We were lucky to catch up with Megan Cullen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

My career was set in motion after taking a big risk. I had just finished studying photography at university, but was still working at my day job at Clinique doing over-the-top makeup for high schoolers for their prom, while also trying to make sales targets for something I wasn’t really interested in.

During one shift I was standing in between my boss and the second in charge. Each was bitching about the other to me. This was not where I wanted to be. When my boss wrapped up her shift and went home, it just struck me – if I want to be a photographer, I just have to be one. So I wrote my boss a note saying, “thank you but I’m never coming back” (I was about 19 or 20 at the time – I wouldn’t do that now.). I handed it to the second in charge and walked out.

I called a friend straight away to come meet me up at the mall for a drink. As we sat down, I told her, “well, I’m pretty much unemployed now.” She told me not to worry and that something more aligned would come up soon. It did. Quite literally two minutes later my phone rings. It was my former university seeing if I had my passport ready. I did. Fifteen minutes after my whole world changed. I was invited to Cambodia to photograph the Peace Art Project, where Khmer art students would turn decommissioned weapons into art. And my mentor for the trip was going to be the late-great UK war photographer, Tim Page (Dennis Hopper’s gonzo character in the film, ‘Apocalypse Now’ is based on Tim.)

This trip changed me fundamentally as a person. My heart and eyes and creativity were cracked wide open. I made photographs I’m still very proud of. Tim taught me lessons you could never learn at university or school. I appeared on television, exhibited the work internationally and spoke at the United Nations about the body of work I created from the journey. I am so grateful to Tim for kick-starting my career and so grateful to young Megan for just going for it. It certainly paid off.

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.

I feel like the seeds of my creative journey were planted as a child. I was always drawing and writing down little stories. I also did a lot of acting and I thought that was going to be my path forward. Then at high school after not making any of the sports teams (I was told I should be given an A+ for effort but couldn’t jump high enough, run fast enough, you get it.) on
Wednesday afternoons I was sent to an arts college with a handful of other athletically-challenged students and slackers instead of competitive sports games. I got to choose whatever I wanted to do, so I chose photography. I was hanging out with folks who had finished school – which already felt very cool. We were shooting life models in the studio, experimenting in the darkroom with music blasting loud. I was in heaven. From what I thought was a punishment ended up being one of the biggest blessings of my life.

I put acting aside to throw everything into my photography. I studied documentary photography at university and not long after graduating I cut my teeth in press photography. It taught me to think on my feet, meet deadlines and how to make people feel comfortable very quickly. It was a great training ground where I got carve out experience in many different areas of photography from music, to features to hard news.

After a few years working in the media, I needed a change and moved to Berlin. This is where I really developed my voice as an artist and felt free to experiment. My style will always be rooted in the essence of documentary photography – spontaneous, raw and of the moment, but here I got to play with creating worlds and dreaming up ideas. I started filming and directing music videos. It was a liberating time.

Around ten years ago now I moved to LA. While I will always take photographs, my focus has been on making films. I wrote and directed two shorts, ‘Bugs’ and ‘Miss Underwater’ which won awards on the festival circuit and I’m currently in development of my first feature. Where I’m at now truly feels like a culmination of all of the things I love and have given a shot – writing, acting, cinematography and directing.

I’m very proud of a recent short film I shot, directed and did sound for. It was for the making of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds new album, ‘Wild God’ and was shot at Brad Pitt’s ‘Miraval’ studios in the south of France. I was truly a ‘one woman band’. I am very grateful for the trust others allow me to enter their world and be there alongside them.

I think my best quality as a photographer and director is that I always find those raw, emotional, unexpected moments – no matter the setting. I operate from instinct, always tuned into the feeling of the situation. I know how to make people feel at ease, authentically, which allows them the freedom to express themselves in whatever way they wish – and sometimes that surprises us both. And I love surprises.

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

Behind everything all the work I do I feel as though I’m trying to find my place in it all – and by that I mean the grand scheme of things, life, the universe.

I’m so curious about where we have come from, how we came to believe what we do and where we might go after we pass. In a truly respectful way, I’m so curious about how others live their lives differently to my own, and I feel a sense of deep gratitude for when people let me into theirs. I want to create work that values life of all kinds – human, nature and animal.

I have a deep fascination with a power that is greater than ourselves. I feel like these themes come out in my work through the way I use light in a numinous way, through the closeness I get to those I photograph and through placing most of my shoots in nature.

I want to create work that speaks from my heart to straight into the hearts of those who view it.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I had an ‘aha’ moment early in my photography studies at university when I realized that my camera, paired with my ideas, could take me anywhere—down any street, in any city, in any country in the world. It was a revelation that being a creative would satisfy my adventurous spirit in a way nothing else could, and it’s led me on countless journeys that have shaped who I am today.

What excites me most about being a creative is that a simple idea, something that just sparks in my mind, can eventually become a living, breathing piece of art. The process from that initial spark to the final image is often long and challenging, but it’s what makes the outcome so rewarding. I’m constantly amazed that I get to live my life crafting work that speaks to my soul—and then get to share that with others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://megancullenphoto.com/
• Instagram: @megancullenphoto

Image Credits

Portrait of me shot by Garth McKee