Today we’d like to introduce you to Nina Hart and Dominic Mendoza.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
It all started in the first apartment that we lived in together as husband and wife. We had just planned our entire wedding in just 4 months, both of us working two jobs & planning (which included building and DYI decor) in the early and very late hours of the day. We were exhausted but we absolutely loved the journey of it all. We are two artistic and romantic souls and together we had the time of our lives on our adventure towards marriage. Dominic had been second shooting weddings with another company for a couple of years by this time and he loved everything about it. We knew we wanted to work together in a business of our own where we could express our artistic talents and passion for romance and people; photography was the perfect opportunity for us to live out our dreams. He taught me the ropes and we both quickly grew together, gaining experience and pushing each other to further our skills and insight. We are now approaching our third year as an official company and we have many new adventures that we are excited to share with our community. We actively plan, build, coordinate and tell the stories of couples in love, through intimate elopements and weddings. We’ve always taken care of our couples because we know everything that goes into preparing for and planning an elopement or wedding. We know that the journey starts well before we even meet with our clients and that their journey will extend well past their wedding day, as something they will remember forever. We pour everything we have into our business, countless hours of brainstorming how we can better serve our couples, hours of building intimate dinner tables and archways for elopements and putting together the most efficient services for our couples. We live our passion through our business, we hold our couples and their stories in our hearts; and that is where we got our name as Apartment 3. Our first apartment is the heart of where all our dreams of living out our passion began, at home, within the walls of our beloved Apartment 3.
Please tell us about your art.
Our art is our life’s blood. We live for creating an experience that is truly unique to each couple. We operate in a sea of photographers and creatives; so we aspire to truly set ourselves apart in a saturated field. Not through competition with others, but through learning from our community and thinking of ways that we can uniquely take care of our couples, tell their story without pretense, and join them in their adventure towards marriage. We are inspired by the arts; music, dance, theater, cinema, and art. The arts play a huge role for what we draw inspiration from but our inspiration extends even further; whether it’s the aesthetic of a hotel, the concept of a restaurant, or how someone can make you feel at home at a dinner party, we are inspired by the world and to put it simply we love hospitality and thoughtfulness. We feel that the two words that best describe our photography style are contemporary & intimate.
We come alongside of our couples, get to know who they are together, in their most intimate and vulnerable moments, the things that make them remarkably them as a couple; and use our art to tell those delicate yet powerful stories and moments. Through our passion we want to create a space and experience where couples feel comfortable with sharing all the passion, the tenderness, and fun that they share with one another. Through our art, we want our audience to feel the love between our couples, the closeness and joy that is the fruit of marriage. As you will see in our most recent work, in addition to our wedding services we have also started an expansion of Apartment 3 called The Table Share. This expansion is for elopements where we photograph (Nina), Officiate (Dominic), play guitar and sing for their first dance (Dominic), and put together an experience tailor made for our couples. Through this expansion we have teamed up with filmmakers The Authentic Storytellers (husband and wife team Eric & Sabrina Martinez) to truly add an aspect that we think gives our couples a rich and deep experience. All of that said, we really hope that what the readers take away from our art is that we absolutely love what we do, our passion for love, our community, our couples, their story, and ultimately our love for working and creating together!
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
The role of the artists has changed in many ways, but in some it has remained the same. Throughout history, art has often been a reflection of the events taking place, whether it be locally, nationally or internationally. The way it has changed is that through social media and the internet, communities that once seemed worlds apart, are now literally at our fingertips. This has helped art, in our case photography, to be easily shared and different influences and artist that once might not have had a “voice” to be heard and get their work seen. However, more now than ever, through the artist and their art, we are able to see how incredibly similar we all are. We feel that perhaps in this regard, there is less pressure placed on photographers, and there is more freedom to convey the most essential desires we all share; to be known, to be loved, experience community, and the joys of sharing life with our person.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Most of our work is digitally and social media based, and is the most accessible way to view all that we do. Instagram has played the biggest role in getting our art and services out there. We try and post as frequently as possible to keep everyone up to date with what we are doing with Apartment 3 and The Table Share, and we try and share as much detail and behind the scenes through our stories. We are constantly on the go, so this is the most convenient way of doing so. We also have our website apartment3photography.com which we mainly post our weddings to. Our website for The Table Share (thetableshare.com) is in the works and should be launched within the next coming month and we are extremely excited about. The best way to support our work is really just following along with what we are doing through Instagram, following us, liking our photos, and leaving a comment, we love getting to know our social media community and supporters (Also share with your friends and family!)!
Contact Info:
- Website: apartment3photography.com
- Email: apartment3photography@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/apartment3photography
- Facebook: facebook.com/apartment3photography
Image Credit:
Portrait of us ( Crista Downey instagram: creationsbycrista)
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