Meet Ghawam Kouchaki

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ghawam Kouchaki. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ghawam , so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

A lot of your confidence should come from failure, when you’ve failed enough, you can eschew the insecurities you can have as a photographer; people makes mistakes, but the problem we have as a culture is we can never fail in front of others, we’re afraid to look stupid, so we harp on this idea that we cannot show off our work until it is perfect.

I don’t know if I have improved my self-esteem, but I know from the people I’ve interacted with and the time I’ve allowed myself to reflect on what works and what I need to focus on in the future.

When you embrace failure, you’re giving yourself the opportunity to try anything, because when you allow yourself to take a bad photos, you can learn how to take a good one eventually.

Part of how I’m able to be confident is monastically going out and shooting, immersing myself more in the history and canon of art, and getting honest critiques from people I trust who know more than me about photography.

Your confidence should be directed at not thinking you’re going to take a great picture, but that without any self-doubt, if you see a scene in front of you, you can take that picture without getting in your own way.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’ve been a filmmaker most of my life, but I recently took up photography in 2020 when the world was affected by the pandemic; I’ve been doing photography off and on since I was a child, but for the past four years, I’ve been hyperfocused on photography because of how solitary it is, especially street photography, all you need is a camera and the street to create art.

Street Photography is what I practice the most because of how chaotic it is; a mentor of mine explained that if you can do street photography, you can really work in any genre of photography. When you’re out on the street you need to be on your toes and act quickly if you want to get the shot you see in front of you. No day is ever the same and when you miss your shot, it’s gone, but that’s the beauty of street photography, it teaches you how to be decisive. Life presents you with these moments and you have to become a great photographer to not only recognize those moments, but be able to capture those moments in a way which says something about you as a person; ultimately, like any artist, you’re capturing what interests you and matches your feelings about life.

A turning point in my life was when I went to Tokyo for the third time and I stopped shooting film; I had been doing street photography for a couple of years, but I felt like I passed this hurdle which kept getting in my way of starting to find my voice. When I embraced digital and learned to stop trying for perfection, I allowed myself to finally get the shots I wanted, rather than what society expects I should be getting as a photographer.

The shots I got in Tokyo have been getting a lot of positive responses and I’m turning them into a book by the end of the year titled, “Tokyo No-No”, but I don’t want to get bogged down by the allure of success and just repeat what I did in Tokyo for any future work. I think the lessons I learned from that trip helped me grow as a photographer to recognize the photos I took which reflected my voice, in the long run are more valuable than any single photo or book.

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?

You need to embrace failure, failing now is the best thing you can do as an artist, because if you try and apply a voice or play to what people expect your photography should be before you form your voice, than you’ve killed the opportunity to bring out the artist within you.

Don’t just study photography, study art in general, not just paintings, but things like opera, music, fiction, and non-ficiton. You should also try a new thing everyday, it can be something as minuscule as buying a different brand of soda you wouldn’t necessarily try. When you open yourself to new things, it sort of allows you to think outside of the mental barriers you set up for yourself and it allows you to think about things in life from a new perspective.

Setting short term and long term goals for yourself is another invaluable skill; ask yourself where you want to be in five years and what can you do this year. When you set deadlines for yourself it motivates you, but when you accomplish those short term goals, it builds up into something tangible you can put on a resume or CV. In 2023, I told myself I wanted to finish a short film and my first photobook, with those things in mind, I set out to finish both and by the end of that year I was able to finish both; when we set goals for ourselves, it can be daunting, but you can chip away at it little by little until it’s finally complete.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

The biggest obstacle right now is plateauing with the amount of skill I’ve learned on my own for the past couple of years; I’m self-taught in photography, but there is a limit of what you can accomplish on your own and I believe getting an education or attending workshops are invaluable because they are spaces which can show you the mistakes you’re too biased to see of yourself.

My fear is repeating myself and my photography or other work looking like a repeat of my greatest hits because I’m not conscious of the mistakes I’m making with my level of skill.

I talked to a couple of people and the key piece of advice I got was attending a workshop, it’s like going back to school, and in a way it helps you overcome those new hurdles you’ve placed for yourself when you grow as an artist.

I’m going to be attending a photo workshop in South Korea soon, so I’m excited to learn more about my craft, not just from a great teacher, but like minded peers from different perspectives.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ghawamkouchaki.com
• Instagram: ghawam.kouchaki