Anthony Bellemare: The Photographer Who Sees the Hero in Everyone

by Asheville Guide.

There is something impossibly human about Anthony Bellemare’s work. It doesn’t demand your attention so much as it invites it gently. Anthony, a narrative portrait and editorial fashion photographer based in Asheville, approaches his craft with a singular focus: uncovering the hero in everyone he photographs.

“I believe that within each of us lies a hero waiting to be discovered,” he says, a statement that would feel lofty if it weren’t so clearly the animating force behind his every frame. With his pictures, he’s documenting a moment in someone’s journey, often before they even realize they’re on one.

For Asheville Guide’s "digital launch," we asked Anthony to create visual profiles for four local creatives. Each subject—a DJ, a dancing duo, a community leader, and a photographer—represents a piece of a city that prides itself on being both fiercely individualistic and deeply communal. Anthony’s goal was to photograph them and, even more so, to see them and help them see themselves. As Anthony talks about his process as a storyteller building out a character, you learn he’s big on the hero’s journey—a narrative arc of transformation and discovery—and he uses it as a lens to connect with his subjects.

“Typically, the people I’m drawn to are at some point in their own journey,” he says. “They might not even realize it yet, but they’re trying to get to the next stage. My job is to help them visualize what it looks like to have already arrived.”

This approach demands more than technical skills. It requires presence, empathy, and a willingness to meet people where they are. For example, in photographing alexandria, a community leader with a packed schedule and a self-proclaimed reluctance to be in front of the camera, Anthony leaned into the challenge and named it. “I could tell she was nervous. She was just more, like...afraid of having her photo taken,” he shares. “But I worked past that, finding ways to connect her with her environment, like capturing reflections of the community in the backdrop. By the end, she told me I was her favorite photographer she’d ever worked with.”

Anthony’s work isn’t just about capturing images; it’s about creating space for transformation. Whether photographing a DJ who dreams of larger venues or a dancer seeking the next stage in their career, he treats every shoot as a collaboration and an investment. “It’s not me coming and going, ‘Hey, I need to take your photo. This is who I am as a photographer. This is what we're doing.' he explains, "When you invest in them and you show interest in what they're doing … then they’re willing to spend more time to arrive at that photo that you might not get if you just say, stand here, pose there.”

This ethos extends to his own journey as an artist. Like many creatives in Asheville, Anthony navigates, pursuing his passions and making a living in a city that doesn’t always make that easy. Even his approach to that has more grace than perhaps we deserve. “You know, because I like travel, I like adventure, I like, a lot of things and feel the need to go explore. But I’ve also realized that maybe some of my best projects might just be right here in Asheville. And really explore Asheville in a slower, longer way and maybe even in book format ... I feel like you have to find things outside this market to work with.”

And yet, Anthony is in no rush. “Life isn’t a problem to be solved,” he reflects. “I’ve stopped creating problems for myself to fix. I’m learning to trust the process, to focus on what’s in front of me, and to let the journey unfold.”

Anthony’s work for Asheville Guide is just one example of how he uses photography as a tool for connection and transformation. Whether through editorial fashion or storytelling portraits, his goal remains the same: to uncover the hero within every subject and, in doing so, remind us of the hero within ourselves.

It’s a vision that feels especially fitting for a city like Asheville, where dreams are big, and roots run deep. Anthony is photographing people, and even more so, he’s documenting a community in the midst of its own hero’s journey—a story still being written, frame by frame.

View more of Anthony's work on his website. Here.