LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN WILD
We spend so much time being told what something is supposed to look like. Content has to look like this. A portrait has to look like that. A brand needs to be clean. This isn't realistic. That idea is too weird. That's not going to work. Somewhere along the way, we get so technical about creating that we take all the fun out of actually creating.
I don't think creativity is supposed to work that way.
If you come to me with an idea that sounds crazy, weird, unrealistic, or difficult to pull off, my first reaction usually isn't, “We can't do that.” It's: Okay. How do we do it?
Maybe we change the location. Maybe we build something. Maybe it's the lighting, wardrobe, movement, color, composition, or some combination of all of it. That's the part that excites me. The camera comes later.
IMAGINATION IS WHERE IT STARTS.
Everyone has an imagination. Some people let theirs run. Some people are still trying to give themselves permission to. And some people have spent so much time being told who they're supposed to be that they've learned to keep that part of themselves quiet.
I'm not creative. I'm not photogenic. That's too much. People are going to think I'm weird. I could never pull that off.
But why not?
We're human. We have wild ideas. We imagine versions of ourselves we've never seen before. We hear a song and suddenly see an entire scene in our head. We walk into a place and imagine something happening there that doesn't exist yet. That matters.
Think about music. Yes, the production can be incredible. The rhythm can be perfect. The musician can be technically brilliant. But that's probably not why you have that one song. You have that song because of what happens inside you when you hear it. Maybe it reminds you of someone, somewhere, or who you were at a particular point in your life. Maybe it makes you feel understood.
Visuals can do the same thing.
A photograph can be beautiful and still say absolutely nothing. For me, the interesting part is everything that happens around the camera. What are we creating? Why are we creating it? What do you want someone to feel when they see it? What do you want to feel when you see it?
Then we start building. The location. The wardrobe. The color. The light. The movement. The composition. Every decision can move us closer to the feeling we're trying to create.
That's why I want to understand you before we're standing in front of a camera. Whether you're an artist, musician, entrepreneur, brand, couple, or someone who simply wants to make something for yourself, I want to understand what we're actually trying to say.
I don't need you to know how to create it. That's my job. I need you to tell me what's in your head.
SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO LET YOURSELF DO THE WEIRD THING.
You don't always need a business reason. You don't always need content. You don't always need to justify why something deserves to exist. Sometimes you should create something because you've imagined it for three years and you're tired of it only existing in your head.
There is something freeing about seeing yourself do something you didn't think you could do. Maybe you're a serious person. Maybe you're a parent. Maybe you run a company. Maybe nobody in your life has ever seen this side of you.
Who cares?
Put on the ridiculous wardrobe. Stand in the fire. Cover yourself in paint. Become the character. Make the film. Create the photograph that makes absolutely no sense to anybody except you.
You only get one life. I don't think you're supposed to spend the entire thing following a rulebook.
PHOTOGRAPHY LEAVES PROOF.
This part has become more personal to me. My father is going through Alzheimer's. There is a reality I've had to understand: there may come a point where he doesn't remember many of the things that happened in his life.
But the photographs still exist.
The places. The people. The moments. The things he did. They're proof that something happened. Proof that he was there.
Photography taught me something I don't think I understood when I first picked up a camera: when you photograph something, you're not only making an image. You're taking a piece of time and giving it somewhere to live.
Maybe someday you remember exactly how it felt. Maybe you don't. But something remains.
And I think that's incredibly powerful.
THAT'S WHY “GOOD PHOTOS” AREN'T REALLY THE GOAL FOR ME.
Of course I want the photographs to be beautiful. I care about light, composition, color, technique—all of it. But those are tools.
The goal is to make something that means something to you. Something you can look at five, ten, twenty years from now and think: Man. I really did that.
Maybe that's a campaign that changed your business. Maybe it's the beginning of your career as an artist. Maybe it's you and the person you love. Maybe it's a completely insane idea we somehow figured out how to create. Or maybe there isn't some enormous meaning behind it. Maybe you just finally let yourself be free for a day.
That's enough.
Because for however long we're creating together, I want you to feel like the main character in your own story. Not because we're pretending you're somebody else, but because maybe there's a version of you that's been there the entire time and just hasn't had the chance to come out yet.
The camera?
The camera is just how I capture it. The interesting part is everything we create with it.
WHAT'S BEEN LIVING IN YOUR IMAGINATION?
You don't have to know how to make it happen. You don't have to know how to pose. You don't even have to know whether it's possible.
Bring me the idea. We'll figure out the rest together.
