We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Robert Wiggins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Robert below.
Robert, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I gained an interest in photography in 2011, after taking an art survey course in college. The class specifically covered different time periods of painting and sculpting which gained my interest in the process of creating. My grandfather was a portrait photographer and after looking through his old film books, it essentially lit a fire in me and I’ve been striving to capture photos ever since. Some thing I could have done differently to speed up my learning process, was to capture photos more often. The skills I think were most essential to me were learning to be an extrovert when necessary and how to promote my brand. Naturally I am an introverted person, so I tend to stay to myself, but I’ve learned to have a balance of both. Some obstacles that stood in the way of learning more could have been me being timid to photograph new things. That certainly would have pushed me forward in my career as a photographer.
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 actually began as a street photographer. Simply photographing everything I saw and slowly transitioned into portrait and event photography. I used to work with a radio station that provided me with more opportunities to develop my photographic style and to have more opportunities to photograph people. This is when I began to focus solely on portraiture and I did that over a span of close to eight years. As of the last two years, I’ve explored landscape and drone photography to refresh my outlook on photography.
My brand right now is called R.A.W Image Photography, but I am in the process of a rebrand that will be launching shortly. The thing that I am most proud of are the opportunities to travel, that photography has allowed me to experience. It has allowed me also to network and meet some amazing people along the way too.
The things I’d like for potential clients and followers to know is that I am an educator/behavioral therapist by day and I love interacting with people. I enjoy the chance to learn new things from people via their culture, their personalities and even their experiences. I’d also like people to know that if you collaborate with me, I strive to always capture the memorable moments and for all of my clients to importantly have fun during our photography sessions.
I also would like everyone to know that I am a proud father of 4 children. My 3 daughters and one son. My children are some of my proudest creations and I’m thankful to be their father.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, I believe the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the foundational aspect of simply creating. Pouring both your ideas and your soul into creating something tangible is beautiful to me. Being creative is not something I feel I always was, but it was something I embraced as I got older. It has taught me how to embrace human experience, but also how to embrace nature as well. One of my biggest goals in photography is to capture a feeling in my photos. When people view my work, I want it to be more than just them glancing at a photo, I want them to be able to place themselves in the photos and to feel what I was portraying. I am a firm believer that art imitates life and that is what I always strive to provoke when I am creating.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One lesson that I had to unlearn is that when being a creative, you need to be perfect. What I’ve been learning from experience is that, the flaws are what makes creating both unique and beautiful. Creation should always be ambiguous and imperfect in its design. When I first began photography, so many photographers were insistent on it being done one specific way, but as I developed my own style, I learned to embrace the many different versions of photography. This has extremely brought value to my work and my approach to capturing photos.
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Robert Wiggins