ManicWorld Magazine

– Do you consider yourself as an artist who isn’t afraid of branching out of your comfort zone?

I love branching out of my comfort zone! I started underwater photography and literally learned to photograph underwater where you can’t see anything and you don’t know what the photo is going to turn out like. The same for my bodypainting series, I reached out to people on Facebook that I did not know and asked them to pose nude and let me paint their body and photograph them.  It worked like a charm, and I got some great results from the shoots. I am a type A personality that likes to stay busy, so I’m constantly looking for new ideas and inspirations for photography.  People ask me all the time how I’m inspired, and I have to say social media is the fastest form of inspiration because apps like Instagram’s algorithm will pick up on the type of photography I’m doing and give me other photographers pages that are similar, or even people doing different and creative photography that I can learn from. There are so many things that I learn from YouTube, Instagram and Facebook about how to create new, inspiring, photographs, it’s amazing!

I find that in life, as well as photography; if I’m not pushing myself to take the creativity further, I’m not getting anywhere. 

– What would you say is the most unexpected situation that your artistic creativity has led you in your career so far?

I really try my hardest to avoid unexpected situations, I work with models so everything I do is planned to an extent. I usually formulate my mental model and create the image in my head step by step. One semester I did a project called Inedible: The food we eat is killing us!!! For one portion of the photoshoots I got my 5 Godchildren to throw food at each other and pose while it’s hitting them in the face. They smeared eggs everywhere, destroyed a box of cereal, splashed ice cream around, we wasted so much food. I also had a lady construct a frozen food tray and I put people in it like they were dead with the food for the project. I’ll attach a photo. This was by far the most hilarious project I have ever done, it was so much fun! But the message is very true. I started another layer to this project, but it is not finished yet, but I have big plans for this project when it’s completed. I really want to get the message out there about the food we consume on a daily basis and what it’s really doing to our health.

– From all the projects that you have worked on, which would you like people to label your landmark project? If you can’t choose one from the projects you have already worked on, what would be your ideal landmark project?

I want to be known for underwater photography as well as my light painting series Wonderment: Enchanted light. I love doing underwater photography. I have done it for 3 summers and the photos always turn out amazing. I want to formulate a series doing underwater photography but it’s hard as it can only be done 3 months out of the year. It’s a little stressful bringing the camera into the water, but the results are stunning. I use an EWA marine underwater camera bag, it’s not bad, you can fit any camera into it and the results are nice. Eventually. I want to update to a stronger underwater case though, for more control over the camera. In the summertime I’m just doing photography to play around, and I have been known to create an underwater scene with the help of AI once in a while. It’s the next best thing when I can’t get out into the ocean.

Maybe one day I will be scuba certified and do shoots in the ocean, that would be divine. A lot of people think A.I. Is a bad thing, and when you’re just generating photos that you had no part of the creation in, I can see how they come to that conclusion. I use A.I. as an aid, and it has opened new options for my captures that wouldn’t exist without it. I don’t use it too much for school, but I do play around. If you know how to help it, it can be very useful. I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon.

My series Wonderment is the series that I’m creating for school. It has to do with enchantment and magic as well as a light painting chapter. I have just started developing it last semester, but I have 3 more years to work on this project and get it ready for the final review for the Academy of Art. Wonderment will be the first project that I will be developing over a span of years, doing this is beneficial for my career in so many ways.

The longer I spend developing a project, the more value it creates through the work and the message comes out clearer. Not to mention the photography experience I get just by staying active to my artist’s calling. It’s going to be interesting to see the way my project develops over time.  I have only taken 2 photoshop classes at this point in my career and I feel like there’s so much to learn, but that I can already do so much! This will probably be my landmark project in my career, and I will find a way to incorporate the underwater photography into Wonderment!