Meet Destanie Chavira

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Destanie Chavira. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Destanie below.

Destanie, 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?

I get inspired by anything and everything, I think being creative has always came pretty naturally to me. Most of my ideas come from mundane things. Though, my creative process is anything but organized. It’s like a spiral. One idea turns into a never ending list of ideas. My notes app is about to bust. I’ve always struggled with the opposite problem of having too many ideas and not knowing where to start. I think if you’re struggling with staying creative, just try making anything, even if it’s not resonating with you. It might lead to a spark of inspiration, you never know. My therapist used to tell me to just get the ball rolling, I think that advice applies here too.

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?

I’m a photographer and creative director from Utah, which is also where I am currently based. I share my work online through the name 9h070. I approach taking photos the same way a film director would make a scene; I want the final image to look like a movie poster, where everything from the subject to the little background details are significant to the overall concept.
As of right now, I’ve been working on lots of fun projects, like making my own magazine, On9 Magazine, more on that will be shared soon… I’ve been trying to keep myself busy in terms of my photography endeavors. At the end of last year I felt a pretty heavy burnout, I think it was due to not having a clear direction. I jumped back into my work pretty quickly, setting a lot of goals and pushing myself hard; I think out of fear of falling back into that stagnancy. The urgency gave me momentum but by the end of June I started to feel that rut creeping back up on me. I hate uncertainty but I’ve come to realize I don’t have to have everything figured out right now, even if that lack of control is nauseating.
Over the past couple months, I found that directing photoshoots where I get to experiment with concepts and design has helped bring that sense of redirection I was looking for. I feel like I have a little bit of a better map of where I want things to go now and I’m looking forward to sharing the things I’ve been working on. The photos from that time will be shown at my gallery in the Solo Studio in Logan, Utah on September 19th from 6-9pm.

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?

I think the most useful skill to have as an artist is confidence. Being certain with your decisions, and proud of your work. When you’re certain in yourself, you set the temperature for the room. A lot of people are just winging it, but if you hold yourself with that confidence people will trust your vision. Whenever I get stressed about a shoot, I always ask myself ‘have you ever created anything bad?’ The answer is no, man. Even the “bad” art I’ve made still means something and is special to me. Usually, self doubt isn’t rooted in truth. Believe that you can and will make it work, whether things go as planned or don’t. I feel like artists put too much weight on the expectation for their art to turn out a certain way, but when you redirect that energy towards ‘how much am I learning’, or ‘how much fun am I having’, or ‘how cool is this experience’, that’s when you can really trust yourself with your art. Oh, and I want to add, the only judgement that matters is your own, so if you’re constantly telling yourself your work sucks or isn’t as good as whatever… Why would you want to do that? Give yourself grace, you’re creating something new and that’s more than a lot of people are willing to do. Your own belief in yourself is really all you need. Waiting for someone else’s validation, you’ll be waiting forever. Be patient and consistent and the rest will fall into place.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Definitely! I would love to work with a full team on something. I’ve been dying to shoot a music video or something in video form. I recently did a photoshoot inspired by my favorite movie, Evil Dead Rise. I did the makeup for the shoot too, it was just so much fun. It would be a dream to work with other creatives on another horror themed shoot. Or make a horror themed music video, that’d be sick… I’m honestly pretty down for anything though, so feel free to contact me through my website 9h070.com or DM my instagram @9h070 to make something!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://9h070.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/9h070

Image Credits

Destanie Chavira