What initially drew you to photography? How did you learn the ropes?
Photography was actually a third avenue of creativity for me. I took photos for the first time when I was in 10th grade (2003) while going to Pittsburgh, PA. It wasn’t til later on in life around 2011 that I began to explore that feeling of capturing my upbringing, my life, where I’m from, who my family is, school, etc. I wanted to show everyone what it was like growing up on the southside of Atlanta the same way I took photos of what we did at that reunion and where my great grandmother lived.
How would you describe your photography style? What’s your favorite thing to shoot?
Our styles should look exactly like who we are. My style represents a lifetime of multiple genres of music, a street where you rode your bike up to the circle k to get candy and got in trouble, getting out of class and hearing subwoofers pound in the parking lot, eating cereal with my sisters for breakfast lunch and dinner. Style is self. My favorite thing to shoot, anyone ok with exploring themselves beyond a superficial concept of what this has made us think of ourselves.
How do you stay creative and inspired?
I go back to places where I grew up, drive past schools that I went to, listen to songs that were
played during my upbringing, explore my childhood through conversation with my wife, family
and friends. I’ll go to old local stores just to see color patterns and how the owner lays them
out.
What’s your favorite iPhone camera/editing app?
VSCO, hands and feet down.
What advice would you give to aspiring photographers wanting to make photography full time?
Learn everything you can about yourself, what makes you and others, the process of creation, explore those thoughts to learn what needs to be translated to art. Not everything needs to be said. And in the midst of the surface-driven lives, you will provide the longing and satisfaction of originality for others. They will flock to it, they will demand it.
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