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

Josh, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

Yes, absolutely I’m pretty sure most artists or creatives have those thoughts as well. Whenever I get that feeling I just try to remind myself of how far I came in my journey and not many people get the opportunity to pursue a full time creative career. It’s a blessing to be able to wake up every morning knowing that I’m doing what I love and that I’ve worked hard to get here.

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?

My name is Josh Williams also known as “Joshandretti” on Instagram. I am a studio photographer In NY who specializes in fashion portraiture and model development. I’ve been shooting fashion and editorial work for a little over seven years now and throughout those years I have developed a real passion for working with models to create clean fashion editorial style images that captures natural beauty and highlight their strengths.

How I got into photography was very unexpected, to say the least. Coming from an athletic background I had no idea photography would be something that I would call my career.

It all started during my freshman year of college at Virginia Wesleyan University. I originally went to school there because I was recruited by the basketball coach to be on the team. Prior to going into my freshman year, I had no interest in photography or being creative at all. I just wanted to be a college athlete and nothing more. I had no idea what I wanted outside of playing basketball, being that it consumed my life since the age of about seven or eight.

During my freshman year, I struggled a lot with my identity. I didn’t get any playing time on the court, I didn’t know anyone on campus and I didn’t know what I wanted for myself outside of playing basketball. I found myself switching majors and dropping a lot of classes because things just weren’t clicking. It wasn’t until halfway into the year that things started to click for me and I felt more comfortable with myself and with other people. I met one of my best friends during this time who was also a teammate of mine. He was always passionate about music and one day decided to pursue it, I laughed at him because at the time I thought it was ridiculous to take such a risk pursuing something like that. Little did I know, watching him chase after it day after day eventually inspired me to find something that I could pursue the same way.

Fashion was something that I always loved and I used it to express myself. I loved taking aesthetic-looking photos on my iPhone around campus and other places. I enjoyed using filters and editing apps to play around with my photos. This eventually lead me to become interested in photography. Later that year during the summer I got my first camera. I would spend time every day getting to know my camera. After I got done with my workouts every morning I would finish the day by going out and taking pictures. I mostly took pictures of my cousin acting as a model, sometime we’d switch roles and I would model for him. We both had no idea what we were doing looking back on it, we were just having fun.

Fast forward to my sophomore year at Virginia Wesleyan, I worked all summer to get playing time by being in the gym every day working on my game and it paid off. I got the playing time on the court that I was desperate for and more. I became the sixth man off the bench and even started a few games. Being in this position at the time seemed to be everything but as time went by I found myself not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. I realized that my passion for basketball wasn’t there anymore, it was in photography. I started thinking about my future and what I wanted for myself long-term. I knew basketball wasn’t going to be long term and I was still struggling with what I wanted to do outside of it. So after multiple talks with a few friends and family, I decided to change directions and pursue photography. I finished the season out with my team as well as the rest of the year at Virginia Wesleyan, The next year I transferred to The Art Institute of Virginia Beach. where I studied digital photography.

I chose to be a fashion photographer because it was what I was most passionate about as a photographer. I loved the aspect of shooting people and integrating my vision of fashion with that. It wasn’t long until I moved from shooting my friends to shooting actual models. As a fashion photographer, It was my dream to be working in New York and shooting with different modeling agencies and models, etc. So during my time at the Art Institute, I used the resources I had there, the connections I built, and the constant hunger to build a body of work that got me to that point. After I graduated, I knew I wanted to somehow make a living off of my work and I didn’t want to work a regular job so I took a risk at being a full-time photographer. I started to promote myself on Instagram to get work throughout my hometown of the Hampton Roads area. After a year and a half of shooting portfolio worthy work, I started getting attention in New York, which led to me where I’m at now. Where I get the opportunity to work with different agencies, models, brands, etc.

Leading up to this point in my creative journey I believed that dedicating a portion of my life to this would set me up to be successful in some way or put me in the right position. I’m 27 years old now and I’ve spent the majority of my 20s immersing myself in my craft. I know it’s cliche to say but I missed out on a lot of partying, vacations, and other things during those years because I was dedicated to learning my craft and becoming the photographer I am today. And I think that shows through my work ethic, the body of work that I’ve built, and just by knowing me.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Yes, there are many things that drive my creative journey. A goal of mine has always been to show people that it is possible to pursue what you love and become successful at it. No matter what it is or how impossible it may seem, you can do it, and I just want to be an example of that for those people on their journey.

I have a few friends who are entrepreneurs and up-and-coming creatives, so I just want to be an example to them that it’s possible to achieve success through what they love too. I want them to know that your dreams don’t have to remain just a dream, You can materialize those dreams and make them a reality. So I think that’s what drives me the most, striving to be that example.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I believe non-creatives sometimes have a hard time understanding how important failure is to a creative. (I think some creatives have a hard time understanding this as well.) Failure is your greatest teacher, mentor, or whatever you want to call it. Without experiencing failure in some way you’ll never be able to get better. I always believed that there was no mistake I could make while pursuing my creative journey because no matter what “mistake” I’ve made I was always able to learn from it. Whenever I took a risk and failed, I looked at that moment for a chance to learn from what I did or didn’t do.

Success isn’t always immediate either, It may take years of failing before you reach success in a certain area. It took me years of trying and failing at different styles, years of not being able to light subjects properly, and years of being told no. All of those little failed moments or “mistakes” eventually turned into the stepping stones that got me closer to what I wanted to accomplish.

Contact Info:

• Website: Joshandretti.com
• Instagram: @joshandretti_
• Other: Email: bookings@joshandretti.com

Image Credits
Photos shot by Josh Williams