Am I an Artist Now?

number of months ago I made a video maybe six seven months ago about uh what type of photographer are you where I talked about uh technicians uh creatives uh artists um and uh I said I was a I was a creative photographer I didn't really consider myself an artist and now it's six seven months later and uh it's Saturday it's midnight place is a mess and I am working on prepping for my first gallery show so I have my first gallery show coming up in three weeks it opens in three weeks May 18th 2023 I'll put the info below if you're in the area you know feel free to come out and check out the opening I'm doing with my friend Marta putting the show together with this is something I started thinking about doing in in December and and I uh I started really figuring it out in January and uh the process has been really interesting really rewarding but very insightful very difficult I've learned a lot about myself and my work and I definitely think it's a process that every photographer should go through maybe not actually doing a gallery show but the process of of thinking about what your work is like how do you define yourself how did you find your style how do you define who you are as as an artist um and and what your vision is it's like if you were to put a collection of images together what is the theme what's the driving aspect of that and um how would you describe it I still don't consider myself artsy so my artist description and and my artist statement is very sort of irreverent and and self-reflective I I I want to consider that my my background in comedy and improvisation is a big aspect of who I am not only as a photographer but as a person and that bleeds into my photography and so my exhibit that I'm doing is called Expressions volume one the architecture of emotion and it's based in the work of Paul effman and and Charles Darwin and and facial action coding system and and I can link to that stuff below if you don't know what that is and so I've been exploring who I am as a person what my work is what drives me to specific types of images and especially with this collection it's something that I've never had to think about before I've never thought about before but in doing so it is really really helped me figure out what it is that I want to do what I want to pursue and how I want to do it how I want to pursue it and the kind of work that I want to create at least the kind of work that I want to represent me as as an artist I mean that's that's new to me and it's uh it's it's interesting and and I still don't know if I'm like fully bought into this idea of me as an artist but we'll see and I guess that really all depends on like uh the collection how well I put the collection together how well I I curate my images I have not created any new images for this show um it's just a collection of my existing work that's one of the reasons why um I I haven't posted in a couple of months yeah the other is like the last video I posted was about me having to leave my studio and uh in that in the last couple of months I'm uh next week hopefully I'm going to be signing a lease uh on a studio a small Studio even smaller than the one I was coming out of um which is still you know not the most ideal space but uh it gets me into the facility where I already was uh and where I've been working for uh off and on for a number of years so it gets me in there permanently and gets me set up and allows me to use the complex which is which is pretty great and I'll be doing more videos about that about the space but let's get back to the show so as far as The Show Goes surprisingly very easy for me to get the show I just went and talked in curator at at the cot Factory where my studio was it will be um and I'm going to be doing the show there this is my first ever show and it's just like sure yeah I can put up a show for you I don't think it's going to be that easy for anyone for for you I feel very lucky and blessed and privileged to have this experience what I've what I've had to think about is um what is it that I'm drawn to what is it that I'm inspired to create what is it that from the perspective of Photography what is it that I'm passionate about a lot of the work that I do and what I charge people for isn't necessarily work that I'm I'm passionate about and I'm I'm hoping having the new studio will allow me to create a lot more work that I feel is more representative of me and the kind of work that I want to do and will allow me to create and do a lot more test shooting as an artist I'm drawn to faces I'm drawn to Expressions I'm drawn to uh the the revelation of of Truth in moments where people aren't thinking about them like pollockman's work is based in microexpressions and subtle expressions and and that's really for me where Nuance lies and truth lies and so that's what this collection is exploring that's what my work is exploring that's something that I would teach to improvisers how to read faces how to read body language and how to understand and interpret what is in front of them now I do that when I'm behind the camera and I do that when I'm calling a session and editing images I look for the Expressions the subtleties and the Expressions so I've got the show coming up I'm I'm nervous about it I'm excited about it uh it's definitely going to be new and fresh for me and I think it'll be interesting and I think it's a an interesting challenge for you to take on for yourself as a photographer um maybe you don't have with gallery show or you can't get to the position of like putting up a gallery show but what I would suggest is like go through the process as if you were going to put a gallery collection together what is the collection what is the theme what's its title what is write the write the statement about the collection write your artist statement write your hardest by go through that process and it'll really force you to be introspective not just about your work but about who you are as a photographer why you shoot the kind of work that you you shoot and why you create the kind of images you create and post it in the comments below I'd really like to know what it is how how you view yourself and don't just don't just like stop the video and comment like go through the process come back to this video in a month two months and let me know you know best of luck I'll see you soon