Flashlight PhotoRental is a lighting rental company for photographers, located in Northeast Minneapolis. The head cheese over there is this dude they call Raoul Duke.
APhotoAssistant: When did Flashlight open the doors for business and why did you start the company?
Flashlight: The idea for Flashlight was born in early 2007. I started buying gear and renting it to friends. It took a very long time, like the Johnny Cash song, “One piece at a time”, to acquire everything. In May 2008, we moved to Northeast Minneapolis and officially opened.
The reason that I started Flashlight is two fold. First, there wasn’t any place in Minneapolis that offered good professional photo rental and service. Secondly, and more importantly, I’m interested in creating a vehicle that can connect a lot of different creatives. As a photographer, you can only promote and create your photographic aesthetic. Flashlight, as a company, is able to do so much more. We have commissioned Miss Amy Jo and Hatch Show Print to design and screenprint promo pieces. For our first anniversary, we sponsored Rock the Garden, an alt rock concert that turns out 10,000 people and benefits the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. We have donated and advertised with different organizations that we believe in such as MPR, ASMP, The Walker Art Center, Heifer International, Second Harvest, Too Much Chocolate, Resource Magazine, and What’s the Jackanory?
Flashlight is a sponsor of Rock The Garden, to benefit the upkeep of the Sculpture Gardens at The Walker in Minneapolis
APA: Its great to see someone such as yourself advocate the arts so much, all across the dial. What has the response been, from colleagues, and others in the community?
Flashlight: The response has been great. People really respond to authenticity. We are not a corporate machine. We love photography and Flashlight is how we connect to photographers. People see the love and want to be a part of that.
APA: What is your background Raoul?
Flashlight: I was cursed early in my life with the knowledge that I wanted to be a photographer. I grew up in Chicago and got my BFA from Columbia. I assisted little studios for no money. I moved to Minneapolis to pursue my photographic life in 1994. Met my art photographer wife Kristine Heykants. I really worked as an assistant and an editorial photographer right until I opened Flashlight.
APA: So you have a real good understanding what photographers need when they rent equipment. What lines of gear does Flashlight supply photographers who rent from you?
Flashlight: What we rent is pretty simple. We carry Profoto 7a, 7b, and Acute2 systems and we are starting to get into Litepanels (Micro Pro and 1x1s). We have a wide selection of grip gear as well (Matthews mombos, rollers, nets, silks, solids, fans, foggers and production equipment). The complete catalog is online at the Flashlight website.
Andrew Hetheringon sporting some warm Flashlight swag on the subway.
APA: Your promo materials and swag are quite the hit almost everywhere I look–here in the Twin Cities, on the heads and chests of assistants everywhere, on blogs like light-test.com, and I’ve seen some interestingly placed stickers in photos that keeping popping up. Is this the start of an underground movement, or have you had a hand in this?
Flashlight: Its totally a movement. One of our clients actually tattooed his chest with the Flashlight logo.
APA: Your involvement within the photo community is more and more visible these days, and also with the arts in general. But, as you mentioned before, a rock concert? Why is this across-the-board advocacy important to you? Why are people tattooing your logo on their chest?
Flashlight: Our interests don’t run in a straight line. The name of our company came from a Parliament-Funkadelic song. Music is in the DNA of our company. Any day that we can incorporate any hip-hop or punk rock sensibilities into our work is a good day. I feel that we all are responsible to create the culture that we want to live in. Our philanthropic goals are to make photography more accessible to everyone, not just the people in this business. People are tattooing themselves because they believe in what we are trying to do.
APA: So what’s next for Flashlight? Any new fun stuff in the works?
Flashlight: We have a lot of stuff in the works. We are collaborating with Sara Rubinstein on Metro Magazine Fashion Fight Night this weekend. In May we will be celebrating our second anniversary and will be sponsoring the Rock the Garden concert again. We have a series of lighting workshops and photography shows that will happen later in the year. 2010 is going to be an exciting year at Flashlight Photorental.
APA: Sounds like a lot of great things going on at Flashlight, Raoul. Thanks for spending a little time with us. Just a couple more things to pick your brain a little further…
APA: What’s spinning in the iPod?
Flashlight: Doomtree, Chuck E. Weiss, Dessa, Gil Scott-Heron, and Mink Stole.
APA: Your new favorite site?
Flashlight: Wooster Collective.
APA: Your favorite photographer today?
Flashlight: Luis Gonzalez Palma
APA: And how about a new favorite book?
Flashlight: Edward Burtynsky’s, Oil
Flashlight’s website and gear catalog can be found here. Also check out the FlashlightPhotoRentalNewsFeed for other fun photo and art stuff.
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