We were lucky to catch up with Mekhi Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Mekhi, thanks for joining 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.
I Learned photography through YouTube and others who are also in the same space as me which was really useful. Knowing what I know now I feel like to speed up my learning process I would probably still be on YouTube researching I feel like I’m always learning and absorbing new ideas every day. I think my most essential skill is networking especially when it involves with what my interest are. It’s more easy for me to get a good conversation going. I would say one of the obstacles that stood in the way of me learning is not asking for help. I was always shy growing up and it kind of messed with my confidence a little bit. Another one obstacle is being lazy which I’m working on currently and honestly it has paid dividends because I feel as though I’m way more productize now then I was before.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I got into this space from being a kid watching comedy videos that were on apps such as YouTube, Vine and or facebook. I got inspired and started making skits of my own from middle school to high school but it was in my 10th grade year where I started doing photography. During that time I wanted to make videos with a real camera so I got a Canon rebel t6 and started filming on there. Only thing however, was that the camera was more so built for pictures rather than video so I figured why not give photography a shot and that’s when started taking pictures of my friends and nature. After high school I switched from shooting digital photography to film photography because fell in love with the aesthetic of 2016-2017 when around that time I would see film pics of my favorite artists/creatives and events that took place. Now, as far as what I can provide my clients, I can send them their photos as fast as same day or next and I also can shoot vlogs, music videos etc.
I’ve also began to look back on supreme tee shirts that I used to see from that era and I really like the ones that has film pictures on them which inspired me to start a clothing brand idea called “Crazy Times”. I named it that because for the past 3 years of my life I’ve having the craziest experiences and seeing what the world is coming to in these times as well. So I would use the pictures that I would take from my film camera and put it on clothes with a graphic that says crazy times on it.
One of the accomplishments that I’m proud of is being able to pictures of some of my favorite artists and shooting for three fashion shows this year. I can honestly say what I want is to be known for what I do and monetize it so I can be able to live/ and travel off of doing what I love.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Being able to be around people like myself. I kind of felt like an outsider in some ways from when I was six years old all the way to when I got older. It’s quite comforting being around like minded people who has the same creative goal as you and sharing common interests with one another.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I was able to build a following from me doing skits early on, but once I pivoted towards photography and consistently posting my work on social media people started to reach out to me for work.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Bktherula
Babyface Ray
Lucki
Luh Tyler
Wrld Tour Mafia
Skilla Baby
Lelo
Hxncho