This Redefined My Entire Understanding of Photography

I shoot people I don't care about who they think they are who we think they are who they think we should think they are who we think they should think they are or who we think they think we should think they think they are none of it matters what matters to me are the life lived the moments between the moments the glimmers of Truth when the guard is down what matters are the life presented the tension between the comedic and the tragic and ultimately cracking open the facade that hides the truth my extent's background in improvisational comedy taught me to examine the nuances female Behavior while teaching improvisation I became interested in the work of psychologist Paul Eckman and I began to incorporate his understanding of facial expressions and their relationship to emotion into my theatrical performances and teachings the joying spirit of improvisational comedy and the understanding of how faces exhibit reveal and betray emotions are still both integral parts of my work and you can see it here on display help me everything up to this point in the video is my official artist statement that's on the wall there it took me a long time to get to an artist statement is exactly what it sounds like it's a statement by the artist about their art it sounds a lot simpler than it actually is I worked on those paragraphs for an entire week I read a lot of blog posts did a lot of research and I came to conclusion that there are two ways to do this one kind of a really pretentious and self-aggrandizing and self-indulgent and two just kind of boring and not really that interesting not really telling people much about your work I'm neither of those things I realize I may come across as self-important sometimes but that's really just a mask that hides my feelings of constant failure and existential sadness my other mask is humor so the question then becomes how do I write an honest statement that fits my personality isn't a bunch of boring BS is infused with my sense of humor and is also an accurate and truthful representation of what it is that I do so here's what I did and here's what you can do too start with why I know that sounds like a bunch of about page business strategy mission statement nonsense but it's not I assure you it's not it's not your about page it's not your mission statement it's not a statement of your values and beliefs ask yourself why why do you photograph the things you photograph why do you do what you do and don't just go easy on yourself you can't just say I couldn't imagine not being a photographer well guess what 99 of the photographers out there can't imagine themselves doing anything other than photography as well that doesn't mean anything if you're an underwater photographer why do you specialize in underwater photography is it because you have a connection to Blue health or ocean Conservancy was your dad a surfer and you're just trying to reconnect with that part of him that you never really understood do you photograph architecture because you moved around a lot when you were young and now you crave permanence and structure get deep get personal with yourself get analytical my artist statement starts with the words I shoot people I've always found it odd that the the world of Photography has a lot of terminology that comes from the world of conflict war and oppression I shoot people those three words set the tone for the rest of the statement it's not my job to flatter my subjects in the work that I do as a commercial photographer that's part of my job my job is to make people look good when I'm a commercial photographer as an artist I don't care about flattering people that's not my job my job is to reveal unveil peel back the mask and get to the truth of who they are maybe maybe it's not my job maybe it's just who I am as an artist and that's and that's what I bring to my work writing that artist statement has completely changed the way I think about and approach my photography completely so start with why once you figure that out all the heavy lifting is done then it's a matter of articulating your process your thoughts and articulating your why in your own voice with authenticity and integrity be honest and vulnerable maintain your integrity and voice the next part is not selling yourself out or selling yourself short people want to know who you are and they want to know what you're thinking about in the process of creating your work whether that's consciously or subconsciously this may be something that you've never thought about before but I guarantee you once you do once you put in the work and put it on paper it will completely change the way that you understand and approach your work thanks for watching this video hit like if you found it useful and hit subscribe to stay tuned for more videos thanks a lot go make some art um