Finding An Identity As A Creative, From A Creative Producer’s POV
You can be passionate about something and still be unsure as to what you want to do. If you’re a photographer or videographer, there are so many different creative directions you could go and that’s when things start to become overwhelming, confusing, and where lines can get blurred.
For Danny Owens, he directed his passions towards creative production. We talked with him about his photography journey, where he is and what he’s doing now at Squarespace, and how it all fits together like pieces in a puzzle.
What was your first camera?
My first camera was a Canon T3i. I was originally studying fine art and competed for an art scholarship, which I won and used the money to buy that first camera. Probably one of the most durable pieces of gear I’ve ever had. I beat it to shit and ran it into the ground – including getting it clogged with dirt while on a trip to Liberia and dropping it multiple times. I’m pretty sure it still works to this day.
How long have you been taking photos?
Since I was 19, so around 6 years now.
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Tell us about working at Squarespace. How’d you get the job? What do you do?
I work on the creative production team here producing everything and anything between print, still photo, video, digital, and experiential. I was working as a Content Creator at URBN prior and just wasn’t seeing myself growing within that field and was losing my passion for photography since it became my everyday existence. I’ve always loved the production side of creativity and seeing a project from a more holistic experience. Producing is all about fitting puzzle pieces together and getting shit done, which fits perfectly with my personality. I feel as if I’ve always been drawn to production, even in my personal life I’m the guy who’s always creating spreadsheets for vacations and meticulously recording everything.
Do you prefer digital or film?
Until recently, I used to only shoot digital. I bought a Pentax K1000 35mm film camera off a friend and have been pretty obsessed with it over the last month. Shooting film brought back a sense of fun and passion to photography for me and I’m really excited about how it makes me think differently about creating images.
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How do you keep yourself balanced and creative in your work life and your personal life?
I think it’s all about not finding your identity solely in work. For a long time I thought of myself only as a creative or as a photographer, especially as a freelancer. It was how I described myself and took up the majority of my time. Now that I’ve moved in-house over the past couple years I’ve been able to separate my work from my life, and that’s been really healthy.
Now when I take photos it’s because I want to, and not because I have to in order to pay my bills. I’ve found ways to create personal projects, including my series I call Motive. That series is focused on capturing artists within their creative spaces and sharing stories on what motivates them to create.
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Any advice for fellow photographers?
Meet people, share your work, try new things.
I think the biggest hindrance to growth is isolating yourself and keeping to yourself. Be open to critique or failure. Be willing to admit you’re not perfect and that you can always learn or grow.
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