We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ethan Risley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ethan , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

My most meaningful project was created in my Lighting III course durring my studies at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. This project is a series I call “Obscure Sorrows,” inspired by my readings of the book “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows,” by John Koenig. This 7 image series consists of creative portraiture concepts created back to back throughout my 8 week course. This project is most meaningful to me because I am deeply interested in concepts of human emotion and the human experience. This series was the first to explore this passion of mine and I was thrilled with my results. These images are all based on various words I discovered while reading Koenig’s book. I leave my images are up to subjective interpretation for to leave room for unique individual experiences with 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 back background and context?

I first got into the industry durring my time in high school when I received my very first camera, Canon Rebel T6. I used this camera in my Yearbook class but quickly found myself infatuated with the process of creating stunning imagery. I took my first photography course in high school, where I was immediately placed in an advanced prep photography course. Durring this course I grey more and more fond of this practice and decided to pursue this field in my college studies. I am now a Junior in College loving the practice even more than before. I have found myself most interested in portraiture and street photography, where I focus on capturing scenes with simplistic and pleasing compositions with sorrowful and deep concepts. These are my main services as well, as I wish to work as a studio portrait photographer as well as utilize my street/architectural photography skills to sell individual prints for personal or business use.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I do not have a large following on social media although I have learned a few along the way while building up my social media. The biggest thing i’ve learned is that in order to build up a fan-base, consistency is of importance. I have struggled with this myself because there are many complications in life such as work, school, and personal issues that prevent me from taking new photographs consistently. I noticed when posting consistently, a 3-5 times a week, my account would grow slowly but steadily. When I became inactive for a week or more, my followers would slowly decrease. Another key component is to engage your audience. I found this most effective through story posts of content you enjoy and personal video of your process. This helps create a personal connection with your audience as well as engages your viewers.

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

Within my career as a photographer I found that the most rewarding aspect of my practice is to be able create work that connects with people on a personal level. The concepts I create within my work consist of real life experiences or findings that are personal to me and that can widely relate to other. Seeing others resonate with my work as I do is truly one of the most rewarding experiences this profession has to offer. As an introvert, this also me to get out of my comfort zone and meet like-minded people whom I can share a connection with through art.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @risley.jpg
• Facebook: Ethan Risley
• Other: Website currently under construction

Image Credits
There are many people I can give credit to in helping me create this series. This includes my models, Ryan Jane, Mary Bandimeir, Beck Bolio Hernandez, and my professor Steven Begleiter. These people were crucial in the conception of this project and helped me push this project to its potential.