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

Bruce, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Since switching from live music photography in 2018, fine art street photography and candid portraits have been my main subject themes. Another part of my artistic process is developing and scanning my own 35mm film at home. My film camera and scanner were thrifted and that’s what I started using for street photography and portraits, until my artworks and exhibitions gained more recognition. Making due with what I had enabled me to control more of my artistic process, allowed for more creative freedom, and allowed me to focus on developing a recognizable art style. Before film became more trendy as it is now, it was cheaper for me to practice and gain experience working with film cameras, film, as well as developing and scanning film. Submitting my artworks to group shows allowed me to show audiences the speed and craftsmanship of my film developing and scanning process, as well as the quality and resonance of the film photographs. Creating solo exhibits and/or pitching an idea for a solo exhibition became easier and leaned in to my approach of my artwork and processes being more intimate and intuitive.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name’s Bruce Q. Williams, or B.Q. Williams. I’m a fine arts photography and contemporary artist based in New Orleans, LA. I was born and raised in Baton Rouge, LA. Photography was an outlet for me to get outside, be creative, help with my mental health, and seemed like a fun hobby that could also be an artistic career. After taking an Intro to Photography class at a community college in Baton Rouge and some encouragement from my professor who turned into a mentor, I stopped going to college and started doing street photography in my free time before or after work. As that time, I was a digital camera photographer doing some street photography and mostly live music photography. However, I did thrift several film cameras and a few nice scanners. Serendipitously enough, the same time that I wanted to shift to more street photography and film photography, a best friend teaches me how to develop film. I sold my digital camera and started to only do film photography, with street photography and candid portraits as my main themes. I develop and scan film. Occasionally, a group show will spark my interest. Most of my installations are solo exhibitions or in businesses. I’m hoping to sell more prints and book more photoshoots, to invest towards a retail and gallery studio space.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

My reputation is helped by me being kind, personable, professional, humble, and the hi-quality of my photos and archival prints. My archival prints have a distinct look to them, just like my photos. Treating customers with respect and engaging with my social media followers and my exhibition audiences. My photos being featured on social media accounts like Fujifilm, and receiving free film from Fujifilm a few times has also helped my reputation in my market. Caring about people, photography, organic storytelling, marketing, and valuing time and energy.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

Film photography isn’t cheap and my archive is in the thousands of photos and scans. There’s been instances of late payments towards bills, in order to buy film that can be used for photos that will sell as prints. Investing money into exhibition marketing, printing cost, film cost, framing cost, and possibly paying galleries percentages from print sales. My biggest exhibition also had a book release, my apartment and car flooded a week before the exhibit’s opening reception. Sometimes, cameras or scanners malfunction or break. I’m grateful for having been able to work through obstacles.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bqwphoto.com
• Instagram: b.q.williamsphoto

Image Credits

Photo of me is credited to James Jimmy (IG: raggedysmiles). All other photos are credited to me, B.Q. Williams (IG:b.q.williamsphoto)