We were lucky to catch up with Rick Freeman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rick thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name, Fireface,  reflects my sense of humor. Part of what got me so excited when I first laid eyes on my first roll of shots was that many of the images didn’t look like fireworks at all. I and everyone else know what fireworks typically look like.  But these were so personally in my kinetic style— which is to say, wild.

Now, when I think about it, they are essentially energy prints or energy art; pure electricity and electrical energy. So I felt that had very little to do with what came out of my camera in 2011. The overall feedback I got was “they don’t look like fireworks, they look like….other things” —like underwater scenes and space, and nervous systems, and brain waves and namable things. In deference to the human need to impose order on disorderly things, I saw and named them for what they seemed to be. One or two pictures in particular have a spectral quality in which you can clearly see faces–so that’s where Fireface comes from.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Rick Freeman is a New Rochelle resident, musician, and lover of arts. On July 4, 2011, very much on impulse, he pointed his camera at the sky to “capture” fireworks as they exploded, excitedly dancing with his camera under them as they launched and boomed. When he got home and saw the pictures for the first time on a big screen, he was stunned and delighted by the energetic and etherial images his camera had caught. This began 10 years of capturing images from the July skies.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes. Quite elementally, it’s a strong internal desire to show people these cool pictures I took because they are amazing and beautiful. I want to share them and for people to feel the same awe I did when seeing them initially.

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

In addition to sharing the images locally, I want to bring them out into the world at large, in many different media. Backlit display or video projection in addition to other display formats. I’ve never declared myself this kind of an artist before, so it’s a new feeling for me. I’m 63 and starting an artistic journey; Gallery show, crafts fair, arts festival. I’m trying to find my place–that’s my overarching goal.

Contact Info:

• Youtube: https://youtube.com/shorts/SZwaQE7-Xyo?feature=share
• Other: Currently I have minimal social media presence on Facebook. I’m trying to be sure once I do that the images are more secure than I believe they are under current conditions.

Image Credits
(c) Rick Freeman Fireface Designs 2011-2022