We are Gerry D'Onofrio and Dora Ramirez, a married couple living in Northern Virginia with many years of experience behind the camera. We founded GerDora Photography in 2013 as a result of a long-time dream of sharing our fine art images with the world. We work together as a team and complement each other believing our joint efforts enhance our services and final creations. Our fine art photography has won several awards; we exhibit in area galleries, participate in art festivals, and sell our images online. Drawing from our background in fine art photography, we also offer contemporary beauty portraits as well as senior portraiture, corporate headshots, and personal branding services.
Is there a story behind your business name?
GerDora Photography is a combination of our names, Gerry (Ger) and Dora. Curiously, before we met some 30 years ago, we both were pursuing photography as serious hobbyists and fantasized dedicating ourselves to the craft. This topic certainly was one of the things we discovered we had in common during our brief courtship as we started to learn more about each other and to this day we continue to share this passion and work as a team.
What has been the most difficult challenge for you as an artist/maker?
This pandemic we are going through has been especially challenging for us since our ability to go out and find interesting places to photograph fine art images and hold our portrait sessions has been severely limited. We thrive on the personal contacts we have established through art fairs, art galleries, photo shoots, and other events and all of that went away with Covid-19. Out of necessity, both physically and spiritually, the "Isolation" gallery was born. We created artistic images of the flowers in our small garden as they appeared throughout spring and into summer and created still lifes with flowers and vegetables with some of our precious objects. We anticipate adding some more images to the “Isolation” gallery throughout the end of the year as the virus continues to be a threat and we stay home. We look forward to the time when we can confidently go out as before, we can stay safe, and are able to create freely.
What is the most gratifying part of making your work?
Seeing or learning how people appreciate our images, be them fine art or portraits. We have seen a little girl gasp when discovering one of our fine art images and a woman cry when she saw herself as beautiful as reflected by her portraits. We are gratified when our images make an impact on people’s lives.
How do you get yourself out of a creative rut?
Every time we enter a photography/art competition, we push ourselves to create something different. Some of the competitions’ subject matter have geared us into genres that otherwise we would have not tackled. An example would be a competition sponsored by the Reston Bike Club for several of their Century Rides. The subject was bicycle riders, of course, but each time it had to feature a different town the riders would pass by. We were competing against well-known painters and Gerry won first prize one year and Dora won first prize the next! In addition to prize money, our images were printed on the backs of thousands of t-shirts that were given out to the participants at the end of the ride and we got to sell prints to members of the club. It is always fun to spot someone wearing a t-shirt with one of our images on the back! We also feed off from each other and our fellow artists; we are constantly learning new techniques, read art magazines and books, and follow artists we admire on social media.
Favorite blog/movie/tv show/book that never fails to inspire or just clears the mind:
"Lust for Life" and "At Eternity's Gate" are two excellent movies on the life and work of Vincent Van Gogh that greatly inspire us. We also love the book "The Artist's Way, a Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity" by Julia Cameron, who provides a ton of exercises and motivational insights into unleashing our creativity. Finally, the documentary “Finding Vivian Maier” about a nanny in the Chicago suburbs who obsessively and secretly took pictures in the streets in the 1960s. She kept over 40,000 negatives and photographs hidden from everyone in her room only to be discovered after her death by someone who bid at an auction on the contents of a storage container. The documentary is about this wonderful discovery. Now, she is recognized as one of the best street photographers of the 20th century.
Share your process - bonus points if there's a story behind it:
Inspiration is a combination of location/person and state of mind. We attempt to visit places that encourage us to “see” beyond the obvious and tell a story. With portraits, getting to know the person is key and creating a partnership in preparing and designing the photo shoot ensures beautiful images that will last for generations to come. Before we even pick up the camera, we have a vision of what we want to achieve. We attempt to capture the images taking into consideration light, subject, composition, color, perspective, and the decisive moment. Post processing is where the magic happens. Some people think that introducing digital tools to “develop” an image is cheating but we believe that the digital “darkroom” helps us achieve our artistic vision. It’s like judging a painting by the type of paint, brush, pencil, or knife the artist used. Even master photographer Ansel Adams dodged and burned his photos in the darkroom to enhance the final image. Retouching is considered an art to itself and, if done right, it can create a beautiful piece of art. We have the advantage of having in-house collaboration and critique, bounce ideas, and help each other improve our photography. Teamwork is one of our greatest assets in our process! We choose certain types of presentations for some of our images because we believe that they are more suitable than others to enhance the mood of the piece. The images from our “Olden Times” and “South Korea” galleries were printed on high-quality canvas wraps to emphasize their painterly feel. However, we have also printed some of those on paper and framed them and they look lovely as well. Another presentation we favor is images printed on metal. The lightweight material and smoothness used makes the colors jump out and the frameless option gives a more contemporary feel. We printed two of our images in metal and hung them in our newly renovated contemporary-style bathroom and they look fantastic! A bonus is that they are more resistant to humidity. We hope that this general outline of our process gives the viewers a better appreciation of our art and what it entails. With so many sophisticated cameras most everyone own; millions of photographs are taken by people around the world and most of them sit in their devices without ever being printed or appreciated as a tangible piece. This has given the impression to many that photography as an art is not as valuable as it was before. But the value of photography is not in the equipment, the same way that the value of a great gourmet meal is not judged by the quality of the oven used. Those who value a great chef and his/her food, will certainly appreciate a good fine art photograph. Of course, we do spend a lot on equipment, software, licenses, education, marketing, insurance, taxes, etc. so this only shows how much we value our craft and hope that others do so as well.
Is there anything you'd like the public to know about your work upon purchasing it?
