Today we’d like to introduce you to Patrick Graham.
Hi Patrick, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I would say I got into photography almost by accident. About 4 years ago during my senior year of high school, I was cleaning out a house and stumbled upon an old DSLR that previously belonged to a family member that had no further use for it, and I was able to breathe some life back into it with some spare batteries. For a while, it just sat on my dresser collecting dust, and it wasn’t until I caught wind of a local car meet occurring that I felt I could try my hand at photography, and I found myself having more fun capturing different builds with it than I expected. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 Pandemic that I began working with film, starting off skating around my neighborhood and photographing buildings and houses, not thinking too much of it. And the natural feel of how the grain and the colors rendered across the images was what made me gravitate more towards an analog medium, and I began to apply and experiment more with it across my normal workflow. As of right now, I’m on my third apartment-built photography studio, and I develop and scan everything myself.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has for the most part, though I couldn’t even count on two hands how many times I second-guessed myself. I would say one the biggest struggles for me was trying to find a niche within my work. My greatest fear was (and still is) making work that feels stale. And it’s really random. Like in some instances I would begin to flood with concepts and ideas, making notes in my phone, and putting together mood boards like there’s no tomorrow, but other times I would run into a creative block with little coming to mind. And I’d say that issue was applied best within my earlier work, as looking back a lot of what I made just felt similarly manufactured, which I deeply disliked. Another struggle that I’ve been looking to amend is being able to create work that most practical for me and well within my abilities, as some ideas I get are just too extravagant for where I am at the moment. One of my main goals all throughout is to be able to produce work that’s consistently unique, and I’ve found it most helpful to take small hiatuses here and there, or even talk to my friends or examine their work.
So, yeah, it often fluctuates, but maintaining that drive to continually formulate new project ideas, as well as being open to constructive critique, are things I’ve been slowly getting better at.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
It’s weird to think that it’s only 2 years that I’ve been shooting both film and digitally simultaneously. I like to say I’m primarily a film photographer, but it wouldn’t be fair to say which one is “better”. since I feel like it varies for what would be most applicable for what I’m doing. Primarily, most of my work falls within in portraiture on medium format film, but I also enjoy doing black-and-white street photography from time to time, though not as consistently, I admit. Some have compared my work to movie stills, and I feel like it’s fair to say that’s where most of my compositional inspiration comes from, among other aspects. I like to think that color and tone play a massive role within my work, as I feel it functions in tandem with the subjects, I’m shooting to help set an atmosphere within the setting and overall image. If there’s anything that I feel most proud of, it’s my confidence growth in taking more risk while shooting, especially if it means yielding better work.
Any big plans?
As of right now, I’m not too sure. A dream of mine would be being able to work at a large-scale magazine or studio and being able to stay within a creative setting. I just traveled to New York earlier in late May, and it was surprising to see just how many creative opportunities lie there. I’ve been meaning to travel to other places across the country, especially California, to see what life would be like out there, as well as just to go on road trips more often. I can’t say for certain how long I’ll reside in Texas, most likely at least 4-5 years, depending on how it all goes. But it’d certainly be nice to look at what other areas have for me. Texas will forever have my heart, but having lived my entire life here, I want to see what change of setting would be able to do for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: raiinfalls.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/raiinfalls
Image Credits
@loverboyrod
@korleyan
@derrickbarnettt
@jackshaupt
@aasha2k
@anticarson
@4.19art,
@faithfulrobot
