“I’m not scared about AI in general because my approach in art is very different,” says photographer Pat Domingo to the Phoblographer in an interview. “I rely on human interaction and that is also, I think, a part of my success in my career. AI is in general an option to do art and should be categorized for themselves.” Pat thinks that at the end of the day, photography will still be photography. But more importantly, when Pat really flexes his creative muscles, they’d make Arnie in his hey-day look like he didn’t do enough steroids. Pat has absolutely made images we don’t think folks would ever necessarily make using prompts — and we love that about his work.
This article is presented in partnership with Leica. All images by Pat Domingo. Used with permission. Please check out his website and Instagram @patdomingo. For more, you can check out his experience with the Leica SL3 and other SL3 stories here.
Pat is a lifestyle photographer based in Vienna who got into the art form at the age of 13 with the help of his father. “I also grew up with all the magazines like Time and Newsweek…I was always fascinated by the photographs and all the reportages,” he tells us. Eventually, he fell in love with the Leica philosophy of making photographs.
These days, Pat mostly finds himself reaching for his Leica SL3, 50mm Summicron SL ASPH, and the Leica 24-70mm 2.8 Vario Elmarit. “I am actually very open to new technologies, but I still keep it simple,” he explains. “I like to use technology when I am running into limits with my technical capabilities.” He also adores his Leica M11-P, 35mm f1.4 FLE II, and the 35mm Summicron M. A bunch of different flashes are also used depending on what he’s making. The gear helps him out because sometimes, he only has seconds with the people he’s photographing.
The SL3 is what Pat used to make these stunning images. Now, let’s think about this. The series features a model in a lovely ball gown in what looks like the middle of the desert in Namibia. But somehow or another, there’s a long tree. And this lone tree is adorned with a chandelier. The scene also keeps the colors relatively simple while giving the scene a bit of mystery. We don’t really know why we’re here — and that’s part of the idea of channeling your dreams into a photograph. As your dreams often mean something, we can probably all find metaphors for our life in these images. In fact, Pat had this concept ready to go for a while. “I had the idea with the chandelier for over 15 years in my mind,” he tells us. “When Leica asked me to be a part of the SL3 campaign, I immediately had the idea to put the chandelier into the game. I always wanted to hang or lie a chandelier into random places.” Perhaps the chandelier has a bit of importance to Pat.