Oct 23, 2021, Golden Studios hosted our very first art show. We featured local visual talents Bakari Akinyele, artbyjoia, Ife the artist, Rich Williams, Josephine Hill , Jada Imani M, Marley-seday, Homer, Chloe Malay, Talaya Whipple, Nate Gski alongside myself with sounds by DJ RWEONTHEAIR. 

 The event was a great success, welcoming over 70 guests. Guests was able to speak with some of their favorite artists and discover more about us and our work and also become collectors of our art. I thought it was important to put on this event because with the rise of social media I feel visual art has been greatly watered down by saturation and instant gratification. Even for myself, I struggle with connecting to my viewers wondering who my work truly touches. It was a refreshing experience being that we are still in a pandemic and for a lot of attendees this was their first art show since 2019. We got such great feedback and have been encouraged to throw more events, so definitely look out for that in the future. 

Event photos by Dominque Curtis.

Golden Studios hosted our first Pop Up portrait session and it was a complete success! Families, friends and lovers came out to create  memories that they can cherish forever. I was inspired by the old school mall glamour photos of the late 90’s- early 2000’s. Me and my friends would get dressed in color coordinated outfits and head to the mall to take photos and share with our other friends at school. Then we would write some little cute message on the back. That was a time before social media took over. Social media definitely has made that a lost art :(  But we brought it back! We featured 5 different backdrops and shot 15 sessions in total, giving each participant 30 minutes. We also offered wallet and 5x7 prints for an additional fee. Everyone had a great time and you can see that they were just excited to be taking a blast from the past. Definitely something I would love to do again. Check out some of what went down!

First I want to start off by discussing exactly what defines style.  Style is how something is interpreted by the photographer in the way they create an image: whether through the use of camera, lenses, filters, lighting, compositions etc; or through techniques for processing the image after it has been taken. Now for my beginners I will advise you that style is not something that you discover overnight. It will develop overtime as you produce work. And you’ll begin to notice similarities in your work and that eventually becomes your style. 

 When I first started out it was important for me to understand why I wanted to be a photographer. At the time I was in college studying journalism so I was very influenced by storytelling and more particular creating narratives surrounding underrepresented people in the media ie my community and my culture. I wasn’t necessarily interested in the traditional form of photo journalism in fact I never chose a particular genre to work out of. I just shot what made me feel good. I would style my friends and photograph them and I would take photos of pretty flowers you know, anything that interested me. I think thats very important when it comes to developing your own style because you don’t want to box yourself in off jump. You need to give yourself room to explore. 

 Another thing you need to do is think about work that inspires you. Analyze it and ask yourself what about this photo stands out to me? It can be the colors, lighting, the composition, the editing style, the subject matter. How does it make you feel? And you want to take these things and try applying it to your own work and try adding a little twist so that your personality shines through. Also when searching for inspiration look beyond photos. Listen to music, read poetry study other genres of art. Here’s a really helpful tip : while your scrolling through instagram it has a cool feature where you can save photos to a board. Fill that board with images that represent the look and feel you are going for with your images. 

 But when developing your own style there has to be a point where you turn off all the noise. Go out and shoot from the heart don’t worry about who likes it or whether or not it looks perfect. What do you want your work to say? Critiue your work and have your friends critique it. Ask them if they notice any patterns in your work. What are you enjoying the most ? Is it natural light or strobes? Black and white or color? Candid or posed? Men or women? What angle lens is your go to? What genre do you find yourself shooting the most ? All of these elements will contribute to your photographic style. After years of creating others will begin to notice your style too.