Meet Joseph Rehs

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joseph Rehs a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Joseph , 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?

The first rule is that you have to be obsessed with what you do. Fall in love with your work, and I mean truly fall in love with it, and the creativity will come to you. When you love something, you naturally will do whatever it takes to help make that thing better. The 2nd piece of advice I can offer is to look at the world around you. This life has so much to offer, you just have to look for it. Take a walk, talk to strangers, go places you’ve never been to. See the world in different ways than you’re used to and creativity will flourish around you.

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?

My name is Joseph Rehs, I am 18 years old and I am a photographer coming out of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Growing up I always hated getting my picture taken, I was very insecure in front of the camera. Having no pictures for myself bothered me, but having a camera pointed my way bothered me even more. So instead of being in front of the camera, I fell in love with being behind it. My goal as a photographer is to give people pictures that they are proud to show off. I love seeing people happy with their pictures and it’s what keeps my love for photography alive. Reach me on my Instagram @shot.by.rehs for a shoot!!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Humility is the first. You have to be able to listen to opinions. Your ego is a very dangerous thing. It’s important to take pride in your work, but also be able to bring yourself down to listen to everybody around you. Most people have great input and ideas, they just need somebody to listen to them. The second most important thing is joy. Joy is a powerful tool that can be used for every experience in life. You have to be joyful in everything you do, or else it won’t be genuine. Hold onto your joy, and don’t let anybody take it away from you. Enjoy everything you do, and motivation will never be a problem. My 3rd and most Important thing is love. You absolutely have to love what you do. But also, you have to love the world around you. You will notice, with more love, comes more care. Don’t just watch and listen, pay attention to everything with love and care and you will experience so much more. No matter where you are in life, you have to love and be happy with what you do. That is true success. My best advice to new photographers is that you do not need to worry about equipment. Anybody can press the shoot button on a camera. It’s what your shooting that holds meaning. Train your eye, and let your creativity flow. Focus on what your eyes catch, and you’ll build a brand that’s exclusive to you. Just enjoy the process and focus on expressing yourself through your work.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

I think it’s good to focus on what you’re already familiar with, however it is so much more important to study your flaws. Throw yourself out there and make yourself uncomfortable. That is where you’ll learn the most. You experience so much more in areas that you’re not comfortable with. Life gets boring when everything is easy. Make it interesting. When I started photography, I never took pictures of people due to a fear of letting them down. I stuck to buildings and nature. But when I threw myself out there and started doing photoshoots with others, I learned so much and found a new love for photography. Putting myself in an uncomfortable place gave me my most cherished passion.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @shot.by.rehs

Image Credits

Shot.by.rehs