We were lucky to catch up with Caleb Nelson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Caleb, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?
Yes, I feel like my work is often misunderstood and tends to make the viewer feel uncomfortable or weirded out. Many people think photographers just do picture of landscapes, weddings, animals, etc…. Everyday things you could say. I don’t like to consider myself a photographer I want to be known as an artist as my photography has a lot of different Art medias infused into it. What I think people misunderstand about my work and find to be strange is that I often use full face covering masks or have some type of human like creature in my work. My style tends to lean more on the dark side with moody tones and a muted color palate in my art. I find that my work being questioned is a good thing. I want the viewer to stop, stare, and observe my work.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
My name is Caleb Nelson and I go by Calebs.visuals on social media. I was born in Memphis, Tennessee and still live in this great city. I have my photography business setup in a certain way, let me explain. The way I make income from it is from doing client work like, shooting weddings, products, fashion, and more. This helps me bring in income and provides me a living. The other half of my business is my work as an artist where I can be free and creative and not have to worry about making money of my art. In the long term I would like to transition into making my art make a living income for me. My growth on social media has definitely helped my art get noticed and has provided an additional income for me, but not enough I can live off of just yet.
How I got into photography/ video work is it started when I was a kid. My friends and I would do fun, crazy things as kids do and I would record it. I have always been around cameras since I was born from my grandparents have camcorders and things likes that. I am currently a student at University of Memphis where I study art and the art of photography. I have really learned the in and outs of photography, lighting, planning, composition, and more. I don’t just know digital photography I also use film like 4×5 large format film and 35mm film. I developed film myself and more! I have recently gotten into film photography a lot! I am super proud of where I am now and the things i have accomplished along the way.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I didn’t have an online following until I got into TikTok in 2019. TikTok is one of those apps where you post videos and eventually one will go viral. That is what happened to me. Utilizing other social media apps to grow all of your following can be beneficial. Another thing is to try to stay consistent with posting, social media requires a lot of patience. Don’t get discouraged when your posts don’t blow up or get the engagement you want. The most important thing is and is something i still struggle with is don’t even worry about social media. Focus on yourself and your art and have fun with it.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding thing about being an artist is having what you have planned in your head actually come true. Often times when you create something and it didn’t turn out the way you wanted it can be frustrating.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @calebs.visuals
- Youtube: Calebs Visuals
Image Credits
Models in photos: Jessica Erickson (@jess.eri), Stone Griffith (@stonelg), and Camille Long (@camillelong_)