We recently connected with Semir Ahmed and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Semir, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change the timing of when I started my creative journey. I first picked up a camera in high school, taking selfies for Instagram, but it wasn’t until a few years later, during my sophomore year at the University of Memphis, that I seriously got into photography. If I started sooner I would’ve picked up technical skills earlier and have much more presence in my field. However there is the possibility that if I started sooner key moments that shaped my career wouldn’t have happened. I’m kind of stuck in between in wishing that I started sooner and starting at the same time.
Semir, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Semir Ahmed, but I go by AWOL, which stands for “A Weapon Of Love,” but many don’t know that. When I was high school instead of using my phone to take pictures for Instagram, I used my dad’s Canon Eos camera. Then in college one of the first big purchases I made was my Sony A6100 camera. I I got into the musician photography business when I was in my sophomore year of college and I randomly took my camera to my cousin, Esmod’s, performance. I ended up taking some photos just for the fun of it, and then it became a habit. Every music performance I went to I just kept snapping shots with my Sony A6100. Recently I kept getting compliments from all the musicians I took photography for and that motivated me to start a musician photography services and to make it a hustle. What work of mine I’m most proud of is my photos of Esmod and 901aura’s show at Delta Fair 2024. This was my first time ever working with a production team before with professional lighting and equipment, such as smoke machines and strobe lights. I’m yearning for another amazing experience like that again.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I personally think that the most rewarding aspect is being able to put a piece of ourselves out to the world and hopefully make someone’s day. With the cliché business jobs you’re just a replaceable cog in the machine, but with art you are the cog AND the machine, and irreplaceable. One photographer can’t do the same exact work as another and another rapper won’t rap the same either. Every artist is unique in there own way and so is their art they put out in the world.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I think what’s driving me is the potential goal of me being able to be financially healthy just off my photography alone. Working a 9-5 job while trying to create your art is hard due to lack of time and energy. I want to be able to wake up, create my art, pay the bills through my art, and go to sleep. However, sadly, a lot of artists in this have to give up their art just to pay their bills. I want my life to be supported by my art.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awol_semir/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@awolcreate500
