I've never written a blog post before...
Ok, that a lie... I used to keep a blog of very old graphic design projects during my time at university. But that was required for a course and had no real passion behind it. A lack of passion is what I had been experiencing until recently, and is the main reason I am taking you on this journey to blog-land.
But we'll need some context...
After moving to Hong Kong and riding out as much time in college as socially acceptable, I was immediately thrust into the corporate world, creating brand strategies that would appeal to "millennials" and managing Instagram accounts for cat food brands... Granted I could have been doing a lot worse for myself, but these jobs just weren't fulfilling the same creative release I had become addicted to.
Photographing in a high pressure studio, discussing art with social media celebrities over free gallery champagne, getting critiqued with whatever critical analysis buzzwords were most popular in my photography classes at the time... It gave me a high... a high that I wasn't getting from my office cubical.
So, I moved out of agency life and started a period of freelance photography, doing photo shoots with other young creatives, looking to launch their fashion start up brands. Their energy and passion helped influence my energy and passion, bringing back that high of accomplishment for being behind a camera and seeing my work make a visible impact that lasted longer than a daily Instagram flat-lay of whatever Murakami novel I happened to be reading at a cafe.
While this was keeping my spirits up, there was still an itch for full conceptual freedom that I still wasn't able to scratch. I wasn't making my own vision because I no longer had a platform to show my non-commercial work.
Then, last November... something magical and tiger striped happened. The Kenzo x H&M collaboration was released in all of its neon, animal print kitsch glory. The colors were loud, the patters were garish, the styling was... just the right amount of unique. I wanted to own it, and I wanted to shoot it.
I talked about it with a good friend of mine who has been incredibly supportive of my creative outlets. Having founded his own line of street-wear, he also clicked with the idea of doing a shoot, but the loud colors were a contrast to his usual black and black wardrobe. I took this as a challenge... and set the shoot in full neon.
It gave me a rush that I hadn't gotten since my full freedom of university shooting. Being completely unrestricted, shooting a subject I enjoy, a collection I resonated with, a person who inspires me, and in a way that was completely my vision was a shoot I needed to kick my ass back into creating things for me, and something that I am planing on continuing starting with this year and with this blog.
So, welcome to my blog. I hope you like what I've done with the place, and I hope that you keep coming back every two weeks or so (or whenever I blast on social media that I put a new one up... we all know that's gonna happen) and I promise to keep pushing more pretty concepts and thoughts on creating through your computer screens.
Cheers~