NEW MEMBER PROFILE // Photographer Jonavennci Divad Follows his "Artistic Eye"

Many who've studied to become professional photographers may recognize a common sentiment amongst college advisers: Being a graphic designer is a safer, more lucrative career path than becoming a photographer.

New 3rd Ward member Jonavennci Divad began as the former. Though while on a design job, he experienced a shift: "I was motivated to purchase a DSLR camera to photograph my clients for their custom MySpace page designs," he tells us. "After recieving a great amount of commentary from clients on my photography it became an eye opener for me that I had an artistic eye for creating art through photographs. It wasn't till a year later that I knew I wanted to pursue photography as my career."

In what may be a college adviser-approved route, Divad has merged his newfound eye with his original design education and is now a "self-taught retoucher" with a sizable celebrity portfolio.

Fabolous for Rich YungIn recent years, Divad has shot hip-hop artists (Fabolous), major athletes (L.A. Laker Matt Barnes and Giant Devin Thomas) and reality stars (Gloria and Laura Govan of Basketball Wives ). In addition to beauty shots for Ford models and editorials for Essence, he's learned how to play nice with the occasional celebrity ego: "Some like to play the name-dropping game in defense of an opinion on how the styling, the make up, or even the hair looks. But this is nothing that anyone should let affect their workflow."

A Divad beauty shotAnd forever intent on not letting anyone interrupt that workflow, Divad's keeping his sights aimed high. "My dream assignment would be to shoot a campaign posted on a billboard in Times Square," he says. "I would also love to shoot for Cover Girl; I just love the way their campaigns bring out the beauty in celebrities."

Keep an eye out for this hardworking Brooklynite.

--Layla Schlack