We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Renae “IIRONIC” Wootson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Renae “IIRONIC” below.

Renae “IIRONIC”, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Photography was always my passion, but unfortunately I took a long route to get to working as a full time photographer. My degree and background is in Advertising and Design. Aside from a couple classes in college, I mostly learned to do what I do, honestly, by researching and applying. I learned a lot by spending many many many hours reading, researching, and watching videos online while I was working full time as a designer. And after work, I would shoot and apply everything I learned. I even invested in a studio space very early on because It was important to me to be a versatile photographer. I do believe an internship could have really helped speed things along for me, but I never had that privilege; I worked full time and most internships clashed with my work schedule, and quitting my job to work for free at an internship wasn’t an option for me. Nevertheless, I learned the most from DOING; aka shooting as much as possible and experimenting.

Renae “IIRONIC”, 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?

I am a Photographer and Visionary. A lot of my work is centered around people. I am very intrigued by people and their stories; the way they think; the way they feel; the way they express themselves; what makes them tick; what are they passionate about; etc. I believe that we as people are multi-layered and complex and I really love to capture aspects of that in my work, no matter if it’s in the editorial space, commercial space, personal, etc. My work has a lot of depth and makes people feel.

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

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is having my work be received by people. It honestly means the world to me whenever someone tells me they love my work and even better, when people say that my work touched them and/or made them feel something. Having my work be “felt”, and when my work resonates with someone… it’s truly priceless to me.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Funding. I know there is already a lot of funding and grants out there, but there are a plethora of artists and grants are usually limited to only a couple people at a time. Regardless, funding is most always the biggest thing standing in an artist’s way when it comes to creating the most meaningful projects. Sometimes we have big, amazing (sometimes even life-changing) ideas but the only thing stopping us from executing is funding.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.iironic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iironic