We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kevin Avery a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kevin, so happy you were able to devote some time to sharing your thoughts and wisdom with our community. So, we’ve always admired how you have seemingly never let nay-sayers or haters keep you down. Can you talk to us about how to persist despite the negative energy that so often is thrown at folks trying to do something special with their lives?
This is a great question! Being an artist in a time that is very much overrun by social media, it is safe to say that there is a lot of hate and doubters out there that unfortunately do have a platform and a voice. I strongly believe that social media is the cause of a massive amount of the negativity in our everyday lives…and it seems to be one of the main catalysts behind a very anxious generation. People share opinions and say things online that they would never express if they met us in person at an art show or gallery. And the thing I am always most surprised by is just how many people are walking around in their everyday lives just ready to blow a fuse about things that have nothing to do with them. You couple that with the “jury” system format of most art shows and it ends up creating a career of way too much rejection and criticism for something that was originally created to just bring peace and joy. Dealing with the negativity has been something that I have treated like a technical skill that I had to learn and perfect. When I first started in the business, I took everything extremely personal…and it always frustrated me when people said you can’t take criticism or rejection personally…because it is extremely personal! My whole business is based on my ability and my name so to just think I would be able to brush off the hate was not a realistic path forward for me. So, over the past few years I have worked at it just like anything else, and it is something that I still have to practice every day. I try to focus on clients that I’ve had that are more positive and appreciative of the work I do and I try to remind myself of the false confidence that people get when their hiding behind a screen. I rely on my family a lot to help me go through the mood swings of this business as well…nothing keeps you grounded in the best way possible more than having a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old with their daily antics and entertainment! And fortunately, now I have been doing this long enough that I have met some really great people along the way that remind me how fortunate I am to be able to do what I do for a living. There will probably never be a way to stop online hate…but my hope is that someday there will be alternatives to those kind of sites that will loosen the grip they have on society.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a fine art photographer that specializes in taking “in-water” photos of waves and the ocean. I grew up surfing my whole life, and would see the ocean do these insanely amazing things and I always wanted to bring that to land for people who don’t surf. When the pandemic hit, I went to my dad and told him we were going to start this business! Fortunately, I have the kind of dad that was completely on board. I had to teach myself how to take photos which ended up being a thousand times more difficult than I expected. So, I would shoot as often as possible and just try to learn more every single day. Our mantra was to make less mistakes than the time before every time I went out to shoot. Within about 12 months it became my full-time job, and my dad and I have been chasing this full speed ever since. We both feel extremely fortunate to be able to do this every day and work at something together that brings so much joy.
One event that we have coming up will be The Other Art Fair in Los Angeles this coming February 20th through the 23rd!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
A few of the most impactful qualities and areas of knowledge that helped me advance in this fine art career are actually a little unusual. First, knowledge of the ocean is a massive one. I shoot in conditions that are often times quite dangerous…so being comfortable and confident in the water is a huge piece of what I do. Knowing where to be and when to be there in the water can easily be the difference between getting an epic shot or taking a pounding. I have a major respect for the power of the ocean and I am completely aware that every time I go out I have very little say in what is going on. I like to think I have a healthy and necessary fear of the ocean that keeps me in line in the water and keeps my adrenaline high which helps with what I do.
A second quality is knowing what you don’t know and embracing it. Taking photos in the water is an insane concept to begin with, so by embracing the fact that I had to learn everything from scratch it helped me advance a lot quicker. I just tried to learn something new every single day and I just kept trying to research and discover new ways to perfect what I was doing. I think coming to the table with no technical background actually helped me learn things a lot faster…I was able to learn while I was in the water and I was forced to learn by trial and error. I think it can be hugely helpful in any industry to admit that you don’t know something…and then spend every waking minute trying to learn and perfect what you don’t know! I strongly believe that is the fastest path to being a professional at anything.
A third quality which is kind of unexpected is just being kind and having fun. I know that sounds cliché but it really is important. The art business is a funny business. As I mentioned before, there is a lot of negativity and rejection, which is really weird for an industry that is supposed to bring happiness and be thought provoking. We’ve met a lot of people along the way…and the artists we see that are the most successful are the ones that have realized how lucky they are to be able to do this for a living. When we do art shows or galleries, I always feel responsible to bring a certain level of energy and approachability to the people that view my work because it is supposed to be a positive thing. I want people to look at my work and be transported to a place of joy…and I think a lot of that starts and ends with me and how I represent my work. You always see things that talk about supporting the arts…but the reality is a lot of this business can feel like the exact opposite of that. So, one of the best ways to keep moving forward is just to focus on being kind and getting people psyched about the work itself.
My best advice for people just starting out is don’t listen to the feedback for as long as you can. So many different people will have “opinions” on how to do things. But just keep DOING every day…and you will learn things so much faster than you think. In this day and age, it is way too easy to get sidetracked, and I feel like that can ruin a lot of creativity and growth that could have otherwise led to amazing things.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The biggest obstacle my business is facing is getting my work in front of more people on a year-round basis. Art shows and galleries can be very seasonal, so an obstacle that we are always trying to overcome is how to get my work in front of people that don’t happen to see us at a show. Online sales are a really difficult metric to push, so we are always trying to come up with new ways to sell in the “off-season” of our art shows. When people see my work in person, we feel very confident that we will find new collectors and clients…but as it stands right now, there is usually a 4-to-5-month window every year where we don’t have very many shows. So, our goal is to find more stable sources of income in those months so we can continue to do this for many years to come. Ideally, we will foster more relationships with art buyers and art sales representatives so in the future we aren’t the only people trying to sell my work to the public. In a perfect world we would find some help in that area of the business so I can focus even more of my time on producing new work!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.KevinAveryPhotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevinaveryphoto/
Image Credits
Kevin Avery
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