We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lars Kommienezuspadt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lars below.
Hi Lars, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
My confidence was always an overcompensation, to be honest. I grew up in Scranton, PA, a really small town. I had some artistic talent and in a small town, the bar wasn’t that high to get recognition. Naturally, I’d push boundaries trying to get my work out beyond my hometown and as the calibre of artists and quality of art improved, I would experience immense imposter syndrome. Over the last twenty years, that process continued, each time becoming more and more comfortable with my style and artistic expression, feeling less and less of a need to try and convince others I was, “good”. I developed my own voice and learned that my work was unique, embracing that it stood out rather than trying to make it look like someone else’s.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m extremely restless and always have been. I’ve never been a single discipline creative. I work across multiple mediums, usually inspired by projects that require a particular approach. If I don’t already use a tool, software or solution to get the result I want, I tend to learn it. Most of my life I wanted to be a comic book illustrator. I was always fascinated by the industry and visual storytelling through sequential art.
I unexpectedly found myself as a photographer after mentoring under one of my teachers, a documentary photographer named Jim Gavenus, in 1999. I wasn’t comfortable photographing people I didn’t know and eventually began shooting portraits and fashion. In 2o12 I booked my first shooting in Los Angeles and broke out in the rockabilly/pinup scene and over the next 10 years became one of the prominent photographers in that subculture creating a niché genre known as dark pinup; sort of a goth interpretation of the well known pinup photography from the 1950’s.
In the last year, I converted to Islam and as a result, that and the genocide in Gaza have changed my heart in how I use my time and talented. Most of my photography and videography work is with Muslim owned businesses and non-profits or documentary interviews and footage of protests across the Twin Cities. I did recently do cover art and design for a Palestine zine.
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?
Purpose. Resiliency. Authenticity. I’m applying these to art, but I feel like this is the formula for however you choose to pursue your life. You need to wake up every morning and know that you’re doing what you’re meant to do. That is the number one reason I see people getting depressed. Without purpose, you’re just a buoy floating in an ocean. Resiliency is essential to not giving up on that purpose because life will have no shortage of roadblocks, heartbreaks and disappointments on your journey. You need to know in your soul that you are meant for something. You should do it only for yourself and God. Do not look for satisfaction, acceptance or validation in others. If purpose is knowing what you’re meant to do, authenticity is walking that path yourself. Being authentic is often a lonely path because society, your job, your family, your friends, all have expectations of you — to stay above that noise and still remain tuned into your unique signal is a discipline that takes a lifetime to preserve but it’s always the authentic people that stand out. Once success finds you, you’ll be praised for your authenticity, but until then, you’ll have to endure ridicule, criticism and doubt.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
Gaza has changed me forever. When I moved to Minneapolis in 2010, the first friend I made was a Palestinian Muslim woman in a small coffee shop. She told me about the occupation and the Palestinian struggle. To be honest, I had to look some of this up for myself but through sites like Breaking The Silence and reading first hand testimony of ex-IDF soldiers, I realized it was true. After October 7th, I took my camera to the first protest in uptown. Over the last 15 years, I did use my camera for activism if I felt called to do so. After Philando Castile was killed, I photographed protestors gathering in front of then Governor Dayton’s mansion. In 2017 I spent a little over a week at Standing Rock. Of course, after George Floyd I photographed the unrest and streets of Minneapolis as well. All of these lasted a few weeks, or months, but Gaza has not stopped.
I used to wake up and edit photos of fashion look books or work on illustrations of pop culture brand projects for clients in the comic industry. After nearly two years of the things I’ve seen, none of that matters to me. I shoot documentary footage of protests in freezing cold weather or pouring rain. I do cover art for zines that tell the heart wrenching story of the Palestinian struggle, or produce interviews with Palestinians and those who have played meaningful roles in the resistance to the erasure of the people and culture. I don’t get the validation or accolades that I once did for posting pinup photography, but it’s far, far more important to me as an artist and a person that prides himself on having the humanity to use my talents for something bigger than myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://instagram.com/ritesofreturn
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/kommienezuspadt
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kommienezuspadt/
Image Credits
All images taken by myself.
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