We recently connected with Jesse Greene and have shared our conversation below.

Jesse, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

For me I learned early on working in a lot of mediums that included photography at around the age of 5. I was fortunate enough to have parents that were interested in art and gave me the tools to be creative. Many times if I was not drawing or painting I was taking pictures with my mothers old sears 35mm from the 70’s or I was shooting 110 film on my little kids camera. I can remember a lot of 80’s kids had the 110 film camera. However living in Chicago and having a mother that worked in the media field it gave me the opportunity to understand how photo compositions work as well as what makes good photography, and it gave me opportunities to take pictures in more professional settings as a teenager. In the beginning my only obstacle as an artist was my age.

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 am Jesse Greene. I am a multidisciplinary artist from Chicago, Illinois and Ive been living in Houston now for about 15 years. I work in many mediums but primarily I do Photography, collage, clothing design, and graffiti art. Ive dedicated 30 years of my life to be able to cohesively combine all my skill sets and effectively apply them to various creative projects. Long story short over the past 30 years I have learned a variety of skills that I combine to create my bodies of work.

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

In terms of photography I’d say the special moments and the ability to capture the mood of that moment. I love seeing peoples real expressions, and I generally shoot for candid spontaneous imagery over a posed planned photo. In terms of my paintings and more interpretative works I love to hear what the viewer sees in each painting or mural. A lot of my paintings are abstract so its really about what the viewer sees, and that always makes me smile.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

No but I had the privilege of working for an independent boutique when I was still living in Chicago. There were only 5 small locations but It was me and a few others managing the stores and we were a very close staff so I got to learn a lot through the owners and I saw how to make procedures work. I highly recommend finding a small business and working there to get the ins and outs… If the pay is right. VICE magazine, and various fashion look books from the 200 era gave me a really good perspective on the various approaches to look book and fashion photography, so I highly recommend fashion magazines.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jessegreeneart.com
• Instagram: @jessegreene_
• Youtube: @jessegreene

Image Credits

ALL IMAGES (INCLUDING PAINTED SOURCE IMAGES) BY JESSE GREENE.