Issue 003 Features: John Craft

ACM: What started your fascination with photography?
JOHN CRAFT: Birmingham. The City of Birmingham has always been a love of mine. My photography started by just exploring cities and taking low angle shots of buildings. I did my first photoshoot with a friend in Mobile on an iPhone 6s with one of the Ollo clips. So I guess I’d say street photography is how I fell in love with photography and then I just decided to add a person in front of the same things I’d already photograph.

ACM: When/How did the idea of PortraitBHM/ PortraitBOS come about ?
JC: The idea for PortraitBHM started in late January 2017. We made our first post on January 31. The idea for it was pretty simple honestly. I wanted a place for creatives to gather. I wanted to help unite photographers and models in a field that can be very competitive. I kept seeing many talented photographers and many talented models in the Birmingham area, but it seemed like the photographers and models didn’t know each other. There seemed to be chasm between the two. PortraitBHM from the start has strived to be the bridge to connect the two. I wanted to feature people who are talented and deserve to have their creativity known. And I can say that it has worked. Since the start, we grown to over 700 followers. Parents have contacted us about finding photographers for their children’s photoshoots. Magic City Fashion Week told us we have helped them find more Birmingham based models, which means the world to me. PortraitBHM exist to propel the creatives of Birmingham forward to achieve their dreams. The same is true for PortraitBOS. PortraitBOS is still in the working of getting recognized in the city of Boston. My hope is that I can do the same things with that while hopefully helping PortraitBHM grow.

ACM: Where do you see both of these networks going in the future?
JC: I’m honestly not sure. As many people know, I am moving to Boston in October. Pretty soon, I’ll be handing PortraitBHM off to a friend of mine. My hope is to create something that is bigger than one city. A collective of collectives if you will. But I can’t reveal too much about that yet. I can tell you that the near future is awesome. On September 16, we will host our 5th meet up. It’s going to be a mashup with Magic City Fashion Week. What that’s going to look like is PortraitBHM host a meet up while Fashion Week bloggers attend and then do write ups about PortraitBHM. We also have another mashup planned for early October, but one event at a time.

ACM: Do you feel that photography is more about the art or the technique?
JC: Both. I am a firm believer that everything is art, some of it’s not very good, but it can be. You can get caught up in technicalities a lot of times. At the same time, knowing the techniques helps you create great art. I also think that the technique in which one creates is an art itself. It’s like shooting with film, if you don’t learn the techniques of film, you might not have good photos at the end of the shoot.

ACM: Why do you think it’s impor tant to have a network of photographer/models?
JC: I think community is important. If you surround yourself with creative talented people, it’s going to inspire you to become more creative, therefore, furthering your talent/skill set. One person told me that the meets up PortraitBHM does are an answer to her prayers for a community of creatives. Since PortraitBHM started, I’ve seen people work together that maybe never would have known each other.

ACM: How do you keep your photography authentic/ your own in a society that’s so internet based?
JC: That’s a tough one. Having the internet is what enables me to find my inspiration. I think for me, when I decided to start doing portraits, I just had a clear vision of what I wanted my photography to look like. I found my favorite urban portrait photographers and I’ve done my best be a melting pot in a way. I hope my photography is truly authentic, but I also think that I have a similar style to people in the Northeast or West Coast. Everyone’s using prisms or CDs to throw rainbows. A lot of people are putting models in colorful bushes. A ton of people are using shadow play with the models hand to cast a shadow on her face. I do all of those things. I guess my authenticity comes from my surroundings. I just recently did a laundry may shoot, I felt my most authentic moments were when I had the model stand on a trash can or a generator box. It was so simple and uncreative that it felt authentic to me.

ACM: Can you describe your creative process?
JC: I can try. The first thing I always try to do is create a relationship with the model. I want both of us to be comfortable together. Both people need to know they can have creative freedom on the photoshoot. The second thing is matching outfits with locations. This is what helps with getting to know the model before the shoot many times. I think about details. I want to know what clothes I’m going to be able to work before I even get to the shoot. During the shoot, I just start a conversation that hopefully leads to a dope friendship. I don’t like doing too much directing, so many times I’m very quiet while the camera is at my face. I try my best to get natural movement instead of forced poses.

ACM: Do you feel, as an ar t ist /creator, you have a responsibility to culture?
JC: Yes. I’ve found that photographers/cinematographers/ models/etc help the direction of where culture goes through social media. If nothing else, I think photographers have a responsibility to keep up with culture. I’ve just never been a person who simply wants to keep up, I like to lead. For my personal life, I want to plant a church in the city of Boston that focuses on the people of the arts, whether that’s musicians, photographers, models, fashion, etc. For me, photography came out of nowhere. I didn’t own a camera 9 months ago. I had an iPhone and my Instagram feed was all vsco edits. I think God has allowed this creative outlet in my life so I can have influence in those areas of culture specifically.

ACM: Are you more passionate about the process of creating or the final product?
JC: 70/30. 70% process/30% final product. I say that because editing is such a huge piece of the process. I love being on a shoot and getting cool shots and seeing a concept come to life. I love editing. I absolutely love it when I get that one edit to a point of being able to say, “This is it, don’t touch it!”

ACM: What do you feel you’ve learned or accomplished with PortraitBHM?
JC: I’ve learned more about event planning. I’ve learned that you must be willing to answer the same questions about what you do, a lot. And you have got to answer it like it’s the first time you’ve been asked and you’re just so excited that someone wants to know your vision for whatever it is that you’re doing. I think I’ve accomplished my initial goal. Showcase creatives in the Birmingham area and create a community. The community and support around PortraitBHM blows me away. Our hashtag has been used over 1000 times. People tag us in their photos all day, every day. After each meet up, we see an increase in captions specific to PortraitBHM.

ACM: What do you have planned next, concerning Por traitBHM?
JC: I feel like I answered this question too early. We have the mash up with Magic City Fashion Week. We are meeting a street photographer soon to talk collaborations. Nyck Renard will be handling future plans for the most part. However, I do want to be involved still because I love Birmingham and have committed myself to seeing it’s growth for many years. I do have hopes to create something that will spread to multiple cities. As soon as I created PortraitBOS, people from Boston found it and were commenting about how glad they were that Boston had a feature page to promote models and photographers. So, you might be seeing a new collective company raise up soon. Nothing is definite yet.