Photographer Spotlight: Kirk Marsh
Kirk Marsh
When did you know the photography/video industry was for you?
I still don’t know that the photography industry is for me. I have a love/hate relationship with creating images for money as opposed to art or personal reasons. It is always a challenge for me to create a piece for someone else when I have so many visions of how I want to see things for myself. Emotions and stories are the most important thing to me and since I cannot draw, and I don’t feel like a great writer, I create photographs that can tell stories. Storytelling is what photographs do so well, and through composite work, it is possible to achieve even more story in a single image…the problem generally arises that I don’t see the world the same as most people so the story and images in my head are very different than the art director’s. That’s why I don’t feel like the industry is always for me.
How did you get your current position?
Currently I have my own studio in San Antonio and that is possible for anyone to do. Just start creating images and hang a shingle. I found the photography world several years ago and since then have tried a lot of different genres. I have finally settled on fine art as my main focus. That way I can create the pieces that I like for myself and then sell them online or at festivals and galleries.
How did your training or schooling prepare you for your job?
The education I have is almost all online and a couple of one or two day workshops where I learned a lot from a Glamour photographer early on (when I was more interested in meeting women than great photography) and then from some Nat Geo guys later as I grew up a bit. Kelby Training was one of the first great tools I had for my online education as well as purchasing JoeyL’s incredible videos (from when he was about 16). JoeyL seriously changed the way I looked at photography. Getting taught by top notch photographers online is incredible. The insights I learned from those videos undoubtedly shaped the course of my career.
What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your career?
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Who would you name as the most influential person in shaping your career? Why?
Brooke Shaden, I found a book of her work after seeing her photographic composites and really fell in love with it. I had done one or two composites before, but her work really spoke to me. I have a lot of emotions and stories that need to get out of me and she was showing a way to make that happen photographically.
If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be?
Time. I would take more time in my day, my week, my year. If there was a resource that I could have more of it would be that. Compositing takes a lot of time so I’d like to have some of that time back in my life. I enjoy all of the time I spend in front of the computer, but I get frustrated that I cannot have more of it to create more images and live more life.
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