Meet Kevin K. | Creative Director & Film Photographer

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

Hi Kevin, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Growing up I was very influenced by my pops. He was the first cameraman I ever knew. As a kid, we would go on many trips out of the country and my dad would always pack up a bunch of film and bring different types of camcorders to record our journey. He wasn’t so much trying to create art but it was more about trying to capture the “moment”. At the time, I didn’t really understood what that meant until I was able to pick up a film camera myself. Expressing myself through different art mediums had always felt really natural to me. After practicing how to take portraits and dabbling around in street photography, I had a realization that I kinda had a knack for it and my friends that I would practice on would say so as well. From that point on, I was completely and utterly obsessed with cameras. Everyday I would do so much research about the different genres that photography had to offer and it just made things very exciting to me. The more photoshoots I decided to do, I became confident enough to call myself an artist. At age 17, that was probably the first time I whole-heartedly said I wanted to do this for the rest of my life- which was really rare for me because I always struggled with the question of “what do you want to be when you grow up?”. I then started to get some attention from people I didn’t know just based off my online portfolio and understood that I could actually make a decent living off of this. I had to take a chance on myself and decided to pursue it every chance I got.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
The thing that inspires me the most about the type of art I’m able to do is this small mantra I secretly say to myself “I could create something out of nothing”. Sometimes art is really just that ya know? It’s the meaning behind the mundane, that special silver lining the everyone seems to look over. It’s my job as an artist to try to replicate an emotion within a frame so that people can not just see it but feel it as well. I personally grew up with really bad eyesight as a kid and always had to wear glasses, it made me think I had superpowers at the time because it allowed me to see things that maybe others didn’t. I always had an honest love for people watching and admired how they dressed themselves. I would say it’s more about the authenticity that intrigued me the most which is why I love shooting fashion photography these days. Photography has really taught me a lot of things in life. it opened up so many doors for me that I didnt think was possible. It allowed me to learn how to be a bit more extroverted when it comes to working with other people on projects, as well being intentional as an artist.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
For people that know me, they know how much I absolutely love food. Cooking is actually another passion of mine. I’m rarely ever home just because I travel so much to try different restaurants out while simultaneously location scouting all around different cities. Currently I’ve been really into getting Bagels, y’all should check out this joint called New York Bagels in Whittier. I typically order their Locs, which is pretty much my go-to order. Another favorite spot of mine that’s actually a very special view point, is driving up Skyline Drive at night to see how the city lights illuminate. Taking that drive by myself allows me to kinda hit a reset button to myself, which is kinda needed to prevent burnout and other things in that nature.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
As I mentioned before, my father had played a big role in my journey by introducing cameras into my life. I also would like to recognize my best friend, Tre Miller. He’s a multi-talented fine artist based in West Whittier, California. We both had learned a lot from each other over the years on what it means to be an artist and the real discipline it takes to keep challenging ourselves in order to elevate our craft. The influence of having a like-minded individual who’s just as passionate and ambitious about art around me, definitely helped me create a stronger mindset when it comes to the various obstacles we face as artists.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wrongkev?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Image Credits
model credits: Ivy Huong Nguyen, Taymon Lawson, Ofunne & Cyril, Kyevoni, Carmen, Jamie Louve, Tre Miller & Samo