Environmental portraiture has fascinated me for quite a while.  I appreciate images that document people in their natural surroundings and give the viewer a glimpse into the day-to-day life of other individuals.  It’s a real challenge to create photos that truly capture the story of peoples’ lives, so when an artist consistently puts out work that documents these stories so beautifully, it’s time to pay attention.

Jonathan Bielaski has compiled a tremendous body of work documenting the lives of farmers, artists, store-owners, blue-collar workers, and bread-winners in general in a project which he calls, “A Study of the Relationship Between Who You Are and What You Do.”  Not only does he do an awesome job of photographing people in their everyday environments, but his combination of ambient and artificial lighting is quite tastefully done and adds a dynamic to his portraits that keeps the viewer engaged and coming back for more.

As an added bonus, Jonathan also keeps a blog where he documents the back-story to his images and gives the viewer more insights into the lives of the people he photographs, it’s really quite intriguing!

Check out his work below:

http://www.jonathanbielaski.com/