Onin Lorente’s journey from programmer to fashion photographer
Famous French thinkers like Roland Barthes and Walter Benjamin had a lot to say about the power of photography—not only as a medium in shaping the mindset of the industrial age, but how pictures themselves have developed from work to text and then to art.
Onin Lorente, who is fast becoming an international fashion photographer, shows us his recent works for Esquire Singapore, L’Officiel India and Men’s Uno Hong Kong.
He has a natural eye for visual storytelling. His previous work as programmer for multinational companies in Singapore and the Philippines honed his attention to detail and trained him to blend elements—skills necessary for a photographer.
He loves places that evoke the otherworldly, and carefully creates the candid and poetic moods of the place, working with a team of stylists and producers.
His work with L’Officiel India reminds one of nuns, their cloistered, meditative lives and the in- timate spaces of discernment and reflection.
He captures moments that are quite personal with subdued lightning and melancholia.
Like the subjects that he tries to capture and render in his work, this creative expression has been with him since he was a kid.
He finds the works of Peter Lindbergh, Paolo Roversi, Steven Meisel and Yelena Yemchuk uplifting and inspiring. Lorente started out by shooting street-style photos and portraits. He finds fashion photography liberating and empowering even if it’s not a walk in the park.
He admits having gone through moments of frustration. “When one is in a foreign country with few friends and no family, the temptation to succumb to loneliness is too strong,” Lorente says.
Two years ago, the big break came when he shot for Elle and L’Officiel. His dream now is to work with Vogue and Numero.
Lorente’s natural eye for depth and perspective render his works poetic.