We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Steve Noll a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Steve, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Photographing real people. It sounds like a funny sentence, but I prefer people who don’t usually get photographed. There’s beauty all around us, and many people don’t see that in their mirrors. So the opportunity to make someone see themselves either glamorous, athletic, sexy, or confident is my contribution to art. I’ve had several moments where I show pictures from a shoot, and they shed a tear and tell me they’ve never felt so attractive before. Those moments are what I live for in my work.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I dabbled in photography back in my undergrad years. It was the era of film, and while I enjoyed it, it was quite expensive for a young guy coming from a frugal family. I’ve always loved movies, especially very visual directors like Hitchcock, Wells, Scorsese, and Spielberg. In my 30s, I found producing local plays as a passion, and it allowed me to express my visual talents. But I also found I could connect with people on very persona levels and explore many difficult themes. I picked up a DSLR camera in 2018, mainly to photograph my own plays, as well as my partner’s rugby games. These worlds just exploded when I found I could use photography to capture human portraits, both still and in motion. My photography has often been about regular people doing extraordinary things, be it sports, dance, acting, or other performance. I like to present people as they are, yet use modern digital techniques to enhance the world around them. But at the center, I want to show humans.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
A society will be measured by the art they leave behind. Think of museums about past cultures…it’s their art. In today’s highly monetized world, often the measure of success is with a dollar sign. While being paid to make art is always nice, I’m fortunate to have a career as a college professor that gives me the opportunity to pursue artistic endeavors just for the sake of art. And I think other’s who are financially able should be the ones to step up and support other artists on their journeys as well. We live in an age where our government no longer values real art, since they can’t monetize it and own it. So it’s up to us to create a portfolio of art that can show future generations who we are.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
As a Marketing Professor, I’ve specialized in studying the rise of digital and social media in the marketing world. NFTs are just the latest tool that, while headline-grabbing, needs time to evolve and establish a true value. It’s a good piece of technology and I believe in the near future, all digitally created art (photography, music, video) will all have a place in the NFT world. Right now, it’s a new shiny toy for those with disposable income to show off to their friends. But when the digital dust settles in a few years, I think there will be a strong base to build a substantial NFT portfolio.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.snollphotography.com
- Instagram: SNollPhotography
- Facebook: SNollPhotography
- Twitter: snollphoto
Image Credits
All photos (c) SNollPhotography 2020-2023.