So how did you feel being back at school after working with Weber?
Honestly, I think some people would feel demoted, because years after people have asked me why did I leave that relationship or what happened, that that was my meal ticket.
I just don't see people that way, I don't care how powerful or amazing a person is. I don't treat people for what they are, I treat them for who they are with me.
There were plenty of times in school when I was very grateful that I had a professional experience to lean on and understand why I was in school and what the potential was.
Bruce Weber is one of the highest paid photographers in the world so I at least had one person who made the dream happen in my line of sight. I think we all need heroes and he was my first hero that I ran into.
Talking about school, I hear one of the faculty members gave you a chance after school, how did you get your work displayed at the art shows?
Going to school, one of my professors was a gallerist, a very well known gallerist in Miami called Fredric Snitzer. He is still very well known and appreciated. I started working with him after I got out of school as his gallery helper, I did everything. I took pictures, I took inventory, I showed artwork, I tried to sell artwork to people who came in, and Fredric represented all of my friends, who also graduated from school, so when collectors would come in, I got to talk to them about intimate stories with my friends who were the artists, and they were always interested in those stories because if you are going to buy an expensive piece of artwork from a young artist, you want to know that they are serious about their practice, that is not bullshit.
Fast forward a couple of years working with Fred, and I finally come up with this body of work, sort of me dealing with the fact that I’m Jewish and I avoided it my whole life because I was ashamed of it, so I made this body of work and a few of his collector buddies saw some of the pictures, and convinced the dealer to do a show with me.
It was a good show and then I further convinced him to show it at Art Basel Miami Beach and on the last of the show, this guy was walking by the booth, I was working there and it’s weird being an artist and showing your work in an art booth at Art Basel because in some ways you want to talk in third person because you are talking about your art and you are trying to sell it, it’s weird you know?
So this guy comes up to me and he asks “hey, whose picture is that?” so I’m like “oh, is this artist called Zachary Balber“, so I’m talking in third person and he says “ well I was going to leave because I didn’t like anything here until I saw this photo” so I say “oh man, I’m the photographer, it’s weird, I was trying to be third person, I’m sorry”, and he was like ‘ well, have you ever had a museum show?” I said no, he said would you like to?, so I introduced him to my gallerist who is sitting down, talking with his buddies and not paying attention, and I was like “ hey, this is so & so from the Nerman museum in Kansas, he wants to talk about a museum show of this work, and I was basically doing my gallerist job for him.
I think a lot of the advances in my career with people have been because of my efforts, I’ve met a lot of talented people, but it’s the people who are persistent who end up getting there not usually just the talent.