We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rick Knight a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rick, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
This is a real challenge. I try to stay restless. Fortunately, I can’t stay still. I’m a bit of a wanderer by nature. My family moved quite a lot when I was a kid and I suppose the habit stuck as I’ve moved about the country quite a lot in my adult life. This has applied to my working and creative lives as well.
I’ve sold truck tires and record albums. I’ve worked for Apple and I’ve been self-employed. I was a graphic designer, a dishwasher, and a club DJ. I’ve met both famous people and forgotten people. I’ve enjoyed meals and drinks with the bad and the good. I’ve shared experiences with the dangerous and the gentle. I’ve been married three times and can say that yes, the third time is the charm. I would call myself a photographer at this point. But, if one never does anything for too long, it’s not likely that a specific thing will become stagnant.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m proud to be a recent addition to the board of directors of Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe. I’ve been promoting the arts in Denver — via photography and social media — for nearly eight years, so the appointment to the ADSF board gives me an opportunity to dive even deeper into my art advocacy interests.
I’ve been regularly shooting pictures of one kind or another for nearly 20 years, everything from casual snapshots to — most recently — headshots. Throughout my photographic journey, the only constant has been street photography or, what I like to call social documentary photography.
In the motion picture industry, a typical running time for a good comedy is 90 minutes, a drama often reaches two hours, and an “epic” may well exceed the three-hour mark. Most candid street shots are captured at 1/500th of a second; that’s some pretty economical storytelling.
Street photography is a challenging discipline. The photographer has little control over the action, composition, lighting but those aren’t the biggest challenges. Many photographers — even experienced professionals — find capturing unsolicited candid images of strangers intimidating. Fear is an ever-present companion. Fear of not getting the shot. Fear of wasting time and effort. Fear of creating boring images. But, above all else, fear of confrontation.
Fighting through the fear is important because street photography is important. Documenting daily life in photos has value. Capturing people in unposed, authentic, unguarded moments preserves our shared history. Genuine gestures, emotions, and interactions lacking pretense or posing — these are worth recording in photos. Every moment left unpreserved is largely lost to us, imperfectly stored in flawed, fickle and affected memory.
So, I pursue street photography because it is difficult, because it makes me uncomfortable, and because we will never see or experience these moments again.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Speaking for myself — and these may well be considered negative traits by some — it’s been my total lack of interest in anything approaching a conventional career, in money, or in establishing a long-term attachment to a single place; I have had a willingness to be unmoored, to forego security. I wouldn’t necessarily advocate the implementation of such a philosophy to such a degree — in my case, it’s worked — but I would encourage people to travel, and to explore interests outside of their education, career, training, or artistic discipline.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I don’t mind working on projects alone but finding like-minded people to create with is always on my mind. At present, I’m hosting a photo and art walk in the art district on the second Sunday of every month. We’re always looking for more folks to participate, regardless of skill level or camera choice. Visit DenversArtDistrict.org for information.
Contact Info:
- Website: rbknight.com
- Instagram: @GoCatGo
Image Credits
RBKnight
