Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Zakk Hartwig. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Zakk, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project that I’ve worked on was my first photo book titled “issue .000”. The number was .000 instead of .001 because to me it felt like an experiment before the real experiment. In other words, it was an introduction to a new concept that I was still fleshing out and wanted to explore further.

I began working on the book during a transitionary time in my photography where I became heavily focused on capturing people as my subject. When I first started to take photos many would have defined me as a street photographer. I dabbled occasionally in portraits, but pretty much only when a friend needed a new picture of themselves. Before I knew it though, I realized I really enjoyed photographing people. I did it in a candid way already with strangers on the street, but this was all about having the chance to direct them and form my own narrative. The style, character, emotions and story a person could add to a photo had me captivated.

During portrait shoots, I was able to pull from my mental catalog of locations I found before during photo walks, except now with the human element. Sometimes they beautifully complemented the space. Other times they totally dominated it depending on how I photographed them. I liked this new side of my art, but I began to sorely miss the authentic feel my street photography possessed. I never had to pose a location, or tell it what to wear. It never felt forced or fabricated. It was just there for me to discover as it was. The feeling was comparable to the difference between a documentary and a movie – nonfiction and fiction. They both have their place, but during the time I felt the two sides of my photography became conflicted with one another.

issue .000 was an attempt to settle this conflict and bring both my street and portrait photography together. I played with the idea that places are defined by the people in them just as much as people are defined by the places they are in. I was able to experiment with composition and layout on a page to see my two sides become a cohesive whole. The result became a series of portraits interluded by scenes of the everyday, representing the ebb and flow of the individual and the physical worlds they inhabit.

Through this project, I realized what I chase after in a photo. Many times my favorite photos were ones that felt candid and organic. The last thing I wanted was for it to feel like a stereotypical senior portrait session. Ultimately, my subject needed to make sense in their environment. I was always asking myself what elements a person was adding to their environment and what that environment was adding back. That context was everything. Ever since, I made it a point to capture the place just as much as the person I was photographing.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Zakk Hartwig. I’m 27 years old and currently live in Los Angeles.

It was always a hobby for me, but I got more serious about photography 10 years ago when I realized I always had an unconscious obsession with what I saw around me. Sometimes I found myself staring at a scene and wondering why things looked the way they did. When I was a kid, I loved getting those disposable film cameras from the drug store and rediscovering what I captured after it was developed. A lot of times, I didn’t know why I pressed the shutter until afterwards. Design elements like light, flow, balance and composition were always on my mind even before I knew what to call them. All I knew was that sometimes things just looked good. I started capturing those moments for myself, but then I wondered if others might be able to see the appeal in what I saw too. So I started sharing it.

Documenting my world and those in it became an obsession that I found myself diving further and further into over the years. Nowadays, I specialize mainly in portrait and fashion photography, but really enjoy street photography in my personal work. I heavily appreciate a more candid documentarian approach in appreciation for the beauty that is often already there, but have learned to see the value in crafting something entirely new from scratch in a studio for example.

Sometimes there is a limit to my photography so I’m not afraid to mix medias either. Things like video and graphic design play huge parts in shaping my work. I’m always thinking about the context of visuals and how they might be displayed.

Some of my favorite projects to work on are those with musicians in particular because I have the freedom to try new things and play with all the tools at my disposal. As creatives themselves, I have found that they love pushing the envelope alongside me and seeing how far we can take an idea. Things like designing merchandise alongside album artworks and music videos for example are never off the table when it comes to building out their world. I don’t always have the luxury to hire somebody else so I’ve become multi-faceted in this way as a result. I’ve welcomed it and love to learn new ways to communicate visually.

Lately, I see myself chasing that broader role of art direction more and more because the last thing I want to do is limit my contributions to a creative project as only the photographer.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Although I’m far from an influencer, the start of my following was built up from a New Year’s Resolution in 2015 to post one photo every single day. Not necessarily to shoot every day, but to at least post every day. Sometimes I struggled to do it and posted something from an old shoot just before midnight, while other times I ended up posting twice or even three times a day because I couldn’t wait to share what I had. But I stuck to it and I did it. All 365 days.

Before starting that journey I had less than 100 followers of only people I knew. I ended the year with over 1000.

Posting every day held me accountable and gave my followers a reason to actually follow me. It was never a question of when I was going to post, it became what I was going to post. All that was left for me was to actually post good photos that resonated with people. Consistency is a huge thing that holds a lot of people back from being taken seriously. Not to mention, we now know that the algorithm heavily favors it.

Making photography a conscious part of my everyday life was key. Followers aside, I grew so much that year as an artist because of it and was able to form life long connections with others that I would end up collaborating with on a regular basis down the road.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is definitely all about the people for me. Being able to see a person’s face light up when I snap a great picture of them or hear how I inspired someone in some way is what I live for. Being able to take someone’s ideas, carry out their vision, and show them a further potential concept they might not have even realized is extremely fulfilling.

Contact Info:

• Website: zakkhartwig.com
• Instagram: @z.stills