Photographer Spotlight: Andrew Kavanagh
When did you know the photography/video industry was for you?
I attended Art college and was a Printmaking major and did a lot of painting and drawing.
When I graduated from college I started working as an artist’s assistant & gallery installation assistant.
I realized very quickly that a career in the fine arts is not as romantic as it sounds. Too much time spent on trying to get shows & obtaining grants spurred my interest in taking computer graphics classes at the School of Visual Arts in NYC in the early ‘90s. I immediately fell in love with Photoshop and have given my soul to it ever since.
How did you get your current position?
After studying at the School of Visual Arts in New York I built up my graphics portfolio and registered with various creative temp agencies. Getting work through agencies helped me get my foot in the door to advertising companies and design studios I would have never been able to do so on my own. I have wonderful memories of working for such great advertising agencies as Young & Rubicam, Tarlow Advertising, Carlson & Partners, and Grey Advertising in New York.
I work as an independent contractor so I have various clients. I balance my time between retouching and photo compositing with Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom tutoring, and get most of my clients now from online ads, having a website with strong SEO elements, and having a good presence on the various social networks.
How did your training or schooling prepare you for your job?
There is no doubt having a fine art background has helped me with composition, design, and understanding light and contrast. Learning computer graphics gave me the knowledge of the tools I would need to evolve in my career. I would have to be honest in saying that I put in a lot of my own time, and studied, practiced, and created well beyond the required assignments and homework.
What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your career?
Fear of failure. With such a competitive field I realized I would have to excel in my skills to stand out from others.
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Who would you name as the most influential person in shaping your career? Why?
Deke McClelland – Photoshop author & teacher. When I was studying at the School of Visual Arts in NYC in the early 1990’s
I quickly became aware that I wanted to be excellent at Photoshop, Deke’s Photoshop Bible with more than 800 pages was the best resource to study and try to perfect my knowledge of Photoshop. After all these years I got to meet and hang out with him this year at a local Adobe user group that I volunteer at.
If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be?
Gourmet food and chocolate! Or an offer to promote my work.
Photoshop Artist and Tutor: http://www.andrewkavanagh.com/
My Digital Art: http://www.andrewkavanagh.com/imageblog/
