About Michael Legato.

Working in visual effects gave me an unusual education while I was still young. On films such as The Wolf of Wall Street, The Jungle Book, and Blade Runner 2049, I was able to watch whole worlds of images being built from the ground up, starting in prep and going all the way until they pressed the delivery button on the final DCP.

That access also gave me an opportunity. Whenever I could, I found ways to make arrangements with the productions that allowed me to bring my camera onto set. Fairly instantly, I gravitated away from where all the cameras on set would usually be pointing and photographed the people making the film instead.

It taught me that there are photographic and cinematic advantages in all directions. But if you want to find a good story, the best thing to do is look where the cameras are pointed, then point yours the other way.

For a long time, I was feeling my way around without knowing exactly what kind of artist I wanted to become. Photography helped me recognize what had been there all along. A desire to look closely, to notice the quieter moments surrounding a spectacle, and to make something honest from the experience.

That way of looking stayed with me and became the work I make now, whether it is a portrait, a fashion story, brand work, or a project of my own. I am always looking for the inner story, the thing that is already there but has not quite been seen or said yet, and finding a way to give it a life of its own.