We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Beth Rose Goin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Beth Rose, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I think it’s likely that with almost any artist that we would say that our current project is the most meaningful to us, because the intention is usually to dig deeper every time we create. So, what I am working on now is developing into something very meaningful for me. Everything that I’ve done up to this point has been about where I am currently in my journey and now I’m looking back at how I got here and what it means to have travelled here. Up until now I focused on the proof that we are created intentionally and have purpose, because I’ve come to know that, but now I am lookin at how I discovered it. It seems that our value is something that should be born into us, and probably was into me, but was stolen from me early on and repeatedly throughout my life.
There are so many perspectives on who we are- our perspective, the perspective of others, and the Truth. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes they don’t.

Beth Rose, 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 first really pursued photography in high school and then went on to attend the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. My love was for the darkroom and the printing process. After college I travelled a bit around Canada photographing adventure races. I moved to Nashville in 2002 to, of course, pursue music, but starting a family made it harder to travel around and my husband bought me my first digital camera in 2007 so I could push my creative passion back into photography. For a long time it was weddings and family sessions and I watched the industry so that I could learn how to be successful. The next decade was spent alternating between having babies and pursuing a photography career. One day I realized I just had no interest in trying to fit in anymore. I went back to photographing people the way I had when I used film, I went back to using photography to tell the truth instead of copying the story everyone else was telling.
The beauty of photography is that it is inherently truthful, the more honest you are with your camera, the more attractive the image is. I am not interested in twisting who people are so that they fit the world’s definition of beauty, I am only interested in capturing who they as proof that they are beautiful.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My skill was praised in college, but because it was an art school it did me little good to be skillful. In every class I faced the same criticism – my work wasn’t deep enough because it wasn’t dark. I was literally told that if I dug deeper I would find something darker and my work would be better. That stuck with me for so long. I figured they were the experts, so they must have been right. Now I understand that, well, it’s just not up to them.
The years that I was in college, I was also in a very abusive relationship and everything in my life was dark. I was digging deep, I was going past what I couldn’t change and I found a joy that I clung to to keep me afloat. What a stupid idea to stifle that.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The point of art is to express something in a tangible, visual, or audible way. We all feel things that we just don’t know how to define or grab ahold of. An artist does for someone else what they can’t always do for themselves. I think the best way to support an artist is to hear and see them. Ask them questions about what drives their creative voice, and tell them what you see and hear. And then, if you can, buy something!!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bethrose.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/bethrose.phtgrphy
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/bethrosephoto
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@bethrosephtgrphy

Image Credits
All image credits are mine, but the only recognizable faces are of a band called Kelley’s Heroes