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

Rachel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned by trial and error and watching other artists and trying to emulate what they were doing. There used to be a really incredible community of photographers on Flickr, and that’s where I did most of my learning. I saw what settings people used on their cameras and read about the photoshop techniques they mentioned, and then googled and learned and made a lot of really bad art to start making good art. The biggest obstacles that stood in the way of learning more was my ego. When I first started I was so hungry for knowledge and my brain was so malleable. I had no preconceived notions about how good I should be or what my art should be looking like. I was more willing to experiment and go out of my comfort zone and experience the frustration that comes with growth. Now when I see someone do something that I’m not sure how they achieved, I can tend to feel imposter syndrome and jealousy, rather than the drive to learn how they did it. I can also be guilty of getting caught in my comfort zone, because if I’ve figured out my style and I know what works then it can be easy to stop growing. I’ve been continually learning that putting myself in uncomfortable situations and moving through the frustration and imposter syndrome of trying something new is more rewarding than stagnancy. As artists, I think it’s important to constantly be growing and learning and challenging yourself (and I’m trying to get better at it).

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a photographer/visual artist from Cleveland, Ohio. My love for nature is the reason I got into photography, and my biggest drive to improve was to accurately and beautifully capture the trees, streams, and flowers that surrounded my house. As a child, I spent a lot of time outside exploring the woods, looking for frogs in the creek, and climbing trees. Being outside barefoot in the grass made me feel alive, and as I got older, photography gave me a way to reconnect to this feeling of aliveness and wonder. As my style developed, I found that photography was offering me an escape from the real world, because I could create new worlds that didn’t adhere to the limits of reality. A lot of my personal work has been an exploration of my relationship with nature and the innate magic of the existence of this natural world. My work is my attempt to make sense of the enigmatic forces that weave through our existence and explore the feelings of awe and wonder that accompany my experiences in nature. I aim to capture a sense of oneness, dissolution, and merging, dissolving the borders of the physical body into the embrace of nature. This exploration serves as a catalyst bring me back into a feeling of connectedness to the universe, and my ultimate goal is to evoke this very same feeling in those who engage with my art. I explore this through self portraiture, often times inserting myself into a natural environment.
The thing that I’m most proud of is my commitment to creating, I’ve been doing photography since I was about 12 years old, and I’ve consistently been creating since then. While some people try to categorize my work as fine art, I prefer not to be boxed in. I love taking on a variety of work, whether it’s personal, fashion, or music-related. My style is versatile: I enjoy creating playful, collage-like pieces that are bold and graphic, heavily edited work that’s textured and ethereal, or more simple portraits. I’ve really enjoyed the one on one work I’ve done with people in natural landscapes, where they can explore and interact with their environment in a way they might not normally do. I find that it can be incredibly healing and grounding for people to reconnect with nature in that way.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Two things come to mind. One is that being an artist gives me a way to interact with and connect to my environment. When I’m taking pictures, it grounds me more deeply into the present, and it feels like I’m collaborating with the universe; Collecting pockets of the world and creating with creation itself. The second most rewarding aspect is that I feel so lucky to be able to express myself in a way that others are receptive to. My art is like a reflection of my soul, which can be incredibly vulnerable, so to have people appreciate and resonate with it, makes me feel more connected to others.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

For so long my art has offered me an escape from reality and given me a refuge from my own suffering. Over time, my art began to transform how I look at the world around me, how I see color and light and clouds and trees, it began to connect me to the beauty that surrounds me, and the magic that exists within me and around me at all times. It’s connected me to the mystery and wonder that weaves through our entire existence here on earth. I can only hope that my art can offer a momentary reminder of beauty and hope and wonder and possibilities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rachelrosemarie.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachel_rosemarie/