We recently connected with Beau Raines and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Beau, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

With photography, there is a lot of confidence to the position I find myself in today. Not necessarily in “success” but particularly in what I have achieved in my craft. You hear a lot in interviews, with professionals in their creative field, reference early periods of creating and spending a lot of time, whether knowing or unknowing, mimicking or replicating the effects and methods of others before finding themselves in their own canon and noticeably unique methods.

I have been feeling this idea intensely, coming to the realization that I find myself with a series of methods or intentions with my creative process, at least from a technical standpoint, that are now deeply rooted in the way I personally want the work to be done. I have two thoughts around this:

1. I am curious how differently my experience developing a creative tool for myself would have been if the journey had started with these realizations explained, and a goal set in this perspective. An understanding of what to aim for, the idea of leaning on what’s been done before, and using the experience to cultivate a personalized canon of methods and approach to the craft.
2. Would a more focused curriculum with mentors and one to one lessons really get me to the same place I am in today? I don’t believe so.

I believe the most valuable knowledge from my personal experience, learning the hard way, driving forward with my creativity regardless of any certainty or guidance, is the knowledge I gained from the absolute absurdity of experiences I have cultivated throughout all of these years. It ties back to learning from failure and a lot of going your own way in whichever direction it leads you. The adventure.

I did, at one point in my career, change directions to complete a degree at KCAI and was fortunate enough to experience both paths towards learning and developing a creative skill. One of rigid structure and heavily goal oriented, and another of raw energy and spontaneous opportunities. There have since been cyclical periods of my career where I long for each. Many moments I wish for a mentor, someone who can step in and nudge me in the right direction, and so many other countless moments make me so proud for having ideas and solutions that I never would have known to consider if it were not for the random and miscellaneous ways I had leveraged my photography to obtain new and exciting experiences.

There is unlimited potential for success in either direction. They’re just different perspectives on what it is you’re trying to do, and how you’re trying to do it. With all things, the important factor is experience and having intention behind your actions.

Photography, like any skill, improves the more you actively pursue it. I learned by doing, and that 10,000 hours is just the beginning. The biggest obstacles that slowed down my progress towards getting to where I believe I am today, are only the obstacles that disallowed me to practice photography. The obstacles that arise while doing photography, and not totally pulling you out and away from it, often become the catalysts to improvement and growth as a creative. Not having all of the gear you want, spending 3 years relying on a dying laptop with a terrible monitor, having to change a process or method in the very middle of a project for the unexpected, all of these obstacles, when persevered, are what sharpen the steel so to speak.

I allow myself to be lost in the sense of where this skill will take me, I try to not let the uncertainty of the future influence the magic of what photography can do for you. And I have practiced for long enough to know I can continue to move in whatever direction that is with a sense of confidence and excitement knowing that I have repeatedly faced the countless obstacles that can come with the craft and here I am creating more organically, more effectively, and more satisfyingly than ever. The journey never ends, just how far are you willing to run with it?

Beau, 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 an artist.

When I was 18, I was venting with a fellow photographer as we stumbled our way into an abandoned and bricked up building’s stairwell. I spoke about the frustrations I was facing in knowing how to move forward in this skill of photography and in building a life for myself. He told me, “Don’t ever call yourself a photographer.” Jarring at first, and then he explained, from what I had shared with them, that I am not a photographer. I am an artist who uses photography.

I still believe this is the most useful and straight forward advice that I ever got in a time when I needed guidance the most.

I have never truly been bound by any one skill. I obsess much more about creating, in whatever medium fits. I am fortunate to have had such a long lasting relationship with photography that I can channel my creative nature in a lucrative and self sustaining direction. It is certainly my bread and butter and foundational to the brand I have been ever so slowly developing for about 15 years now, VoiceOneArts.

VoiceOneArts has lived through several phases of what I thought I wanted it to be. I’d say it has required the last 10 years to reach the place I am now, and that is simply discovering what VOA really is to me, and what it should be from here on out.

It is a brand that in most ways is synonymous to me. I thought it would be a photography business, and could not reconcile with solely being a photographer. I thought it would be an organization, a platform or association of like minded artists that could come together under the concept or idea of VoiceOneArts. Even until more recently, I thought it would be a media production business, focusing in on marketing and providing actionable services to commercial standards and corporate opportunities.

Through all of it, I have found myself always coming back to one thing that has always stayed consistent, my style.

VoiceOneArts is me, it is my journey, it is my community, it is my knowledge and experience, trying to share and connect with the part of the world that finds value in any of the creative skills that I use to experience the world for myself. I am fortunate that much of what I practice creatively has a place in providing value for others looking to either acquire creative products for their businesses, brands or events, or just learn new perspectives or methods for growing their own skills or style.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

With relying on creative skills to financially support myself, my journey has been full of difficulty mediating the value of creative services to non-creative clients. I believe this is the number one barrier to entry for any financial success with creative types.

For the non-creative, it appears to me that the creative process is viewed much like an assembly job. A task in which one simply needs the right tools and the correct combination of pulling levers that then kicks out the final product for you.

As a creative, I feel like the process is littered with obstacles, boundaries, various methods [none of which are right or wrong], and almost limitless options for what the final product ultimately becomes.

Where non-creatives see a step by step process, creatives not only have to develop the ability to see all of these other elements involved in the process before ever getting started, but also develop an arsenal of experiences and practice that allows them to have the ability for making so many important decisions that have vastly different impacts on the final product. On top of that, catering these decisions and ideas to fit the expectations that the client has for the end result.

This is not a skill that you learn once and then apply it. You do not learn the skill of photography and then just do photography. The skill of photography, or any creative skill, is perpetually developing. The better someone is at accomplishing intended results through a creative process, the more they have invested when nobody was there to financially back them up, the more they have tried and failed and tried again until things got incrementally better.

The true value of a creative and their craft as a service can not be measured by only objective evaluation like most business is conducted. The value of a creative is more than just “quality.” It lies in the individual, in their experience, in the very nature of their process, in the time spent well behind their craft. These are considerations all too overlooked and wildly misunderstood.

As a creative myself, I am still learning the depth of what this means. The more I come to a deeper understanding of this value within the market, the more I realize as the creator, how much is truly invested and necessary for me to even be able do a lot of the things that I do. Every time a creative is hired for a creative service, this accumulating value must be compensated for.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

What I find the most rewarding in what I do, is having created something. To be handed something as small, and almost intangible, as a thought or idea and hand that idea back as a whole thing you can see, and touch, and evaluate. A tangible product of that idea, forged and developed through various means and methods guided by nothing more than something so personal as your own intuition. To put so much of yourself into something so potentially meaningless and have it acknowledged in any capacity is quite unbelievable and magical. To then have that creation not only exist, but provide for others is one of the most valuable ways I can imagine spending my life.

Whether it’s helping to build a business or simply create connection, memories and emotions amongst others, creative skills literally and figuratively illustrate the absolute power we all possess to make our world whatever it is.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.voiceonearts.com
• Instagram: @voiceonearts
• Facebook: @voiceonearts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/voiceonearts/
• Twitter: @voiceonearts
• Youtube: @voiceonearts

Image Credits

Model: Strangerkiddo
Musician Portrait: Ben Hogg
Guitarist: Polyphia – Tim Henson
Drummer: Said The People – Dalton Lee
Tattoo Artist: Black Rose Tattoo Studio – Jerry Martinez