Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Reynolds.
Alright, thank you for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us how you got started?
I developed my passion for photography in childhood while growing up in the Kansas City area. I used every camera I could get my hands on and photographed anything from family members to subjects in the creek behind our home in a loose and free way. In High School, I often focused on the city as my subject while learning traditional darkroom processes. I was immersed in photojournalism for two semesters at the University of Kansas. While I enjoyed aspects of it, intuition and desire led me back to the artistic side where I belong. After college, I lived in Chicago, worked a desk job, and started building my equipment kit from nothing. I got to know my gear better by exploration in street photography. After shooting my first few freelance jobs, I took a small amount of money. I wanted to make a living doing photography with me on the West Coast (in a 1991 Ford Probe with no air conditioning, no less). At the same time, making a living shooting weddings (using my documentary/journalistic approach), music/concerts, portraits, headshots, corporate/business, and more. My flexible schedule and motivation to see the entire West spurred many photography-centered road trips from my home base of Los Angeles. After eight years in LA, I spent the better part of a year and a half in New York City, shooting jobs and weddings wherever I could – which gave me a lot of freedom, so I got in some more street photography. I returned to Kansas City to shoot some rural scenery as part of a project to add some true Kansas content in the form of large prints for the restaurant my brother and extended family started. During this project, I met my future wife. I stayed in Kansas City the transition to finding work in the area went pretty well. I could make a living shooting various jobs and started experimenting with different substrates to print my art photography, metal, acrylic, fine art papers, etc. In venturing beyond Kansas and Missouri, I would often shoot all over Colorado, and once a year or so, beyond the Southwest, Montana, California Wine Country, and more. I finally got my art business fully in motion, with my first major show being Art Westport in 2016. I stopped shooting for hire soon after as I continued to exhibit at art fairs in the KC area, Colorado, Chicago, Texas, and more, as well as galleries and office buildings through the Arts KC “Now Showing” program. After three years as a full-time artist, my wife and I jumped on an opportunity to live in the Pacific Northwest, and I am now immersed in a new climate and region to shoot. However, I still operate my art business regionally from Kansas City. While shooting new content has slowed down a bit for me while my children are little; currently 2 and a half and 4 and a half, I’m getting to know the area well and am enjoying showing them the natural beauty here as well as when we make it back to Kansas. Work-wise, all of these life experiences lead me to my current photographic focus: to share my humble sense of wonder for the American West and to spark civil and thoughtful discussion on how to approach modern challenges about land use and the environment as commercial, individual, public, and interests collide. More specifically, preservation/conservation/rewilding, the value of keystone species such as bison, and how land owners can make their property a net positive for our greater ecosystem by integrating regenerative agriculture practices.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My journey to where I am was anything but a smooth road, and it continues to be that way, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. That’s easier to say now that I’m fully operational with my business because I had plenty of early struggles that made things seem impossible. I often think some degree of talent/skill is a minute but necessary first step to a massively challenging road to make it to where you want to be. The other side of it requires habitual persistence and resilience. While I knew I wanted to be selling my art, I had no means to do so in the early stages. I spent years developing my photographic skills while photographing weddings was something I never wanted to do and didn’t particularly enjoy. I was grateful to make a major chunk of my living in brief/hard work days where I developed my skills (I believe it made me at photography in general). While I was overly involved with the editing, as I’m quite particular about my work and clients, it gave me so much flexibility to get out and shoot. Whether it was Death Valley or Italy, I was always using the money I made and free time for photo trips which expanded my mind, portfolio, and skills. It could be a bit disheartening when money got low, and things got a bit hard, but for me, it was helpful to be friends with a group of artists in Los Angeles and help each other out. Struggling was still awful as it just made daily life more challenging, but it tested my desire, and I never gave in. While it could be hard at times and seeing friends of the same age start their careers and make better/more consistent money, I was slowly and steadily building a start to my life’s work. In that vein, when I sell an art print of an image from 2006 or 2008, as I have recently, I think back to the pure desire and passion that lead me to get that shot. It wasn’t the promise of any immediate payoff – it was grinding it out with travel and the elements and working on getting portfolio-level images.
Another set of challenges for me personally was business related. While I have the ultimate freedom in having my own small business, this comes with a slew of tasks, small and large – from taxes to inventory management and more. It’s easy to, at times, feel disconnected from the art that is the core of the operation. That being said, it is the best feeling not to be accountable to anyone and to be truly in command of my vision and operation, however small. For those seeking to pursue art, you cannot neglect this side of things. It’s okay to be bad at it at first and learn the way I did, but the more quickly you get motivated to get this side in order, the more quickly you’ll get to enjoy the awesome independence that comes with successfully operating in your favor.
I’ve also spent countless hours building the knowledge base of how/when to apply to juried art shows, developing working relationships with galleries, show directors, arts councils, etc. It’s not making art per se, but unless you have the means to buy a gallery, finding ways to get visibility is necessary.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a business, I specialize in selling art photography prints of my lifelong collection of work. The best way to describe my work is an artistic take on landscape and wildlife photography subjects. So it’s not as traditional in appearance, but the subjects are well known. Not in the sense of shooting a popular mountain top or internationally known landmark at a national park, but more in finding patterns and nuance in the natural world of forests, coasts, and farmland, as well as wildlife like bison and horses, as well as symbols of human development. I truly believe that every photographer, and artist for that matter, has something unique to offer, whether you’re full-time or a hobbyist – we all can add to the intrigue and wonder of the world. It’s hard for me to espouse any pride in my work, but knowing that it connects with people enough for me to make a living doing this is quite a feeling. I’m always humbled and fulfilled when talking to people at the art shows; the feeling is amplified when they commit to buying a piece. Art can be very personal, and the motivation to buy is often connected to the buyer’s strong feelings and life experiences.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
There are so many because I had a wonderful childhood – but just having a creek behind our backyard to explore was perfect. We would spend hours playing and exploring, as well as plenty of spontaneous games with friends, whether it was soccer, football (full tackle on the big field), baseball, basketball, hockey, etc. Having so much freedom to explore and play was a huge part of my growing up for me.
Pricing:
- Fine art photo paper prints start at $50 (11″x14″) and go up depending on size.
- Metal prints start at $300 (24″x16″) and up depending on size.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://scottreynoldsphotography.com/
- Instagram: @serphoto4
- Facebook: facebook.com/serphoto
