HAVE PATIENCE.
When will I ever have photographs worth showing?
“NO ENTRY”, 2023
I used to ask myself this question all the time when I first started taking photography seriously. And now that I’m looking back, all I can do is laugh at my impatience. How could I do something like that when I didn’t even have a voice yet? I was just a copy inspired by his idols.
After long sessions of collecting photographs, I’d upload to Lightroom and wait for my anxiety to kick in. I just didn’t know where to begin when there were so many variables.
Exposure. Contrast. Highlights. Whites. Shadows. Blacks. White balance. Temperature. Tint. Saturation. Vibrance. Color grading: midtones, shadows, highlights…
It was just so daunting having to deal with light and color.
Wide Eyed, 2022
I didn’t want to turn myself off to photography because of its complexity so I decided on limiting myself to black and white. This was when my confusion with editing had finally cleared. By removing color, I only had to focus on light.
Before I knew it my obsessive shooting and editing had become a normality. My photographs soon took on graphic novel-like qualities: grunge, horror, eroticism.
Repeatedly, I’d go outside, shoot, upload, go B&W, then edit.
The first inkling I had of a possible angle for my body of work was the documentation of my hometown Kenner, Louisiana. It had always felt “dead” in comparison to New Orleans’ grandeur.
Air Ramp Josh, 2021
I remember searching Google for any photographic examples of the city and found not one aesthetically pleasing photo. Most looked amateurish, unlike the usual tourist entrapping photographs I’d see of the Big Easy. I also tried looking for other photographers in the general area and unsurprisingly came up with nothing except a few commercial studios. I couldn’t believe that not one person took an interest in photographing Kenner’s surrounding scenery.
Seemingly boring places had to have something worth photographing. So I took it upon myself to photograph the many occurrences which indefinitely happen in my daily life. Even if I was the only one doing it, I wanted to document Kenner. And doing so has taught me that our lives are like cinema. It’s just that most of us can’t afford paying a person to do it. If we take on the work ourselves, we just have to hope that we can record it to the best of our abilities.
At The Table, 2022
Since life is always moving I’ve never felt limited at home, but emboldened. When photographing the familiar, I ignore the obvious. The worlds I desire are hidden in plain sight and their discovery only requires a will to care and observe.
Eventually, I learned that photographs aggregate significance over time. My one job was to capture the now and think later. The writing, the meanings, the concepts; all of that came after. By thinking too much, I inadvertently erected a fence that stifled my creativity.
Desk and Window, 2021
Now, priority one is the enjoyment of being an artist. I focus on what I’m able to do, and I analyze my shortcomings. And I especially don’t pull the cart before the horse.
