Vincent Crown is a photographer who lives between the San Francisco Bay Area and Spain. He specializes in lifestyle photography. Visiting and living more than 40 countries around the world made an impact in his way of capturing images.

TH: When did you start as a photographer?
VCrown: I started as a photographer in 2000. At that time, I was the export manager of a commodities company. My work took me to Southeast Asia, the Arab world and Eastern Europe. I spent months traveling from country to country. Those trips, specially to Asia, opened the door to observation, to capturing time and its unique moments. It was in Indonesia where I first decided to use a camera.

TH: Where does your creativity and inspiration come from?
VCrown: My resume is quite complex and varied. I studied to become a diplomat, I taught classes of cultures and civilization, wrote an essay on Mediterranean mythology, I worked as a news analyst and then entered the world of web 2.0.

My creativity is a compendium of Zen observation, a state of mind and the accumulation of lots of reading. Lately most of my creativity has come from the study of quantum physics and its impact on everything around us. My photography is at all times the way I see life.

TH: What are your favorite things to photograph?
VCrown: Before I answer this question, let me introduce you the concept of Open Circumstances. This concept permeates all the pictures I do. Open Circumstances are about capturing unique moments from every person, every situation, with a unique imprint. It is photography without flash, in situ, using the natural existing light. The concept of Open Circumstances relate to the ability of shooting the indirect coordination between agents and actions.

As for my favorite things to photograph, I enjoyed photographing top Spanish chefs like Ferran Adria and Joan Roca. I enjoyed photographing in their kitchens. I like to do portraits of artists performing their crafts: flamenco dancers, stage acting and actors make up process. I love to photograph the startup geniuses in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their energy and creativity is contagious. Finally I love landscape and nature photography, specially botany and gardens.

My next project is doing fashion photography in New York in this coming September. For me it is a challenge and, like every challenge, it comes with new energy that fascinates me.

TH: We already know you have a very unique approach when it comes to the use of light in your photo shoots. Tell us a bit more about it.
VCrown: I only use natural light, no matter what the situation or location is. I like what I see and like my photos to reflect what happens in the moment, with the available means. It is hard work that requires choosing perfectly the light focus in the camera. You can only get that by experimenting and practicing every day with different light situations. That’s what I like and enjoy.

TH: What are your biggest influences?
VCrown: Photography is the easiest medium in which to be competent but it is the hardest medium in which to have personal vision. The search for and the cultivation of this personal vision led me to seek reference masters such as Jacques Henri Lartigue, the master of Open Circumstances; Henri Cartier Bresson, master of time and momentum; Ansel Adams for the understanding of Nature photography and Karl Blossfeldt for my magna botanic reference.

VCrown on the Web: Blog | Talenthouse | Twitter