We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Derrick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Derrick below.

Derrick, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

As with learning anything, it takes dedication and discipline, and perhaps being fully immersed in what you’re wanting to learn. I primarily learned what I do by practicing and experimentation, all of which, for myself, are purely autodidactic motivational studies that is accompanied by child-like curiosity. I really don’t know what could have sped up my learning process, because it isn’t something that I was in a hurry to do; it was merely something that you just “did.” If one is wanting to know this answer from a “what-if” or “what-could-have-been” reflection, then my intuitive retrospection tells me that perhaps I could have experimented more, collaborated more and so on. I was never really one to “put myself out there” in the sense of “selling myself,” because I always felt that I was making work for my own personal enjoyment, so I wasn’t in some race with my own abilities or something, and artists are always seemingly in such a race. I have said this before, but I feel it’s worth repeating here!

Skills aside, I’ve learned that self-evaluation can be quite detrimental to an extent, because one can err down two completely different avenues. 1) Making oneself ‘better’ than one is, or 2) Making oneself ‘worse’ than one really is. In truth, there can’t be prototypes or copies of you and I–we can be imitated, yes, but we can’t be copied. The flaws are what make all of us interesting. The heart of our identity stems from embracing the uniqueness of our existence rather than imitation. There are all of these different levels of distinction. To have integrity, you have to have some sort of belief system.

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 back background and context?

I’m from a small town in Georgia (U.S.) and my “first love” was Poetics/Language. In the earlier stages of life, my goal was to become a Professor of Poetry, Literature, Humanities, and Ancient Languages, but that obviously wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing, so it never came to fruition.

My mother’s brother was one of the biggest influences on my artistic outlook and life. As a special-effects makeup artist, painter, photographer and cinematographer, he introduced me a vast array of artist worlds when I was growing up. He and I collaborated over the years, especially in those important early days, which really set me off on a path of pure discovery as an artist. I feel like after being introduced to foreign cinema, particularly the works of Bergman, Tarkovsky, Fellini, Godard and the like, I knew that I wanted to explore this realm. I started off as a painter, which morphed into other explorations such as cut-n-paste handmade collages, and then blending them all together in multi-media projects, so to discover the ‘camera’ and what one could do with it was especially exciting for me.

Over the years, I have worked in The Arts; most notably as chief editor of “Sinescope: A Journal of The Arts” which was affiliated with (at the time) Georgia Perimeter College (which later merged with Georgia State University) and have had many different publications and exhibitions of my photographs, as well as writings.

I’ve said this before, as well, but it is also worth repeating, and that is that I have always been attracted to outsiders, underdogs, and personalities excluded from the mainstream, so I like happy oddness, like combining disparate ideas, or using the sense of the uncanny to make proposed alternatives. I think one should always pay attention to the disorganization in one’s head!

I heard someone once say that true art is a metaphysical signature of the unselfish consciousness of an individual that is driven by that individual’s ability, meaning and purpose. I feel like struggles come and go, but as with anything, the struggles make you or break you, and for most people, they’re purely beneficial, and this is how I have always viewed them.

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

Outside of seeing the results of a project that I’ve worked on, or have collaborated on, and feeling satisfied by what has been made, I think that one of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist is when I can encourage other artists to continue experimenting, and to continue working to get better, and educating themselves on the History of Photography/Art/Cinema, which can often be catalysts for improvement, knowledge, and can truly make one a better artist. I absolutely love seeing people succeed and get recognition for what they deserve. I especially love seeing artists get recognition when they had never been exposed to an audience before!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The goal or mission for my own personal creative journey has been to explore The Arts as a means of “self-discovery,” but also as a means to create something magical for the sake of making a long-lasting impression on myself, but also on others. I’ve always enjoyed the varying perspectives that we all have about any given topic, especially when one looks at a piece of art and feels something differently about it, based on the interpersonal experiences that make “objects” within art a source of emotional connections.

Since I’ve never been a “commercial photographer” (although I’ve done commercial projects for money in the past; this isn’t my primary focus, as I float within the ‘Fine Arts’ universe in this respect!), my goals or missions have never been to impress a CEO, the mainstream, or anyone that wants to “use my services” for the sake of their own money-making agenda, so I come at this question with perhaps a different view that what one may want or is expecting of me.

What drives me is the fact that I don’t worry what one may think of my work, but I strive to focus on my own visions and trust that what I’m doing is what I want for myself. Anything else is an added bonus. The exciting part is when I can inspire others to make their own work.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/derrick.tysonadams/
• Other: https://www.flickr.com/photos/derricksphotos/

Image Credits

All credit for the images belongs to the artist, Derrick Tyson-Adams.

Email: [email protected]