Over the past few years, the influence of social media and the power of the internet has had a monumental effect on modern day photography and visual art. Not only is more work from around the world readily available at the click of a button, but the existence of the web, and social media platforms especially, has empowered those who could have only dreamed of a life as a photographer.
Some of today's most progressive, experimental, and influential photographers sprung to prominence via Instagram. trashhand has developed a signature style, taking snapshots of distressed landscapes and interiors; 13thwitness is known for his unique take on sports and music; and finally, New York-based couple Bee and Rog Walker challenge the boundaries when it comes to portrait photography. Rog doesn't actually have an Instagram handle, but his internet savvy has enabled him to make a name for himself.
Here they discuss their biggest influences in a constantly evolving art form.
trashhand
Website: trashhand.com
Handle: @trashhand
How did you get into photography?
When I first got on Instagram, I had no interest in photography. It wasn't a passion of mine. After I signed up for my account, I came across a page of pictures taken on an iPhone 4 of cityscapes, and they blew my mind. The next day, I went out to Chicago to the lake and started taking photos. I did that every day for a month. After four months posting Chicago cityscapes on my Instagram every day, Instagram did an interview with me, and that was enough acknowledgment to realize I could do it for work. Shortly after that, I bought my camera. The rest is history. Three months after I bought my camera, I was shooting for Nike. I was getting a ton of work with other brands. Instagram was going so crazy, and I was on blogs across the world. So I pursued this with everything I had.
There's so much light in the locations you shoot at, but also distress and destruction. What message are you trying to evoke?
The inspiration for shooting dilapidated locations, to try and make them look as pretty as possible, is to evoke that in life things can always be worse, and you have to appreciate what you have. One day, things will fall apart and go away. Me shooting these abandoned locations, trying to bring light into it, is trying to preserve something beautiful in something that's gone bad.
Are there people who influence you?
I'm very grateful for artists that follow me, and I appreciate those guys. People like 13thwitness who I looked up to. That was inspiration to keep pursuing this. I continue to use him as inspiration. Also people like Walter Iooss Jr. He was Michael Jordan's personal photographer for a long time. He is a fan of my work. That means more than a singer or a rapper following me.
Is there music that inspires your art?
For sure. I'm inspired by instrumental stuff. I love The Mercury Program, Boards Of Canada, Wax Taylor… I love rap: Drake, Future, Travis Scott—he's my favorite. Music is a big part of my life. I played piano for 16 years. I moved to Chicago from the D.C. area because I got an internship here at a recording studio. I've lived here for 10 years now. Music drives me in all aspects of my lifestyle.
Do you think social media is a good thing for photography?
It's both great and bad. It's the best tool for getting your work out there. One of the reasons I don't follow anybody is because it can be hurtful, and it's so easy to get caught up in it, and compare yourself and your day-to-day life [to other people’s]. It can be depressing and prevent you from going out and taking photos. I don't want to let the bulls**t side of social media affect me. I mind my own business and stay as low-key as possible. I wanna get my branding out there, but I have a wall up when it comes to anything that's personal.
What's the best advice you can give someone?
You need persistence, dedication, and passion to deal with challenges and bulls**t that will otherwise break you. I think the most important thing when trying to survive in this oversaturated market of photography is to shoot for something that's bigger than yourself. Shoot photos that are timeless. Shoot your story so that thousands of people can relate to it, not just a niche group. Photography is about sacrificing and being completely self-aware to tell other people's stories through your vision. A lot of people get too caught up in their own story.
13thwitness
Website: 13thwitness.com
Handle: @13thwitness
How initially did you get into photography?
Right after high school in New York, I moved to Japan for six months and ended up staying for four years. While I was there, I'd try to explain to people what Japan was like, and I picked up a point-and-shoot camera. I was taking basic pictures, pretty bad photos, but they served that purpose of visually documenting what it was like living there. My friend had a proper SLR camera, and that's when I discovered the more artistic side to photography. I tried to approach it in a different way rather than purely for documentary purposes. I saw it as an artistic outlet to express myself, and to share my world through my point of view. I became really passionate about it and pursued it heavily.
You shoot a lot of music settings in a unique way. How have you finessed that?
Music photography and sports photography are very standard and traditional for the most part. I never had formal training, so I've approached photography through my own perspective. That unorthodox approach helped me have this unique perspective. If I shoot sports, I'm not shooting the same way as most other photographers who are shooting for publications. The same applies in music and concerts. I try to disregard the rules.
Your Kanye photos are a perfect example because they don't focus on Kanye, but more the spectacle, the feeling… It's very evocative.
I don't think about getting a close-up shot of the musician. I'm looking for the overall atmosphere and vibe of where we are. I'm focusing on the stage design, the venue, the crowd. Kanye has the most incredible set design I've ever seen. I've always had opportunities to work with certain musicians, but I'm not a concert photographer. Stepping into something that's not my area means I'm able to put my flavor on it. I can separate myself from the norm. I feel fortunate that I get access to these artists, and that I can share that experience. It's an opportunity to show people something they haven't seen before.
Are there less obvious influences on your work?
A lot of it comes through movies, ones I've been into since I was a kid. My influence is from music, my life in general, New York culture, and the places I've been. It's a mashup. My photography is a diary of my life, a running story through photos.
Do you think social media is a good or bad thing for photography?
