richard lech blog

One of the biggest changes I’ve had to deal with since moving to Mexico is the lack of photography community that I had when I was in Chicago. Its one of those things you take for granted or don’t even notice you have until its gone. At almost any given point, if I had a photoshoot that I needed help with, there was always someone that I knew that I could contact to help me or rent me equipment or even just throw out some ideas my way.

My very first shoot here in Mexico was for a magazine. I came to Mexico with very minimal lighting, mainly because I already knew there were tons of photographers around the area I am at and I figured the worst that happens is that I have to pay and rent lighting until I can get something better. After walking around and talking and emailing half the photographers around Queretaro, no one was willing to rent any equipment, and even more disturbing no one would help me find out where. I was stuck using one 1k softbox that I had for the shoot.

This lack of community and this idea of ‘every man for themselves’ hit me hard. Photography, of all the arts is one of the few that requires involvement from more than just a photographer or a model. Instead of taking an opportunity to work with each other, help each other, and learn from each other, all these photographers I talked too couldn’t see past the idea that I was competition. It really made me pretty upset and it made me miss the community of friends in Chicago a bit.

On the plus side… Ive not started to find other photographers in mexico who understand the need for a community and have started steps towards building an international photo group, which im sure i’ll blog about in the near future

The mini skirt how we know it today took shape in 1966 by a designer named Mary Quant and wasn’t widely popular until the late 60’s. She was highly influenced by a collection made in 1964 by a designer named Courrèges who at the time was making shorter more stylish skirts for women to wear.

Quant took the idea of these pleated straight skirts and shortened the skirt more, setting it about 6-7″ above the knee, and made her designs a lot simpler using all sorts of materials from cotton to PVC. Mini skirts first became popular in London where Quant was from then spread to the US. Her skirts were highly controversial and as a result their popularity of her new designs grew.

As a result, its really rare to find a fashion photo of mini skirts before 1966.

Twiggy - 1967

Hello world and welcome to my blog.  For those of you who don’t know who I am, my name is Richard Lech, I am a professional photographer, recently becoming what I like to call international photographer.. (inside joke since I just moved out of the US.. although technically it does make me an international photographer!)

For a while now I’ve been wanting to start a blog not only about my work, but to talk a bit about photography, fashion, modeling… or lumped into one small phrase ‘the industry’.  Im sure there are tons of people out there, and if are anything like me, always have the itch of curiosity.  While I can confidently say that I don’t know everything there is to know about ‘the industry’ or photography or lighting… there are a lot of things I’ve learned along the way so far that might be able to help someone else out… or on the same note, there are questions I’ve always had and by researching questions I recieve Im constantly in a learning process myself!

So that being said, if anyone ever has any questions about my work or the industry please feel free to contact me via any of the social networks I belong or if you can quickly access my contact form on my site www.richardlech.com/ to send me your thoughts or questions.

Look forward to lots of things to come… my work, ideas, and 4am ramblings of a insomniac photographer.   I am currently working out some things to start a video blog that is going to accompany this blog… Im trying to organize some things here in my new space before I start.

Happy shooting.

So after living in one place for so long you start to accumulate pictures of friends, locations, family, and other random stuff you’ve seen along the way. I have tons and tons and tons of pictures that I’ve always wanted to post somewhere but I’ve never had a chance or time too… so Im going to take advantage of this blog to post some of my favorite moments of my Chicago adventures. Im sure you’ll see a lot of reoccurring faces throughout these pictures…

Josiah playing his guitar on the subway.