This is me

Usually I do not do this. What I mean is usually I do not talk about myself because sometimes I think why would people care, but I recently had a conversation with a mentor or mine and they told me it cant just be about the destination, people would like to see the journey of how you got there on a day to day basis as well over a long period of time. 

Basically its like this, when the teacher asks you to show her work but you already know the answer to the equation so you give only the answer. People like to live through others and sometimes they like to see the real side of things when it comes to how the person really got there. 

So I am currently 30 years, but does that really matter? I first started creating since I could remember (typical answer I know) , but since I could draw cartoons that I used to see on Saturdays I was hooked. Eventually drawing and colours became something I enjoyed. 2005 graffiti came into my life and I was hooked I didn't really know what it was but I knew I wanted to learn it, study it and embrace it.

So I started with handstyles and learning from the ground up with sketchbooks. I learned how to write my name it felt like I was becoming someone else because it was an alter-ego something I could hide behind because I was not always the most out spoken person. The name was...yeah you guessed it "Smvrk" why I chose this name was because I was a bad kid grounding up and people used to tell me they knew I did something due to the smirk on my face. 

fast forward couple years and now I am making stencils tagging my name anywhere I could, but one thing I wish I need early on what never "shit where you eat". I was caught writing my name on the new public school ways. (Yes some may call it vandalism). It was from that point I realized I could be writing my name illegally and getting in trouble. 

Its 2007 and now i am in college for visual and digital arts. This touch the fundamentals of drawing, painting, sculpting and graphic design so I thought sign me up I could still do something I love which is letters colours and cartoons. I learned and learned fast, staying late at school understand illustrator and learning what it does and how I can make it mine own. I started with all I knew at the time music taking my favourite musicians and digitizing them. From Kanye and ASAP Rocky to Jayz and Lady Gaga. (No she was not a favourite of mine it was just an experiment).

A$AP Rocky 

Kanye West

School was over and I needed a job or I had to go back to school for a few years to deep dive into a more specifc field. I worked for a a few years until Instagram came around and it was somewhere I  did not have to do much. Post my work and move on, but then I stumbled across people with some amazing work that was coming from there phones and the rest it history. 

I picked up a camera and it was a new fresh area I could create in. I could still hind bhind my name because that part hasnt changed much. I prefer people now know who I cam because I like the work to speak for itself, I rather the work do all the talking. (Not that I cant speak) I rather have the work do it for me. 
So here i was working overnight and driving downtown every more to meet up with people like Ryan Millier, Brxson and The Brightest Hour just to name a few. I was hooked it was something new and fresh, but it was not about the likes and followers how it is now, but more about the adventure unknown places that we would have never seen if it was not for photography. 

Underground tunnels, roof tops, motion blurs, instameets was all a new community of like minded people potential friends and competition. Then when people started to reach out and brands started to call you something bigger than just a photographer or a hobbyist. The platform had changed my life in a positive way, I meet new people brainstormed ideas went to all kinds if events. 

Now I was travelling the world because my passion had grown outside of home town, my city and even my country. Exploring and seeing the world became the goal. Its more of a life time goal to travel as much as possible before I leave this earth. Since I picked up a camera I have drove to Montreal, Detroit, Flower Pot Island, took a bus to Chicago, flew to Cuba, Jamaica and even New York.  Thats a short list of places I want to go, but I feel like I am only getting started. More events, more people to shoot more places to see. 

That's me in a nut shell. I love photos I have a passion to see the world, meet new people and try new things. I feel like I can be a photographer for the next 30 years and still love it the same. I get bored easily so Im sure I would be shooting film or using mixed mediums in order to provoke an emotion. I love shooting people in their natural ora, but I also love landscapes and creating a cinematic mood similar to movies. 

Till next time,

Sean