Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brittany Hicken. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brittany, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The project that has been the most meaningful to me is my current project Panoramic United States Abstracted. I started it back in the spring of 2020 and have been working on it since. I solo travel the country creating panoramic landscape photographs with arrangements of mirrors across the landscapes. The idea started out as two different ideas; I had experimented with single mirrors in photographs for both digital and film photographs for projects in college, just seeing what I could accomplish and what the mirrors can do. The other being from when I visited Canada, I felt a single frame wasn’t justifying a majority of the landscapes I encountered, and so I began taking multiple frames and putting them together with borders in between them. And then in the spring of 2020, I took a contemporary landscape class and pitched the idea to my professor of meshing these two ideas together to create something unique. Watching this project start from cliche mirror placement photographs and become what it has brings a lot of meaning to it. As well, as I was continuing to build this into something bigger, my professor pushed me to figure out the purpose behind the mirrors as I travelled the country in January of 2021. I dont preplan the mirror placements and instead create their arrangements on the spot, I came to realize that my emotions and mental state at certain times were fueling the patterns as well as what I decided to reflect and pull in. Being able to create something that brings justice to vast landscapes and demands more attention than a simple glance alone is incredibly meaningful, ontop of having a project that has been building for years and still going!

Brittany, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a photographer currently in the real estate industry, but I also do work in travel and landscape, portraits for seniors, grads, summer camps, product photographs, etc. I started photography in 9th grade and it has been my passion since; my first job as a photographer was actually at summer camps. I think what sets me apart and what I want potential clients or followers to know about me is that I have high standards for the work I create for myself and the work I create for others, I have a strong work ethic and will do everything I absolutely can to deliver the highest quality I can, I can be stubborn and very determined about an outcome in my head will usually do what I can to achieve that outcome. I build genuine connections with people I work with and/or come into contact with. I’m most proud of how far I have come as a creative and the voice I have developed in my work, as well as solo travelling the country for several weeks at a time building a project I am passionate about.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Absolutely! The main goal driving my creative journey is working with / shooting for National Geographic one day. It has been my dream since I started photography, and it still sits at number one. I try and submit my travel and landscape projects to exhibitions, online publications, and magazines that have a relatively similar audience as National Geographic or has them as an audience. I also just keep this goal in the back of my head as I work on my projects, and I just do my best to produce the best work I can while staying true to my voice in my photographs. There’s a smaller goal driving my current project, and that is publishing a book when I have travelled to every state of the country creating panoramic formats.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think the most rewarding aspect is seeing people genuinely enjoy what I create; in the context of my travel content, and the panoramas I create, seeing and hearing people’s responses and reactions is rewarding and motivation enough for me to know that it is something worth continuing and pursuing. Having people approach me while I’m travelling and striking up conversation about what I am doing/creating and them telling me about themselves, and in general having conversations with people are all moments that make me fall in love with the process and truly enjoy being an artist. Seeing people’s reactions to portrait photos that I take and watching people become so overjoyed with results makes me feel accomplished. I worked directly with a camp owner and would run the photos I took daily through her, and I just remember how ecstatic she was about a select set of photos each day, and that feeling of bringing justice to the camp she built and bringing her so much joy was rewarding for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bhphotography.net/portfolio
• Instagram: @brittany.hicken