The Year Of Social Distancing
First off, I hope you and your family are doing well and staying safe in this crazy pandemic time! Start us off with a little background about yourself.
My name is Stephen Gilmore and I create photographs. I currently live in Austin, TX where I am finding my way to turning this "photography obsession" into a life fulfilling professional job.
Have you been able to cope well with all that is going on?
As of right now, I am definitely doing alright despite the chaos brewing across the nation. I luckily work at a local grocery store, so I am still blessed with a good paying job. I have also transitioned to all online classes for photography, which hasn't been the most ideal, but we find ways to make assignments work and keep going.
What are some things you're doing to past the time and keep your mind off the Coronavirus noise? I feel like since mostly everyone is unable to do photo-shoots with other people or collaborate in bigger groups; it has either, hindered some creatives output totally, or for some creatives it has given them the opportunity to expose their versatility in the "Creative Entrepreneur" market space. Has "social distancing" been beneficial to you or not? Keeping the loss of business revenue aside. I know we're all hurting in that department.
When I'm not working, or zooming with my classes, I'm normally hanging out with my family or building concepts for shoots. I'm always exploring new ideas for my photographs. With everything going on right now, it's sort of forcing me to go even more out of my comfort zone with what I want to shoot than I normally am. I'm a conceptual portrait artist, so without any subjects, the photographer turns model in these times. I believe it's definitely hindering the creative levels photographers can be at currently, but the real creatives know how to rise to the occasion. Whether money is on the line or not, I feel if somebody wants to make something happen bad enough, they will find a way. I think this task of social distancing will truly help evolve some creatives during this time into something much greater than we were before.
These were some photographs I took while self quarantining. This originally began as me wanting to do some higher fashion head shots on my new film camera I had acquired recently. It quickly evolved into a more abstract concept due to the weather outside and my never ending trail of ideas. It had been raining all day outside and I had some slower beats playing in the background, I suddenly wanted to try out a polaroid idea for a shoot. I had one of my siblings shoot details of my face with a polaroid so I could use them in my actual shoot, and they were all actually overexposed. I then just began drawing in features where they would have been in the image, but giving a little more character of course. From there, I set up my camera, and took the photos using a release cable connected to the camera. It all actually worked so well together, and the way the film turned out was wonderful as well. It being expired film, I truly had no idea how the images would turn out, but it definitely gave more character to them that otherwise would not have been there.
We rarely dip into the "political world" but curious to know your thoughts on how the Coronavirus situation is being handled?
(definitely not the biggest when it comes to politics) I feel our governments are honestly doing what they can currently, hopefully taking all that's going on into consideration. This is definitely not a situation anybody would have thought we'd be in at this time in 2020. I definitely wish we could have had a better plan at the get-go, but at this point, all we can do is take it day by day and pray it will all be okay.
What is a quote or saying you'd like to leave us with that could help brighten someones day?
"Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, and live by love though the stars walk backward" - E.E. Cummings. A little something to look on for the time being, one of my favorite pieces. This speaks on heart and love from oneself. It speaks about trusting your heart despite a deep catastrophe that could come about and to live by that love no matter what happens. For creatives, I feel it asks a deal of a favor for them to keep going and to trust that in these dark times, their love for what they do is what is going to keep them afloat and keep them mentally stable. Just trust that it's going to be alright and keep going.
