Meet Amel Adrian | Film Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amel Adrian and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amel, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
All we can ever do as artists is keep going. All we know is how to create. To be an artist is to be a creator and all we ever can do is create our art. We can flow, we can change, and we can adapt, but we can never give up. As an artist, it’s easy to feel stagnant or stuck. And that’s how we know it’s time to pivot, to evolve. Being stagnant is an artists greatest fear, but stagnation is not the end, it’s the foundation for one to be reborn. I went from being a portrait photographer, to shooting bts for rappers, to shooting parties, to shooting nature photography, all while maintaining film as my medium of photography. I’m am constantly growing and evolving, balancing trying new things with going back to what I know, in a never-ending cycle of birth and rebirth. I feel like that is what being an artist is all about.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My artistic medium of choice is photography, but specifically film photography. The rawness and roughness of 35mm film is something that I was specifically drawn to. I feel like what sets me apart from other film photographers is the diversity of my images. I love highly curated and styled shoot, but I also love the candids I shoot at events, and I’ve recently become really passionate about shooting nature and landscapes. I really try not to put any limitations on how I express myself through my photography. Whatever I feel called to create, I create. I’m really excited about selling prints and releasing a photobook. I’m also planning to have my first gallery showing this year. Hopefully this year will be a year of many firsts.

I started doing photography when I was around 10, so I feel like a lot of the technical hard work was done when I was a kid. I feel like the “hardest” part about furthering your career as an artist is really the networking aspect to it all. Thankfully though, I’ve made so many great connections organically just through developing friendships with people, so for me the most challenging part of getting to where I am now, has been feeling like I need to niche down and put myself in a box in order to succeed. But I feel like restricting myself creatively just goes against my whole creative process, so instead I’ve just done the opposite and not limited myself and I feel like that has actually helped me in my career.

However, artists are always facing new challenges day in and day out and we often have to use our creativity to solve them. Aside from “never give up,” I think the most important message I’ve learned is “don’t be afraid to do something different,” or rather, “don’t be afraid to evolve”. And in terms of my brand and story, I want the world to know that I’ve made a commitment to continually growing and evolving. So even if they don’t always get the same version of me, they are always bound to get the most authentic and raw version of me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my friend was visiting LA for the week and I wanted to show them a great time, I would definitely them experience different parts of the city, especially LA’s best eats and vibes. In the mornings, I’d take them to Boba Time and we’d get some boba or açaí bowls to start the day off right. For our brunches, we would go to Bird’s Nest Cafe on Vermont, Blu Jam Cafe, The Serving Spoon, and Met Her At A Bar. Our daytime activities would include walking on the Venice beach boardwalk, picnicking in Echo Park, beach day at a private beach in Malibu, hiking at Runyon Canyon, walking around The Grove, and a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain. For our dinners we would grab a bite to eat at Ospi in Venice (their spicy rigatoni and their ricotta fettunta are the best), JOEY, Kazunori, Hungry Joe’s, Bao Dim Sum, Met Him At a Bar, and Ugo. Then for our evening activities, I would suggest we go to Bar Flores, Bar Lis, Harriets Rooftop, Apt 200, and Los Globos. What I love the most about LA, is that there’s always somewhere you can go that can fit whatever vibe you’re looking for.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I wanna dedicate my shoutout to Graham Kennedy (@instagrahamhkennedy), for single-handedly sparking my interest in film photography. Graham photographed me on medium format film, and shortly after, he sold me my first ever film camera: a Canon AE-1 Program. If we had never crossed paths, I’d most likely still be shooting solely digital and I don’t know if my career would’ve taken off the way it has. Thank you to Graham for inspiring me, and for pushing me out of comfort zone. I will never forget the contribution he has made to my artistic journey and I am forever grateful to him.

Website: www.ameladriann.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/amel35mm

Other: Prints available for purchase @: www.ameladriann.darkroom.com