I'm Inspired By: My Friends

Photography by Michael K.

I went home to Atlanta for the first time in a few years and it was definitely an experience.  It was at some points disheartening but overall quite inspiring.  I was able to catch up with quite a few people...people I hadn't seen in years.  As the years pass friends and associates go about their way.  What was frustrating for me to witness was that there were people who kind of just seemed like life had happened to them.  Some were in careers that they didn't care for or relationships that they just settled for and I couldn't help but wonder..."What happened?"  Why have people given up?  I saw my favorite teacher, Ms. Page, and she said that it's about choices that people make.  If you make a succession of "good" choices then that's the direction your life will tend to go.  It seemed as though some have not really liked the choices they made but decided that it was too late to go a different route.  I mean, we're not 95 years old!  There is still time to go after what you want.  

Take my homie Mike Jones, for instance.  He's been at his corporate job since he was about 17 years old.  He graduated from college and continued on the path that he began while in high school.  However, he's always been drawn to photography.  This year, as a fluke, he was at a friend's party and went around telling everyone he was a photographer; completely joking.  A few days later someone from the party called him and told him she was ready for her session with him.  This took him completely by surprise.  He now had to make good on the joke he'd played.  He did some research and found a great factory refurbished Nikon and started making his passion become a reality in his life.  When he picked me up that was the last thing I was expecting him to tell me.  He's found his love, his passion and is going after it wholeheartedly.  He has since, shot several sessions with different friends, his fraternity brothers, the city of Atlanta, etc.  He decided to put himself on.  He offered deals to people to help build up his portfolio and to continue to learn.  I found this so incredibly inspiring because this is exactly what I'm talking about.  He could have decided that the life he's been making for himself for the past 12+ years was one he had to resign himself to forever.  Instead he chose to step out on faith and just give it a go.  When he was initially contacted by the friend from the party he could have merely stated that he was joking and moved on but he decided to jump at the opportunity.  I am so encouraged by his decision, it has changed the way I look at him, for real.  He's always been cooler than a fan but now he's someone I can talk to about this grind.   

I was so excited about his process that I interviewed him.  I want to showcase stories like his and ours to share what this process looks like.  There are people at so many points along the spectrum and I think that this will help all of us keep being inspired by each other because we're not alone.  I'm working on the edit of the interview and plan to have it done in a week or so as soon as I'm able to get it off my camera.  The footage looks pretty interesting but more than that, what this first of many stories does for me is it gives me my jump, my leap.  Even if it sucks, I was incredibly inspired to try to capture what I was feeling from our conversations and through more efforts I will gain experience and my vision will become more clear.  So, I thank Michael K. Jones, Shawn "KCutta" Williams, Parker Mathieu Word, April Perez, Keisa Davenport, Michael Curry II, Caleb Watkins, Chris Portis, Carla Odom, and Jade "K.C." Frazier for keeping me inspired and never ceasing their grind.

100.

Bright

p.s. You may view more of Michael K.'s work or contact him via www.modelmayhem.com/MichaelKPhoto