q)Walk us through an intimate day in your
life
a)As of
late, an average day for me starts around 9am. I'll check my emails and
messages and answer them, then I usually spend my day either planning and
organizing an upcoming shoot, shooting something, or working on music (I also
play and record music). I try to shoot as much personal work as I can, but am
also trying to find clients in my area to shoot photos of.
q) Where did you grow up/where do you live
now and how does that contribute to your art?
a)I grew
up and currently live in Montreal,
Canada. It's a
great city and full of life. There are so many artists here making such
incredible work that it's really hard to get noticed though, and it doesn't
help that I'm pretty introverted/not very outgoing. The city made me often want
to shoot in more natural surroundings (forests, etc) since everything is very
grey and dull, but I'm lately getting pretty inspired by certain locations here
so I hope to shoot my style of work in more urban settings as opposed to forests
and mountains.
q) What is your earliest memory that
propelled you to create?
a)I remember drawing a lot when I was really young,
I'd have notebooks full of doodles and notebooks full of stories I'd write or
comics I'd draw out, so from a really young age I was always interested in
creating. I only really took creating more seriously in the past 2 years; I
started a 52 weeks project, and a year and a bit later I am now relying on
photography and photography related projects for all of my income.
q) Tell us a little bit about your creative process.
a)I usually start with an idea; it's
very rare that I shoot something in the spur of the moment that I end up
loving. I'll draw out rough sketches of what I'm looking for in the image,
including all necessary props, location ideas, etc, and let the idea
sit for a bit of time just to see how I feel when I go back to it. I have
a small notebook that I keep these doodles in so I can open it and find an
image I want to shoot at any time really, it's a pretty effective way of
working especially considering I tend to draw up more ideas than I am able of
shooting. So for example if I know it's going to rain on a certain day of the
week and I have a photo that calls for a really overcast/muggy day, I'll plan
everything out so that I can shoot the image that day at the location I've
chosen. Shooting can take anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour depending on
the complexity of the idea or how much time it takes to set everything up. Then
I edit my images in photoshop which can take anywhere from one night to a whole
week to finish, and that's it!
q) How do you wish for your art to be
perceived?
a)I'd like
people to look at most of my images as open ended in the sense that while I may
have a specific meaning behind one, people can find their own meanings in them,
or just interpret them at face value or for pure aesthetic values, there's
really nothing wrong with any of them. I've also noticed that a lot of people
who post their work predominantly online get a lot of slack
from "traditional" artists/purists that somehow posting work on the
internet cheapens the value of any given work, which is obviously not the case.
I'd also like my work to force people to look at it for more than just a
moment, to stop them and let them gaze over the whole image and appreciate all
the aspects of it.
q) What do your internal dialogues sound
like?
a)I'm
extremely self critical and full of self-doubt, so much that I purposely
overshoot almost everything I do just so I'm sure that I have more to work with
than necessary. There are times where I am quite proud of something I've done,
but for the most part I try to stay humble and not get an ego about anything; I
strive to not be satisfied with the work I've made and to better myself and produce
even better work than I'm putting out.
q) Do you feel that there are limitations
to what you want to create?
a)In a
way, yes. As of late I've been drawing out a lot of ideas that are very out of
my comfort zone, or that will definitely challenge me in terms of direction and
execution. If anything, I'm basically limited by my own skill. I have ideas
that if done well will be great, but I worry that I will not do the ideas
justice at all and that the photos will not have as much of a visual impact as anticipated.
q) Do you feel art is vital to survival and if so,
why?
a)I feel self expression is essential
to survival in many ways, at least in a psychological sense. I know personally
that if I had no means of creating in any way, I would go insane. I am always
thinking of new things I want to shoot and am constantly daydreaming about
photography, so I would be very lost if I was not able to create any more.
I would become obsessed with whatever else it was that I was doing so as
to replace my vice with something else. Most people have one thing they do that
helps them get through the day, even just reading a book or listening to their
favourite artist, and if you took that away from people it would be very
detrimental I believe.
q) Describe a world without art.
a)Very
bland, to be blunt. Art encompasses so much of our daily lives in ways most
probably don't even realize that without it, life would be very dull.
q) Tell us a secret, and obsession.
a)I've
gotten pretty interested in anime lately. I used to watch quite a bit when I
was younger but lately I've watched a few series and am falling in love with it
as a whole even more so. The stories (that I enjoy, at least) are always so
interesting and full of imagination that I can't help but love them. There's
something in their storytelling that is missing in American stories/shows that
you just can't find. Some people find it pretty nerdy but I don't particularly
care.
