John Keatley – Creating personal projects

The Creative Freelancer

This week, we sat down for an interview with John Keatley, Seattle based advertising and fine art photographer. On this podcast episode he shares some behind the scenes of his recent project "Uniform" and why it's so important to be creating personal work. We also talk about what is was like when he started off in advertising, and was told "It takes 5 years." You can catch John at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York in October on Managing Clients & Workflow on Set (Thu, Oct 20, 2016 - 10:15 AM to 12:15 PM). John and his wife Nichelle also host photographers for a three day workshop in Seattle called Survival Guide. Until I stared creating work on my own that spoke the language of advertising, people just wrote me off as an editorial photographer.John Keatley Interview Timestamps 0:40- Uniform personal project5:12- What goes into planning your personal projects?9:37- How do you deal with decisions on personal work?11:52- Journal of Ideas13:27- Don’t save ideas until you are ‘better’13:49- “You never are satisfied with where you are at. You’re alway going to be learning.”14:40- Having a team in place17:29- Working with your spouse 21:55- Family portraits on website25:10- Feedback from clients on family portraits26:12- Career path28:40- How did you marketing change over the years?29:54 “Look, it really takes 5 years”32:29 “Until I stared creating work on my own that spoke the language of advertising, people just wrote me off as an editorial photographer. “32:48 - Why did they assume you were an editorial photographer?34:13- Building the Survival Guide37:16- Figuring out who you are and translating that into your work39:34- Upcoming workshop in 201740:22- NYC PhotoPlus Talk “Being on Set”40:57- Lighting Round questions41:37- Why Fine Art?42:50 - What would someone be surprised about you?45:21 - Liberia 47:00 - One Light, One Modifier, One Lens48:00 - Maintaining confidence on the journey“Hopefully you keep a big picture mindset.” Show Notes + Links John Keatley Photo Instagram Keatley Survival Guide PhotoPlus Expo Uniform Annie Leibovitz Portrait Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Keatley Survival Guide John Keatley Instagram Knowledge Bombs “You never are satisfied with where you are at. You’re always going to be learning.” 13:49“Until I stared creating work on my own that spoke the language of advertising, people just wrote me off as an editorial photographer."-32:39 “Hopefully you keep a big picture mindset.” - 48:00