The first time Will Pierce showed his work to a local art gallery, the owner laughed at him. It was 2012. The owner suggested Will go to Summerland’s Porch to see if they’d be interested since they’d showcased local artists. The home goods store almost turned Will away until they looked through his little redwood box of photographs. On the spot, they offered him a gallery show where he’d have to fill several large white walls. Will needed large-scale prints of his photos quickly, so he got a credit card to purchase an industrial printer and all the framing supplies to create museum-quality artwork. He built a handful of large-scale pieces and hoped for the best.
Maria Schriver was his second customer.
Since then, Will has sold hundreds of pieces to homes worldwide. His large-scale commissions differentiate him from other seascape photographers. But Will offers fine art quality on every level, from an expert eye to atmospheric awe, and delivers a piece of customized framed art tailored for your home. You can see his pieces at Elizabeth Lamont's gallery in the Pacific Palisades, among others, but the most extensive gallery is Will’s website, where he sells directly.
To see one of Will’s pieces in person is a breathtaking experience, like the serenity you experience after a long journey with that first glimpse of a beautiful ocean, expansive and hypnotizing. Your pulse slows, your body relaxes, and your eyes rest on the view indefinitely.
Much of Will’s work captures our backyard ocean, the Pacific, with a nod to impressionist art. A sailor and surfer, Will has shot from boats, sand, and cliffs, where motion is constant and lighting crucial. Here, Will tells us about his journey from showing in local art galleries to becoming a fine art photographer.
What was it like working with art galleries when you were starting out?
The art gallery model was conventional. We had hundreds of canvases stacked up in the gallery, and we'd flip through them for customers, take them to people's houses, and hold them up on the wall. But then COVID happened, and I transitioned everything to digital. COVID was the best thing that's ever happened to me because everybody was stuck at home during lockdown, and they spent the money they would have spent traveling to beautify their homes.
Before COVID, I would print samples, take them to people's houses, and tape them up on the wall so they could see them in their space. My digital mockups are better. They're easier and faster. And we can easily do multiple mockups and tweak the size and color. I started working with interior designers, and it became a way to customize everything to fit the space like people wanted.
How has the impressionist art movement influenced you?
It was one of the best art movements. The impressionists focused on beauty. This movement was significant because, until then, everything had been figurative, like portraits. It's exactly the way this person or place looks. Impressionism was about how something makes you feel when you look at it.
What is your shooting technique?
My favorite technique is making something seem impressionist and painterly. It's just motion. The camera is moving, and the water is moving. The sharp part is because I'm panning. Imagine a race car and a racetrack. The background is blurry, but the car is in focus. I’m painting the car, but the water is moving everywhere.
Where’s somewhere you’d love to shoot?
Salar de Uyuni, the salt flats in Bolivia. It’s the world’s largest salt flat. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen, especially for what I do.
Tell me about lighting and your ideal time to shoot.
Twilight. When the sun goes down, twenty minutes or so after, and everything starts to equalize. Usually, the sky’s bright and the water's dark, but when the sun goes down, the water lightens up, and the sky darkens down. Everything gets very zen. You don't have a lot of contrast. There’s a difference between the highlights and the shadows.
Nautical twilight is six degrees after the sun, and astronomical twilight is another six degrees. This is sailor language, but it helps me when looking for different shots. I also love to shoot the last 30 minutes before sunset. You have the intense, golden sunset lighting, and then it softens.
Describe your flow state.
I’m not making mistakes. I can shoot for a month, not every day, but what happens a lot is all of my best shots will be from one day in the whole month. And they'll look different, for whatever reason.
One of the biggest challenges is shooting somewhere that looks the same every day and getting something different. That's what my flow feels like; I have new ideas, and things just click, and I can feel it and see it afterward.
If you could live in one of your pieces, which one would it be?
“Splash.” I took it on the way to Catalina Island.
What kind of editing do you do to make a shot print-ready?
The only thing I’ll do is overexpose it to make it brighter, which is subjective. The camera has its scientific formula for deciding how bright or dark something should be. I might lighten it up and bring out a little color. If I had to use Photoshop, it would probably not have been a good picture.
How long does the process take to create a piece for a customer?
I prepare each piece personally. If I have all the supplies and make everything correctly, it will take a couple of days. But it could be a week or two if those things aren't in place. If my printer malfunctions, it costs thousands of dollars to fix it. Nothing takes longer than mistakes. Rarely do I get to sit down and make a piece and have everything go right.
What kind of paper do you print on?
Archival museum quality canvas paper. The color is a pigment, like in an oil or acrylic painting. The pigment is finely ground and gets embedded in the surface of the canvas. It lasts the same amount of time as a fine art painting. It's the same pigment, and that's important. It has an archival UV varnish, and it doesn’t fade.
Why do you make the frames yourself?
I can’t buy them because of my larger dimensions. I've been looking since I started in 2012 and have never found it for sale anywhere, so I'm still making them myself. I did woodworking with a residential carpentry when I was younger. I start with big slabs of lumber that are milled down. It becomes more like an object when the frame is like this. Especially with the large pieces—a 10-foot piece would be an inch and a half deep. Since they're photographs, they need to be elevated.
What’s next for you?
I want to make mixed-media silkscreens available for sale on my website.
"One of the biggest challenges is shooting somewhere that looks the same every day and getting something different."