The Great Blog Hop of 2014
What am I working on now?
Ah, so many many interesting things! Right after graduating in June, I immediately joined in (completely spur of the moment) on a road trip through Cleveland, Gary, Chicago, and Detroit. I photographed and explored so many abandoned homes, schools, and beautifully decayed churches. I still have so much to edit! Blog post about the eventually. Soon after coming home, I flew out to Las Vegas, to attend an amazing creative workshop ran by Jenna and Josh. Then a week later, I spent a week camping as a volunteer photographer for Camp Quality New Jersey (Read about CQNJ here). The next day, I meet up with two of my Fromagi friends and had a little photo adventure where I shot this self portrait on a waterfall.
My good friend Bonnie of Bonnie and Gabe Two Creative Birds featured in this amazing pass-it-forward blog for photographers that inspire us last week. When I first heard of the concept, I instantly thought it was brilliant and such a great way for photographers to promote other creative photographers working in the same field. Put enough creative minds into something and amazing things really do happen.
Since Bonnie was featured in one blog of the "Great Blog Hop," she featured my two talented friends Jenna and Josh, and myself in hers. This week it's my turn! Before getting these three photographic wonders, here's the part of the Blog Hop where I do a little Q&A about my myself and my work.
Why do I do what I do?
Oh man, so many reasons. Photography came to me during a rough time in my life and I used it as an outlet to focus my mind on things, and it quickly became my passion really. Before the photo world entered my life, back in middle and high school, I read a lot of books and spent a good amount of time on creative writing. I liked the fact that I had total control of a little universe that I could play out in words. When I began using my photography to start telling these stories in my head, it felt right and I haven't looked back.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I mean to start off, we're all unique and each one of us bring something to the artist dinner table. It's easy to compare my work to others in the same genre… but that's pretty much the definition of the word. Each of our ideas, styles, and photographic intentions originate from different places, and that's how I think it's such an interesting genre flux in our medium that is so vasty different and similar all at once.
How does my creative process work?
Literally with my "Brain." That's what I call my photo notebook filled with ideas, concepts I want to shoot, doodles, locations, model info, inspiring quotes. Everything. A few months ago I had to condense and organize a bulk of this material to a new and fresh notebook, dedicating ideas to individual pages. Inspiration to me comes from so many places. Sometimes I'm inspired to create something personal through an experience I've had, other times it comes from a movie, song, a quote, or some short story that I thought of. There are those days where I hit a brick wall. It happens, it's inevitable. You regroup and move on. What I love about my brain is that I can go over and review this during those times.
Lets start off with Kavan. On YouTube, I came across an artist highlight video on the Framed Network and they featured Kavan. I immediately jumped onto his Flickr page and dove straight into his work. When I first discovered his work, Kavan was still in the early stages of a 365 project (Posting one new photo everyday for an entire year). He began shooting this project to hone his photographic skills and train his mind to transition the concepts he has in his head into his art. Watching as the days go by, seeing his posts daily inspire me, and push me on those days where I'm not as concentrated to go out and shoot something new when there is nothing holding me back.
I've had thoughts before on starting my own 365 project, but that actually scares me in some ways. In the back of my head I keep screaming, "Don't do it!" I know that's silly though.
Watching Kavan's transition from where his project took off to where it is today gives me hope that maybe one day I'll start that type of commitment.
One of the things I really enjoy about Kavan's work is that he likes to bring something new into his work pretty frequently. Whether with the style of lighting he using changes, the scale of simplicity to complexity of his concepts, and the diverse characters he plunges into that create his photo worlds into realities is absolutely amazing. Today is day 265 of his 365 project. 100 days to go! I wish Kavan luck on his growth and continued determination with the completion of his 365 project. It's amazing to see the significant improvements one can make by focusing on the same thing day in and out.
Diggie is a talented fine art photographer that I came across of through a friend of mine. At the time I discovered his work, he was nearing the end of his own 365 project. It was simply amazing to see the growth he had within that year. Every time that I've seen a photographer apply themselves to one of these projects, the positive influence it has on their lives and the amount of strengths they find within their skill set grows abundantly, and Diggie is a prime example.
When I look at his work, I'm find my self discovering interesting relationships within his concepts. His use of symbolism is stunning.
His use of light, subtle yet powerful postures, and surreal qualities in his photography are the elements in his work that inspire me.
What I enjoy about Diggie, along with Kavan, is that they are using self portraiture in a lot of their work. They are able to remove themselves from our world for a moment and take on the persona of the characters they portray in their images. More recently I've been putting myself into my photography. The work of both of these artists inspire me to continue that... possibly working up to my own 365 someday.
I literally stumbled upon Holly's work yesterday while getting ready to write his blog post and I had to include her because, at that moment she inspired me. That's what this whole Blog Hop is, in a nutshell really.
While scrolling down my newsfeed, her photograph (center photo) appeared. She had just shared it to a photography Facebook group we both belong to and I immediately though it was beautiful. The pop of red, the painterly tones, the expressions on their faces, and the form their bodies made with the flowing fabric; it completely blew me away!
Holly's skills are amazing. Her understanding of color, light, and expression, inspire me to go out and shoot something new as soon as I can. I see her imagination growing with her most recent work. There is an amazing future in store for Holly, I can see it.
I look forward to seeing her new work in my newsfeed now.