I had the blessing of having my brother shoot the new Yemzi activewear collection. I asked him a few questions about his experience as a creative with other 15 years experience, and how he found shooting my latest offering of bold, beautiful, clothes!
Y: Tell us about your career as a musician, motion graphic designer and photographer
R: Where do I start!? Representing the voice of someone who had grown up in foster care but going against the statistics gave me purpose in my solo music. Jungle Brown my rap collective has been a blessing along the way as it had more commercial appeal which has seen us in festivals like Glastonbury and supporting acts like De La Soul.
Motion Graphics for advertising has been the backbone that has given me the time to focus on music. And being an MTV generation baby it’s cool I can manipulate video and graphics to find my aesthetic like all the cool mixed media music videos I saw growing up.
Lightpainting is how I got into photography back at uni 10+ years ago but traveling and documenting culture let me embrace the bigger picture of photography.
The balancing act ain't easy! But being an independent artist, you must throw yourself into a few disciplines to make your business lean and sustainable.
Y: How was the experience shooting the Yemzi activewear range?
R: Good vibes around. Great team, decent location, and the weather blessed us!
Y: How do you usually prepare for a photoshoot?
R: If self-initiated I typically make a mood board of ideas I want to explore – lighting, colours, poses, technique, location etc.
If for a client I typically ask what they are looking for and bounce off that.
Y: What is your go to shoot kit?
R: Canon RP, 24-70mm F2.8L lens for flexibility. But day to day a fixed 35mm lens will do, it’s compact and convenient for casual lifestyle photography.
For experimentation more so these days I'll shoot with my film camera (Canon AE1) to test different stocks of film.
It’s so easy to shoot digitally nowadays, so shooting on film forces me to slow down and consider my shot more mindfully.
Y: Can you share any behind-the-scenes challenges or interesting moments from the shoot?
R: Being cautious of the tide was a challenge. We only had a small window of a few hours max before the tide came in to take our space and we had a lot of fits and details to shoot. And with how volatile British weather is, the brightness of the sun disappeared even sooner! But we made it work.
Y: What tips do you have for brands, artists and creatives planning their shoots?
R: Brands – if you’re feeling the shoot, let’s work. (:
Artists/Creatives – Keep working on your voice and what you have to say, it the age of AI, it will become easier to make pretty images but your voice and experience will separate you from others and technology.
Y: Do you have any tips or advice for aspiring creatives?
R: This quote comes to mind...
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years, you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass
Y: Which is your favorite set from the collection (Pearl, Fanta, Sage or Sky) and why?
R: It’s a hard one, I think they there all dope but Fanta is my colour. Pops on melanin!
And just works all year around.
Y: And finally, how do you stay active?
R: Ride to beautiful locations like where we did this shoot.
If I’m not riding, then I run.
Not as much as I used to when I was in London with RunDemCrew but I try to do a 5K once a week.
See more from the talented Ric here
