We were lucky to catch up with Kyran John recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kyran, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
How do I keep creativity alive? Great question. As someone who started off as a musician and later transitioned into photography and videography, the number one way for me is to keep my creativity flowing, is to switch back and fourth.
What do I mean by that? Well, my music inspires my art and my art inspires my music. When I start to develop creators block in the photography and videography realm of things, I go back to what I know best… Making music.
Often ill start off my day by working on music, especially since now 98 percent of my life is situated around photography, sometimes I feel stagnant, and the best way to escape stagnation is to produce a couple of records to get my creative juices flowing, and vice versa.
Another way I keep the creative juices flowing is by watching a couple of my favorite YouTubers, especially in the product and food photography realm. I use them as inspiration to come up with new ideas as to how to shoot different products and items in ways I may have not thought about including lighting and composition and positioning.
You have to tap into what works for you and awakens your. creative flow.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
“Currently, I am knee-deep in the food photography world and the product photography world, literally day in and day out.
Last year, I worked with over 75 restaurants, which, compared to the year before, had numbers of over 100+ (through DoorDash and UberEats). What makes this year different is that these were mostly through Foreign Kollect. This is a big moment for me because when I started in food photography, it was due to being contracted by a company called Snappr, which at the time had contracts with DoorDash, Woodspoon, and Popmenu. This company allowed me to get my feet fully wet in the food world by having me go around to different restaurants and shoot very basic images of dishes, but that practice allowed me to start getting better and venture deeper into the world of photography.
I love food photography because it allows me, for one, to try great, goddamn food, but also to meet new people and indulge in other people’s culture and stories around the food they make. Nothing warms my heart like taking a dope photo of a beautiful dish and having strangers on IG and other patrons rave about how much the image I took makes them feel hungry. I always say that if the photos I’m posting make you feel like you need to go out and buy that item or something similar immediately, then I did my job.”
Aside from Food photography, I am the lead photographer at a company in NYC called Vida, which does marketing for shoe companies such as Stride Rite, Kurt Geiger, and Carters, just to name a few. It has been a blast and a new set of challenges working among a team of dope creatives who keep me on my toes with different projects all the time. I actually inherited this contract from my friend Jackson, who used to work here but end up going on maternity leave and then leaving permanently, passing the torch on to me. Has been quite the adventure so far. !
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Discipline is the one im going to start off with for this question, why?. You can’t fake the funk, either you got it or you don’t. Discipline is the number one factor to getting far in this world of photography. Discipline allowed me to stick through taking photos in my house every single day during the pandemic while sick with COVID. I told myself, hey, if im going to die, I might as well die learning something new. Clearly I didn’t end up passing from COVID (which I thought I was going to), but I did end up with a new mindset on powering through difficulties to get to the other side of a dark time. You have to be able to get up and go out an take photos, even when you don’t want to, its the number one way to get to another level.
2. Don’t be afraid to try new things. As photographers, we tend to hear this a lot “stick to one genre of photography, don’t be a jack of all trades and a master of none” now don’t get me wrong, its great to be able to master a skill, I am personally really focused on mastering food photography, BUT. DO NOT LET THAT KEEP YOU FROM TRYING THINGS OUT. Photography is so damn vast. Try things out, Experiment, Do stupid stuff. There’s all types of ways to develop a style, and by just “sticking to one: you might sell yourself short on the level of creativity you are able to get to by placing yourself in a box.
3. Open up your mind to all types of inspiration. What do I mean by this? Looking at different photos isn’t the only way to pull inspiration for a a dope photoshoot concept. Reading a book, watching a movie, watching other photographers shoot, listening to music, all are ways to gather inspiration for a dope shoot idea. The first real concept shoot I ever did was called “Rebellious Roots: Women of Color. This concept focused on black women and their different hair styles and textures and the root of how many of these styles came to be. I also tied different hair styles to color theory and the meaning how each color conveys an emotion to tie in how difference in styles may make women feel. This whole concept idea came to me from reading a book about Moody Lighting and a chapter on color theory made me think about this whole creative idea. Shoot ended up coming out dope by the way. You can find a few of the photos on my ForeignKollect IG.
So yea, grab inspiration from anywhere you can.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
Surprisingly, Videography. I always felt as if it was inevitable to get into videography as a photographer, but ive had a hell of a lot of fun starting to shoot music videos and vlogs and party events just because TO ME, things look so much better on video lol. I feel as if getting into video takes a different level of discipline than photography. There is so much to learn and so much to take in, in terms of lighting, technique, composition, colors, story. Not saying all that does not come into play with photography, but there is a different level of intention when it comes to getting into the world of video. I’ve found that the biggest way to improve in this world of video, is to just shoot as much as you an and play with ideas that come to your head, no matter how big or small they seem. The more you practice, the easier it is to see a vision before you even take your camera out!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.foreignkfood.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foreignkollect/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyran-john-74a9881b5/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLR4Ta2OsoboXJdxlvwH1WQ
Image Credits
All credit goes to Foreign Kollective Media Group