Every image has a story behind it. We have shared some of them in our blog but if you are curious about the ones that are not included, just ask. We love sharing them with you! Also, please know that we are honored every time that someone purchases our work and hangs it on their walls. A little piece of us goes with them and we hope that you enjoy them as much as we have creating them. Finally, we strive to offer high quality products in a variety of formats that best suits your space and your taste.
Learn more about GerDora Photography and see more of their work at GerDora.com
GerDora Photography is a combination of our names, Gerry (Ger) and Dora. Curiously, before we met some 30 years ago, we both were pursuing photography as serious hobbyists and fantasized dedicating ourselves to the craft. This topic certainly was one of the things we discovered we had in common during our brief courtship as we started to learn more about each other and to this day we continue to share this passion and work as a team.
What has been the most difficult challenge for you as an artist/maker?
This pandemic we are going through has been especially challenging for us since our ability to go out and find interesting places to photograph fine art images and hold our portrait sessions has been severely limited. We thrive on the personal contacts we have established through art fairs, art galleries, photo shoots, and other events and all of that went away with Covid-19. Out of necessity, both physically and spiritually, the "Isolation" gallery was born. We created artistic images of the flowers in our small garden as they appeared throughout spring and into summer and created still lifes with flowers and vegetables with some of our precious objects. We anticipate adding some more images to the “Isolation” gallery throughout the end of the year as the virus continues to be a threat and we stay home. We look forward to the time when we can confidently go out as before, we can stay safe, and are able to create freely.
What is the most gratifying part of making your work?
Seeing or learning how people appreciate our images, be them fine art or portraits. We have seen a little girl gasp when discovering one of our fine art images and a woman cry when she saw herself as beautiful as reflected by her portraits. We are gratified when our images make an impact on people’s lives.
How do you get yourself out of a creative rut?
Every time we enter a photography/art competition, we push ourselves to create something different. Some of the competitions’ subject matter have geared us into genres that otherwise we would have not tackled. An example would be a competition sponsored by the Reston Bike Club for several of their Century Rides. The subject was bicycle riders, of course, but each time it had to feature a different town the riders would pass by. We were competing against well-known painters and Gerry won first prize one year and Dora won first prize the next! In addition to prize money, our images were printed on the backs of thousands of t-shirts that were given out to the participants at the end of the ride and we got to sell prints to members of the club. It is always fun to spot someone wearing a t-shirt with one of our images on the back! We also feed off from each other and our fellow artists; we are constantly learning new techniques, read art magazines and books, and follow artists we admire on social media.
Favorite blog/movie/tv show/book that never fails to inspire or just clears the mind:
"Lust for Life" and "At Eternity's Gate" are two excellent movies on the life and work of Vincent Van Gogh that greatly inspire us. We also love the book "The Artist's Way, a Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity" by Julia Cameron, who provides a ton of exercises and motivational insights into unleashing our creativity. Finally, the documentary “Finding Vivian Maier” about a nanny in the Chicago suburbs who obsessively and secretly took pictures in the streets in the 1960s. She kept over 40,000 negatives and photographs hidden from everyone in her room only to be discovered after her death by someone who bid at an auction on the contents of a storage container. The documentary is about this wonderful discovery. Now, she is recognized as one of the best street photographers of the 20th century.
Share your process - bonus points if there's a story behind it:
Inspiration is a combination of location/person and state of mind. We attempt to visit places that encourage us to “see” beyond the obvious and tell a story. With portraits, getting to know the person is key and creating a partnership in preparing and designing the photo shoot ensures beautiful images that will last for generations to come. Before we even pick up the camera, we have a vision of what we want to achieve. We attempt to capture the images taking into consideration light, subject, composition, color, perspective, and the decisive moment. Post processing is where the magic happens. Some people think that introducing digital tools to “develop” an image is cheating but we believe that the digital “darkroom” helps us achieve our artistic vision. It’s like judging a painting by the type of paint, brush, pencil, or knife the artist used. Even master photographer Ansel Adams dodged and burned his photos in the darkroom to enhance the final image. Retouching is considered an art to itself and, if done right, it can create a beautiful piece of art. We have the advantage of having in-house collaboration and critique, bounce ideas, and help each other improve our photography. Teamwork is one of our greatest assets in our process! We choose certain types of presentations for some of our images because we believe that they are more suitable than others to enhance the mood of the piece. The images from our “Olden Times” and “South Korea” galleries were printed on high-quality canvas wraps to emphasize their painterly feel. However, we have also printed some of those on paper and framed them and they look lovely as well. Another presentation we favor is images printed on metal. The lightweight material and smoothness used makes the colors jump out and the frameless option gives a more contemporary feel. We printed two of our images in metal and hung them in our newly renovated contemporary-style bathroom and they look fantastic! A bonus is that they are more resistant to humidity. We hope that this general outline of our process gives the viewers a better appreciation of our art and what it entails. With so many sophisticated cameras most everyone own; millions of photographs are taken by people around the world and most of them sit in their devices without ever being printed or appreciated as a tangible piece. This has given the impression to many that photography as an art is not as valuable as it was before. But the value of photography is not in the equipment, the same way that the value of a great gourmet meal is not judged by the quality of the oven used. Those who value a great chef and his/her food, will certainly appreciate a good fine art photograph. Of course, we do spend a lot on equipment, software, licenses, education, marketing, insurance, taxes, etc. so this only shows how much we value our craft and hope that others do so as well.
Is there anything you'd like the public to know about your work upon purchasing it?
Every image has a story behind it. We have shared some of them in our blog but if you are curious about the ones that are not included, just ask. We love sharing them with you! Also, please know that we are honored every time that someone purchases our work and hangs it on their walls. A little piece of us goes with them and we hope that you enjoy them as much as we have creating them. Finally, we strive to offer high quality products in a variety of formats that best suits your space and your taste.
Learn more about GerDora Photography and see more of their work at GerDora.com
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