John Keatley – Creating personal projects
This week, we sat down for an interview with John Keatley, Seattle based advertising and fine art photographer. On this podcast episode he shares some behind the scenes of his recent project “Uniform” and why it’s so important to be creating personal work. We also talk about what is was like when he started off in advertising, and was told “It takes 5 years.”
You can catch John at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York in October on Managing Clients & Workflow on Set (Thu, Oct 20, 2016 – 10:15 AM to 12:15 PM). John and his wife Nichelle also host photographers for a three day workshop in Seattle called Survival Guide.
Until I stared creating work on my own that spoke the language of advertising, people just wrote me off as an editorial photographer.
John Keatley Interview Timestamps
0:40- Uniform personal project
5:12- What goes into planning your personal projects?
9:37- How do you deal with decisions on personal work?
11:52- Journal of Ideas
13:27- Don’t save ideas until you are ‘better’
13:49- “You never are satisfied with where you are at. You’re alway going to be learning.”
14:40- Having a team in place
17:29- Working with your spouse
21:55- Family portraits on website
25:10- Feedback from clients on family portraits
26:12- Career path
28:40- How did you marketing change over the years?
29:54 “Look, it really takes 5 years”
32:29 “Until I stared creating work on my own that spoke the language of advertising, people just wrote me off as an editorial photographer. “
32:48 – Why did they assume you were an editorial photographer?
34:13- Building the Survival Guide
37:16- Figuring out who you are and translating that into your work
39:34- Upcoming workshop in 2017
40:22- NYC PhotoPlus Talk “Being on Set”
40:57- Lighting Round questions
41:37- Why Fine Art?
42:50 – What would someone be surprised about you?
45:21 – Liberia
47:00 – One Light, One Modifier, One Lens
48:00 – Maintaining confidence on the journey
“Hopefully you keep a big picture mindset.”
Show Notes + Links
Uniform
Annie Leibovitz Portrait
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Keatley Survival Guide
John Keatley Instagram
Knowledge Bombs
“You never are satisfied with where you are at. You’re always going to be learning.” 13:49
“Until I stared creating work on my own that spoke the language of advertising, people just wrote me off as an editorial photographer.”-32:39
“Hopefully you keep a big picture mindset.” – 48:00
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