tight budget. I really needed a project that would prove that I can back my concept and ideas with results and it paid off in the end. In 2020 I won the International photography award in the advertising and branding category. I beat campaigns like American Airlines, which had a way larger budget than myself. I believe it was mainly to do with how I highlighted the unique story of the divers at DC Svall.

I do not believe that my journey in photography could’ve been sped up. Looking back to what I know now I could’ve streamlined certain things like my efficiency with editing photos, but I had to put in the time to network, perfect my craft, and build trust with people. At the end of every year for the last 7 years I would say I am better than the year before and that’s just about putting in a ton of time, honing in on my photography and post production skills, which is extremely important if you want to work with brands. When pursuing a career in photography there are just no shortcuts and it is definitely a lifestyle choice, and with the right focus and perseverance, it is very rewarding.