THE STORY STORY

My interest in photography reaches back to childhood..back when family photo albums lived on the coffee table like a permanent exhibit. The ones in my house were extensive, packed with images of my mom, dad, and a wide circle of family and friends. Almost all of them were Polaroids. I still have a stack today; the survivors.

I used to stare at those pictures for hours. They never got played out. Our family moved back and forth between Michigan and Chicago, and those albums felt like a bridge—proof of where we’d been, who we’d loved, and what we’d lived through. My father was an artist, and he was a photographer with an eye. Most of the photos in our albums were his work. And you could tell. Our pictures were different than the ones I’d see in other people’s homes—more intentional, more curious, more composed. The kind of images you could get lost in.

And listen… Polaroids weren’t perfect. The color was often terrible. No zoom. No editing. No second takes. But maybe that’s the point. They taught me early that a photograph doesn’t have to be flawless to be powerful—it just has to be true.

By junior high, disposable cameras took over, and I was fully in my element. If we’re being honest, I was the selfie king before selfies had a name. In eighth grade, I went on the classic Washington, D.C. trip—the trip every kid looked forward to in the 80s. I ran through about four disposable cameras like it was nothing. When we got back to Michigan, we dropped them off at Perry Drugstore to get developed, then waited for that moment of truth—opening the envelope and reliving the whole story frame by frame.

By high school, being behind the camera felt natural. In 10th grade, I took a photography class through the Horizons Upward Bound summer program at Cranbrook Kingswood, where I spent my summers. That class—taught by Mr. German—really opened my eyes to light and composition. I fell in love with candid photography and nature photography, and I started seeing the world differently: not just as “things happening,” but as moments worth capturing if you’re ready at the right time.

For a long time, I never imagined photography as a career. I just knew I couldn’t stop shooting. But I eventually did what a lot of artists do when the passion gets too loud to ignore—I followed it deeper.

My college photography path began at Oakland Community College under Rob Kangas in Royal Oak, Michigan. Rob was disciplined, direct, and incredibly informative. He helped me understand that photography wasn’t just a hobby—it was a craft, a profession, a language. And that I could build a life with it.

Before I even finished my program at OCC, I transferred to the College for Creative Studies, where I studied photography and advertising design. Visual communication became my world. Composition. Typography. Storytelling through images. Learning how to make something not only look good, but communicate.

As life shifted, my interests shifted too. Not because I outgrew CCS, but because the work I wanted to do started leaning toward motion—toward cinema. If I had to pick a “job,” I saw myself as a director of photography, working in film. So after I got my footing back under me, I transferred to Eastern Michigan University, where I could pursue film studies and broadcast technology—while still keeping photography close through a minor in fine art photography.

That journey shaped the way I shoot today. Photography is still my foundation—my first love—but it’s tied to everything else I do: film, design, mixed media, and storytelling across mediums. I’m always chasing the same thing I found in those old family Polaroids:

A moment with weight…A frame with a heartbeat…A picture you can get lost in.

~J.R.