Guestagrammer of the Week: Dotan Saguy

Momenta welcomes this week’s guestagrammer, Dotan Saguy.

Age: 45

Current job: Freelance documentary photographer

Current location: Los Angeles

​Website: wwww.dotansaguy.com

Connection to Momenta: 

I attended the Project LA workshop as a student in February and served as a panelist in the 1-day LA workshop earlier this month.

 @Dotan Saguy

Tell us about your journey as an image-maker and how you got to where you are today.

I’ve been a passionate amateur photographer for many years. About 18 months ago, my technology business became much less time consuming, which has allowed me to go full-time with my photography. I took advantage of this situation to focus on learning photojournalism and documentary photography and working on long term projects I care about.

 © Dotan Saguy 

What stories or issues are you most passionate about covering?

I have been covering the many quirky subcultures of Venice Beach for over a year and that’s still an ongoing project. In May I traveled to Havana, Cuba to document the rapid changes happening there. I have also started working on two long-term social documentary projects: one about people coming out of homelessness and the other called “unclaimed bodies” which documents what happens when people die in complete anonymity.

Where do you look for inspiration for your work: books, movies, authors, photographers, art, certain people?

I constantly research photographers who’s work I admire and carefully study their work for inspiration. I go to exhibits by these photographers any chance I get. I buy often buy their books.

© Dotan Saguy

What social media or news feeds do you follow regularly? 

I go on Facebook and Instagram on a regular basis.

 © Dotan Saguy

What is one passion you have outside of photography that might come as a surprise to our readers?

Cooking. I was raised in France where there isn’t any stigma about boys and cooking. On the contrary: the most acclaimed chefs tend to be men and there’s a long tradition of them. I am the main cook at home and I cook almost every meal for my wife and kids. Both of my kids (a boy and a girl) love cooking too now and I take great pride in it.

© Dotan Saguy

What can we expect to see next week from your “guestagramming” on our Momenta Instagram account?

I’ll post some images from my recent trip to Cuba. I hope the followers enjoy them. It was such a magical place.

#seizethemomenta, and follow @momentaworkshops on Instagram to see Dotan’s great work!

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