We were lucky to catch up with Connor Williams recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Connor thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

In my off time, when not pursuing portraiture for my professional work, I shift focus towards exploring the United States and the greater Americas, photographing the ever changing landscape, both naturally and culturally. This project originally started in college nearly a decade ago. At some point I’d developed the brilliant idea to skip a couple of classes and instead drive, with bald tires and no disposable income, nearly 2000 miles round trip from New Jersey to Nova Scotia and back. This spanned the greater part of five days where I lived out of a Ford Fiesta. Regardless of the fact that I had little to no experience, which is proven by the simple fact that not a single photo from the trip will ever have a spot in my portfolio, the adventure allowed me a new perspective. From traveling along the Bay of Fundy, where locals warned of the aggressive tidal range, to photographing the windy coast and Peggy’s Cove. Never before had I the opportunity to experience, for the first time, what others had known their entire lives. This genre of travel, that being less than four star luxury, not spent in a pool sipping cocktails, captivated me. It felt more authentic. Years later I’d do much the same traveling across The United States, in weeks to months long excursions, done as affordably as possible. Across the Great Plains, through the Rockies, down the West Coast, and wandering the south western deserts. These excursions allowed me to combine documentary and landscape photography with my writing in the pursuit of telling interesting stories. It’s a stark departure from what I’m known for as I’ve focused mainly on portrait photography from a career standpoint. Portraiture is what I’m best at and have the most experience in, and yet, my greatest project, the one I get the most joy out of, is when I’m allowed to wander other parts of the continent. It’s a shame the cheap commercialization of shallow travel tourism seen all over social media has diminished, in my mind, the greater importance of learning how cultures and landscapes shift, which is effectively what I aim to present through the project. It doesn’t have a name yet and I may never finish it. I even consider it in its infancy, but the potential for another trip is what provides me motivation.

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 Connor Williams, I am a classical photographer, by which I mean I focus more so on the core aspects of what makes a good photograph, that being lighting, composition, and story. My goal is to create straight forward, timeless work while doing my best to avoid soon to be expired trends and gimmicks.
I’m known for my portraiture, fashion, and documentary photography often presented as editorials. If I had to sum it up simply: “I photograph people.”
I pride myself in being uncomplicated. I prefer to avoid a change in scope. Rather, I always aim to get any given project done right the first time, where I know the client and everyone involved is as overly satisfied as possible. To accomplish this, and I suppose it’s a bit counter intuitive to being uncomplicated, I’m meticulous in making sure everything goes as planned, down to the final details no matter how creative, (and I hope it is) the idea.
In my spare time I travel. I tend to merge my writing, often journals based on my previous experiences, with my personal photography work. A big inspiration for this would be the television shows of old where, in each episode, the host traveled to a new place and experienced a different way of life.
The thing I’m most proud of is, even if I don’t succeed, at least I took the risk.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

This is more of a critique through hindsight. Choose to live in a place wisely, it may provide what you need.
I lived in Brooklyn while attending college. My time there was short lived due to covid and, I’d argue, very much wasted, too. I was inexperienced, lazy, and most of all, ignorant to the power of networking. I spent most of my time wandering around, touring crap bars, looking in all the wrong places for nothing in particular, not even for work. The fact of the matter is, I could have visited an endless amount of business events, studios, or simply talked to everyone that allowed me a minute. Instead, I wound up back home, out of money and opportunity. I’ve spent the past four years playing catch up, and if I had to do it over again, I’d make so much more use of that time. I’m not much of a city person anymore, yet I still understand its importance, especially to the creative industry.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

To anyone who converts an image of mine into an NFT and makes a return of a million dollars or more through honest, legal, trading or promotion or what have you, I’ll gladly sell fifty percent of a limited copyright towards the use of such NFT so that we may split the profits. Until then, I don’t think they’re worth the bandwidth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.connorwilliamsphotographer.com/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trulyconnorwilliams/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-williams-b24361192

Image Credits

Melke
FramedNYC
Ginn Choe
Hawa Sibblies
Nicole Lukas
Bmac
Morgan Oijen
Patchhiiii
ivk.mp4