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.
Thank you so much, all the best to you guys and the community at large. Hope everyone's doing okay and staying safe! I'm Brian Scott, based out of north New Jersey. I'm mostly a freelance photographer and videographer. I've been doing photography for at least 10 years at this point and only the last few years have I considered myself professional and jumped into the position I'm in these days. I'm still only in the beginning of doing videos and short films, but I hope to move forward in big ways with all of that soon. I dabble in a little bit of everything that I can creatively.
Have you been able to cope well with all that is going on?
At the beginning, I was handling things a lot better. It was easier to keep motivated and working but, as time goes on, it's been becoming a little bit more of an up and down roller coaster ride. There's moments where it feels useless to keep up the positivity but, there's moments where I'm reminded of the complete opposite. But, I think that that is always life in general and as long as I'm here, I try to show all my sides and show that there's still worth in keeping up with the fight. And right now, I think that's so important.
What are some things you're doing to past the time and keep your mind off the Coronavirus noise?
I've been taking my time learning everything I can about cinematography and taking some courses on it, which in turn had given me just as much to help better my photograghy. Kind of a kick in the butt that I needed behind the camera that you still never stop learning if you keep an open mind. I've also been diving into a little bit if self portraits since my favorite pieces to make are with others and that's not an option at the moment. I've also been going back to basics and just shooting around, seeing what I get. I haven't focused much on anything other than portraits for awhile so it's kind of like diving back into my beginnings. Other than that, been meditating, watching a lot of movies and picking up some great books to read!
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.
It's definitely hurt in a lot of ways, but I've haven't been too focused on any of that. It would be more unhealthy for myself to do that. I've been taking it as a break that I've actually needed in a lot of ways. Since I'm learning new things and want to start taking things in new directions, it's best to focus on that. Things are going to be tough for awhile, but it's something I'm used to and I know it'll all pay off down the road.
We rarely dip into the "political world" but curious to know your thoughts on how the Coronavirus situation is being handled?
I'm not a fan to ever get into politics or any of that stuff. I don't ignore completely, but I do think a lot of things are broken. I don't think it's been handled very well at all, but when things like this happen I'm not so sure we'll ever be prepared like we'd hope to be. You never know what's going to happen and what way things are going to go -- even if you're prepared as best as you could be.
But, I think this is all showing us how broken things really are and I hope when we come out of this that we keep it in mind and start doing things about it. Not just move right back along into things.
What is a quote or saying you'd like to leave us with that could help brighten someones day?
βMay we keep fighting. May we keep asking for help when we need it. May we continue hoping for a better tomorrow in the face of todayβs uncertainty."
Jamie Tworkoski
