When Phil added Bar Mitzvah and Wedding photography to his resume, work that he expected would offer little opportunity for creativity turned out to be just the opposite.

“I get to do what I love to do,” he says. “Bar Mitzvahs fit perfectly with my personality and my photographic approach, and I especially enjoy being with people on a day in their lives when they’re incredibly happy.”

Phil’s candid style, marked by dynamic composition and a photojournalist's eye, is the result of over 20 years as a professional photographer. Noted for his singular corporate images, Phil began photographing Bar Mitzvahs and weddings ten years ago. “All my work has been concerned with real people and real locations,” he says, “and Bar Mitzvahs and weddings are frankly much more satisfying than corporate photography.”

Phil notes that as a corporate and industrial photographer he had to overcome the challenge of less than ideal locations and other obstacles in order to produce top-notch photographs. Bar Mitzvahs are a lot more enjoyable: “It’s much nicer working with people who want to smile and laugh rather than with CEOs who can barely spare ten minutes for their portrait.

“When I photograph a Bar Mitzvah I get to picture people at their best, enjoying themselves in great looking locations. There’s incredible energy and dynamics in those rooms.

“What could be better than that?”