We recently connected with Sean Griffin and have shared our conversation below.
Sean, appreciate you joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?
So I consider myself as a man of faith but I strongly believe in artistic expression at its rawest form. One of the biggest struggles I face within my own faith community is people thinking some of my photos as evil, dark, or “celebrating the enemy” when in reality the photoshoot was often reflecting something I was internally struggling with, and by doing them heled me overcome them and let go of some.
Sometime in the middle of 2020 I was able to do a photoshoot in my home with a model I worked with before named Kelsey. Kelsey and I share a lot of artistic interests in common. I came to her with an vision I had involving liquid latex and skinny black jeans. We do the shoot where the liquid latex is spread around like crawling slime over her top similar to how the Venom symbiote looks in Spider-Man, but never actually revealing anything.
The shoot reflected my current living situations and struggles I was just dealing with in life, Kelsey, as usual, absolutely nailed the look. It was and still is one of my favorite shots I’ve done. Along with the amount of trust I felt from Kelsey to do this shoot in such a very vulnerable location made me feel respected as well. Especially as a guy in the photography field, there are unfortunately many creeps who own a camera and their results reflect the rest of us.
However, the pushback I got from people at my old church including my sister, telling me my set was “evil” and “dark worshipping”. It hurt, a lot. It caused a lot of confusion. For awhile I tried avoiding these styles and tried fixing my style to what they thought was ‘Godly’. But it didn’t last, as I especially began ignoring my problems and didn’t have an outlet.
Sometime in 2021-2022, we redid the shoot with red liquid latex at her home and just once more, absolutely improved on before in such new ways as well.
In the end, after much meditation, prayer, and discussions, I came to the conclusion that these ideas I’ve had, come from somewhere higher than the people who judged the photos. In the end their ignorance will come back around to them, and any amount of explanation I could provide would never stick with them. I no longer care what they thought, I only care to honor who gave me these gifts and talents by using them. I ended up finding a healthy church and healthier community that encourage me to use the skills gifted to me.
Sean, 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’m a local to Orange County. Spent my early days in Oceanside but moved to Irvine in 1989-90 as a kid and spent majority of my life going to school and working there. I spent about 13 years trying to make music, one day I realized I was holding a camera more than a guitar and had more working on visuals than audio engineering/song writing.
I create what I enjoy and don’t chase after fads trying to be like the greatest, I aim to have my own voice. I do see common sets people try and always get curious on how would I do them. When meeting me you’ll see I am a rather cheerful person but absolutely the darker stuff.
Most photographers loathe the editing process, for me it’s an area to truly shine after the shoot. It’s where you can really define your voice. I can spend hours editing and not feel like I’ve wasted my day in front of a screen.
I’m proud of the connections I make with the people I work with. It’s more often than not I end up being friends with them and having amazing bonds that I just love sharing art with.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
The gear does not make the person, do not ask a photographer just what camera gear they’re using. Ask them what their entire process is. I’ve seen photographers get into arguments of DSLR vs Mirrorless, Full Frame Vs Crop, Film vs Digital. In the end, no one really cares except for your end results.
You can own a Gibson, Orange amp, Rickenbacker’s, ect, but it will never make you an amazing musician. Your time and skill do. Just as owning the latest Canon or Nikon or whatever will not make you the greatest photographer. Your time and effort in understanding what you do and why you do it.
And ‘keep it simple, stupid’ is a great motto to live by. You don’t need all these lenses, just one really good one can usually do the trick and get you creative with the limitations.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I do this without an end goal in mind. I honest to God have no true idea what I want to do with this. The only thing I really want to do is to create and to share.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.SeanLaine.com
- Instagram: SeanGriffinCreations
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeanLainePhoto
- Twitter: SeanGriffPhoto
Image Credits
Models Eva ‘Amnesia’ Kelsey Zukowski Kate Post Randi ‘Pixie’ Victoria