We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ron Cillizza a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ron, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I’m currently working on a personal photo project with the working title, “Consuming and other influences”. It started on the heels of another project which when I finished I felt lost on what to do next. I’ve heard artists sometimes feel this way between projects.

Having gotten nowhere in regards to the direction of my next personal project, while standing in the checkout line at my local grocery store, it suddenly dawned on me that any subject is worth investigating photographically. While I had my cell phone in my hand I thought why not here, now. So I took a couple of photographs. That was the beginning.

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’ve worked in marketing since graduating from college in the 1980s. My first job was as a graphic designer. I’ve always loved design and combining text an imagery. As a side note, I was also interested in photography, having taken photo classes in college, but always kept that as a personal interest, only occasionally making money from it.

In 2002 I started a photoblog. This was long before social media. We had a small community of bloggers from around the world and posted photographs every day. The idea at the time was to go out each day and photograph, then post on our respective photoblog on the same day. It was a great habit to learn and develop as a photographer. We kept this up as a blogging community for many years I think Flickr was the first photo sharing site I joined while still posting to my photoblog.

The photoblog was a great place to get inspiration and feedback. One of my personal inspirations is a well known photographer by the name William Eggleston. I think what I like best about his approach is that anything is a worthy subject. It’s kind of how I feel about my current project “Consuming and other influences”.

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

Photography is about candid composition. No matter what the subject, it always comes back to that. I think more non-photographers than ever don’t see it as an art form. Especially within street photography. It’s all about personal privacy to them. But what they don’t know is that photographers are allowed to photograph people in public places and don’t need their permission. From an artists perspective getting permission takes away any ability to be candid. I photograph less people in those situations because of this. Think of your favorite photographs. Would they have been possible if the photographer had to stop, get permission, then take the photo?

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My main goal is to be creative and get my work out there to be seen. It’s harder than ever now because there are so many photographers. It’s a huge industry. It’s even harder being an introvert. So much of what I photograph is for myself and if it happens to catch the attention of someone that can promote it, then that is success for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.roncillizzaphoto.com
• Instagram: @roncillizza
• Linkedin: Ron Cillizza
• Youtube: https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCbjvzPzDJnek75kCEssM5Hg/videos/upload?filter=%5B%5D&sort=%7B%22columnType%22%3A%22date%22%2C%22sortOrder%22%3A%22DESCENDING%22%7D

Image Credits
Ron Cillizza