We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bobby Flores a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Bobby thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. 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.

– How did you learn to do what you do?

I started Photography at the age of 23 using just my phone. I was dealing with the end of a relationship at the time and was living alone in a new state that I was unfamiliar with. For years prior I had lost the belief in myself that I was still an artist. I decided that I wanted to get into cinematography to prove to myself that I was still a creative. It just so happened to turn out that I liked taking photos more than making movies!

That very same year I invested in my first camera. I chose to have my camera on me at all times and used any moment I wasn’t working to go practice. I spent a lot of time experimenting trying new ideas. Most of them led to failure but each time I went out I learned something new and built off of that. At times it meant staying up late nights or waking up at the crack of dawn. Other times it meant I was shooting in -30 degree temps or pouring rain. But when you’re passionate about something, things like that don’t stop you.

The main takeaway for me was I just didn’t allow myself to stop practicing.

– Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process?

I think working with other creatives is something I held off from for a long time. Working with other people in your creative medium helps to teach you very quickly the in’s and outs of your craft. Once I started to connect with other like minded creatives I was able to study how they went about their process and apply pieces of their methods to my own. When you surround yourself with peers that have the same passion and drive as you, it makes you want to push even harder to continue to produce great work.

I think it’s one of the best things you can do for yourself early on

– .What skills do you think were most essential?

The main skill that is a must is patience. Patience serves many purposes. For me it meant taking the time to fail, and to build off of those failures. This meant taking a little more time planning my compositions, or learning the in’s and outs of my editing process. It helps you to take a break when you need it and to not let yourself get discouraged if something didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to. As long as you keep the mentality that you will eventually get to where you need to go, all the rest will fall into place. Other skills such as discipline, social networking, self promotion etc. will come with time as you gain confidence.

– What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

The main obstacle that I dealt with was myself.

I’m more of an introverted person with a fair amount of social anxiety. This hurt me early on as sometimes I was too afraid to connect with a person, or even ask questions about how someone achieved a certain end result to their work. As I gained confidence, I became more comfortable putting my ego at the doorstep and risking appearing “dumb” or “weird” for reaching out and asking for help.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Bobby Flores. I’m a 27 year old photographer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I fell into photography after trying to pursue cinematography and realizing I just liked to take photos more.

Most of my time these days is spent on my personal work as I build a new body of photos for my next gallery, but I have also spent a considerable amount of time working commercially mostly as a product and portrait photographer.

How I’ve tried to differentiate myself compared to my peers is offering a distinct style and direction for my photos that try to go against the grain of what is traditionally accepted and or practiced. This can mean harsher themes, unconventional lighting, or using mediums in a novel way to achieve a desired look to my work that can only be identified as mine.

I’m most proud of the decision I made years ago to randomly pick up a camera and start shooting. It has unlocked doors for me that I never could imagine it would. I’ve met some of the greatest people in my life and traveled all across this country just because I decided to pick up a new hobby that has turned into a wonderful obsession.

I’d like for everyone that has supported me since day one to know that I could not have gotten to this point without the daily support that has been given to me. It is something that I could never put fully into words about how thankful I am to the people that support my work.

I like to say to someone who is just starting out, that all you need is just that one person who might make a passing compliment on your work to motivate you to keep pushing.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

In the beginning of my journey I remember creating as a way to redeem myself. To prove I was still creative. I did not fully believe that I had much value in terms of an artist, and maybe I’m even lying to myself now, that back then I didn’t fully believe I as a person had much either.

I grew up in a poor and troubled family and because of that I dealt with a lot of personal issues that left me little healthy escapes besides my art.

I like to say that at this point, why I create is because I don’t know what else to do. It’s an internal need or itch that wont go away. I used to be satisfied with just wanting to create. As time has gone on however and I’ve gained more confidence in my work and myself I decided to set new goals.

In my wildest dreams I’d love for my works to be held in a museum somewhere in New York, or be a able to work with high profile artists designing album covers in Los Angeles. However while that would be nice just for me, there are other goals that have taken sprout within my head as I’ve grown older.

I’d like to be able to get to a point in my career where I can start to help others. Whether that means financially, educationally, or through exposure. I strongly believe that one of the most important things you can do in life is give back to others what has been given to you. So despite my goals of trying to reach the top of my profession, I equally cannot wait for the chance to help other artists along their journey as well.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I started my platform on Instagram back in early 2020. Back then I was just looking for a place to share my work and I was very naïve to how social media worked for artists. Over time I’ve gained skills that not only have served to grow my platform steadily on social media, but in the real world as well.

I was very shy back then and even now I struggle with social anxiety. I started to connect with other artists on Instagram and have discussions about their work and about mine. These conversations might lead to a follow, a tag, an invite to a group chat or an artist collective page that ultimately resulted in more growth for my platform.

While I didn’t realize it at the time, I was learning the very important skill of social networking. From those early days on I would continually comment on anyone’s work that I found compelling. I’d share other artists work on my page to help bring them up as much as I was being brought up. This all continually snowballed until I got to where I am today.

My advice would be to never contact someone with ulterior motives just to grow your platform. Make genuine connections and be intentional and thoughtful to why you want to connect with others. The growth for your platform will come eventually as you branch out and find your space within the social media world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.vtnphotography.com/
• Instagram: @vibethenoun

Image Credits
Bobby Flores