It's helped a lot of photographers. There are a lot of people shooting now who had regular jobs and weren't taking any pictures a few years ago. Just having an iPhone and taking photos to put on Instagram, then reading feedback motivates them to pursue it. I know people who have quit their jobs due to Instagram, and they're full-time photographers now. I've met a lot of great people through social media. There's bad that comes with it, but most of it is good. You can share images, and within seconds they're seen around the world by hundreds of thousands of people. That has totally revolutionized the way we share images. Before, you'd have to be a published photographer and have a book or be in a magazine. Now everyone's got photos in their pocket. Sometimes it can be an overload of information. It's becoming oversaturated.
How do you rise above all that noise, then?
Be unique! Find your own lane and work in it. That's the downside of the social media boom. People see the success of others and try to latch on, mimic it. Originality is dying. I don't have respect for people who copy. That's lazy. I'm honored that people are inspired by my work, but I want them to take the inspiration and turn it into something unique for themselves. That's what's important. I'm always looking for ways to evolve. I wanna know that I'm doing something I love and enjoy. Have fun, take risks, try new things, go out there. I got here through trial and error, and you gotta fail a lot before you succeed. People are afraid to fail, but you can't be afraid to get out there and take bad pictures. You'll only get to the good ones if you take a lot of bad ones.
Rog and Bee Walker
Websites: rogwalker.com (Rog); beewalker.com (Bee)
Handle: @beewalker_ (Bee)
How did you both get into photography?
Bee: I started photographing as a kid. My dad bought me a camera, and I was always taking snapshots of things. I didn't shoot seriously until I met Rog, and when we met, he'd been photographing already for two years. He made photo stories, which is something I'd never seen before—a series of images and characters.
Rog: It was a weird transition for me. I used to do website development in college. I was concerned with getting images purely as a way of having good photos for the site I was developing. An old friend of mine was taking photos, and I saw his camera, picked it up, and wanted to see if I could do it myself. I started shooting with a point-and-shoot, and since then it's just snowballed to where my photography is now.
Are there specific influences on your photography?
Rog: I went through my archives today, and one of the things I noted about my work is that it's a snapshot of my life, even without me being in it. When I got into photography, I was transitioning from my hometown to spending time in New York City. I went from being culturally quite normal to being more artistic. The people I encountered in the city were alternatives—musicians, photographers, writers—and I was inspired by that. It was an exploration of self. Those people inspire me to this day.
Do you have a working relationship with Solange? If so, how did that partnership come about?
Rog: A friend of ours is friends with her. Bee was talking about New Orleans to our friend and taking a trip there. We had the opportunity to meet Solange and she was really sweet, just asking us about our marriage. It was authentic, not a conversation based in music or anything too creative. Afterwards, she asked us to take photos. It was a great honor. From that point on, we've done campaigns for her with PUMA. We shot her prior to the Met Gala. From time to time, we connect. We're not really tight. She definitely is someone we can reach out to though, which has been awesome.
Bee: She's an inspirational fellow creative.
Rog: In general, it's been awesome being part of a creative community. So welcoming, especially with Solange and the collaborative brand work we've done. People entrust things to us without a lot of direction or micro-management, allowing us to be free and creative.
Photography can also be used to voice a political stance. In these increasingly precarious times, do either of you want to use your platform in that way?
Bee: It can't be separated. It would be naïve to think it's possible to have one's public work and voice be separate from the way you feel about what's going on in the world. I'm a very private person. As much as I love sharing my work, it's a challenge to express particular feelings on those socially available platforms. Instagram is maybe not the best platform for that. Documenting what's happening needs to be done on platforms that honor that voice—on platforms where people there are ready to consume that type of expression. I personally struggle with Instagram because I don't think it's necessarily ideal.
Bee, you're on Instagram. Do you think social media is a good thing for photography?
Bee: It's great for empowering people, giving them platforms. As a consumer, it makes me more nuanced and filtered in what I let in because now there's a lot of good content that wasn't there before. But [there’s] also a lot that isn't helpful. I'm not critical of it because I participate and I'm on there, albeit in a guarded fashion.
Rog: I'm not on social, but it's good from a consumption standpoint. You're able to see so much from people all across the world. For the photographer? I don't know. I haven't jumped on Instagram, and the value of my work has somehow increased in the eyes of those I work and connect with. I do think social media is great for the community. It's somewhat saturated.
As a duo, how do you influence each other's work?
Rog: It's really difficult to manage at times. We do work together very well. I trust Bee's artistic perspective, her research, her knowledge base. What's more difficult from my perspective is managing whose voice rises to the top of something. That's only natural. We always find our way though. I was reading Grace Coddington's memoirs. I think about that relationship between her and Anna Wintour. They make it work, but sometimes they butt heads. We don't butt heads. It's about dealing with each of our insecurities. I'm much better technically, and Bee is much better conceptually. I look to her for that. She's really made my work go from pictures of people just standing there to the work actually asking questions and having depth.
Bee: He's way better technically than I am. Sometimes I don't like the outcome of my photos, so he's good at talking to me about light. Those technical things can't be underestimated. Rog's advice is the difference between me being happy or not happy with a picture. He's also really organized, and that's indispensable to me. I wanna just show up and be free to shoot whatever I want. More often than not, that requires a lot of communication going back and forth, and Rog is amazing at doing that.
