Today we’d like to introduce you to Shilo Rayne.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I guess my story starts like most: Being born, enduring tragedies, and coming out on the other side. Right now I’m still trying to find the other side.
But in the midst of all of this, I found a camera. And it’s strange too because the camera is like a compass for me. It pushes and pulls me in so many different directions and I never really know where it’s going to take me. Usually, it’s nowhere but nowhere is not a dead end. Sometimes nowhere means “not now” and to “try again later”. We are not on the other side but the nowhere’s are getting us closer to it.
I picked up photography in late 2012; the camera was a birthday gift from my partner at the time. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with it but it seemed easier to follow everyone else who was a photographer: senior portraits, infant pictures, weddings, couples, etc.
Look, I didn’t get formal training for this craft, save a few photo classes I took in college, so it was very easy for me to look at my work, where the colors were over-saturated or the lighting was under-exposed, and compare them to those who had seemed to have gotten it right. And so effortlessly! Or so I thought. I didn’t have the capacity at the time to understand that all of these great photographs I was seeing were a combination of skill, technique, and quality of equipment. With that being said, I constantly shot myself down and discounted my efforts in every photograph moving forward. While that’s not the healthiest way to critique yourself, crucifying my lack of talent was straightforward and more believable than convincing myself that I had what it took to create something of substance.
Over the next few years, I would dabble with my camera here and there – taking pictures of flowers and park benches seemed to disappoint me less than people. But then one day I stumbled upon a photographer that would change the way I would create: Brooke Shaden. At first glance, her pictures look like paintings but when you take a closer look you realize that it’s multiple different pictures composited into one. But it wasn’t just that, it was the surrealism that had spilled in throughout her photographs and a type of dreariness that felt hopeful. For the first time since I had my camera, I thought “How can I do that?” rather than “Why can’t I do that?” With Salvador Dali being one of my favorite artists, Brooke Shaden’s photographs felt like a breath of fresh air. I didn’t have to be confined to family pictures and weddings, I could do so much more. This discovery turned a light on in me and the floodgates for my creativity had broken open.
From that point on, I spent the next few years practicing different techniques and styles for what can be termed as my “Fine Art Pictures”. My pictures were very different from a traditional photograph but for once I was so proud. I honestly didn’t seek the same affirmation I had craved in previous years because I knew that I didn’t make this for _them_, I made it for _me_. And then the nowhere’s started taking me to have my work published in a magazine, holding exhibits for my photographs, and complete strangers purchasing framed pieces and prints.
Now, seven years later, I am here. While I am by no means considered an established artist in this field, I do have a clearer vision of what I expect from this industry and from myself when it comes to photography. I’m still trying to get a foothold somewhere but I suppose these things take time. I’ve already met some incredibly motivating and inspiring individuals in my first year that I have been here. The gears are turning and the balls are rolling, and so long as I can keep this momentum going then something great is bound to come from all of this.
Has it been a smooth road?
Absolutely not. My life has been a series of mishaps and setbacks and attempting to add an artist that isn’t starving in the mix will make you second-guess why you even try. If I told you I was going to quit photography in 2015 you probably wouldn’t believe me. Why was I on the verge of wanting to throw my camera off a cliff? Well, it was a culmination of things really and we can only take so much before we break under the pressure.
I had lost both of my parents during 2012 and 2013 from their addiction and during that time I was still trying to figure out what it was that I wanted to do with my photography. You don’t exactly have the motivation to create when you’re trying to cope with the loss of BOTH parents with whom you’ve had a strained relationship with most of your life. But it wasn’t only that. I was adjusting to a new life in Oklahoma and trying to figure out a time to study for school, cut weight for wrestling, work to pay bills, and MAYBE take pictures if I had the time or energy. Well…I didn’t. My grades were suffering in school and the enthusiasm and drive that I had to wrestle at the collegiate level were dwindling and I was broke while accruing more debt in credit cards and student loans. At some point it felt like my camera collecting dust on a shelf in my room was silently mocking me saying “I told you so.”
Despite all of the other issues I was dealing with, it still wasn’t what drove me to want to sell my camera and throw away any aspirations I had with photography. It was having a close family member conveniently pick up photography, while I was trying to navigate the grounds for it, and slowly turn it into a competition between us. I kid you not when I say they would take pictures and compare their photos to mine, exclaiming how much better their photographs looked when placed next to mine. They told relatives to not promote my artwork but to only reach out to them if they wanted pictures and to only tell their friends about their pictures and pretend like mine didn’t exist. So combining my family members tumultuous game, with other friends on Facebook posting extravagant photographs of cities that they visited internationally, and my lack of creating anything, I was done. In the back of my mind, I thought to my family member “fine, you win”. I was washing my hands of photography forever. Better to give up now before I give myself time to be further disappointed because who was I kidding, I was only ever going to be average at this anyways.
So I found myself lurking around a local Best Buy and I received a quote on my camera and lens. I wasn’t going to get much for it so I told them to give me a minute to think about it and I’ll get back to them. I kept walking up and down the aisles and letting the thoughts and feelings mull over in my scattered brain. And then slowly but inevitably, a feeling was beginning to creep up in the back of my mind. It said, “not now”. Looking back at that moment, it was the first of many nowhere’s that were to come. The aisles of Best Buy were not a dead end, I just needed to go a different way. I needed to be able to see that there was a different way. And that’s precisely what I did. I, more-or-less, ran out of the Best Buy and put together a couple of props and drove thirty minutes out to a secluded area in the woods. I finally had a story to tell.
Later that night, I created my first fine art picture and while it wasn’t my best, it is still one that resonates very strongly with me even to this day. In the picture, I’m on a dimly lit path with a post in the ground that has an arrow pointed in the opposite direction I am going. The arrow is saying “turn around, there is stability down this road” but nothing in my life had ever been stable. That path had a clear direction and straightforward answers, my path had ambiguity and uncertainty. And with all the other path had to offer, I still found myself walking into the indefinite darkness only lighting my way with a lantern, a spark, a prospect.
I think about the person I might have been had I been brought up without parents who were addicts, without financial stress, without the sibling that could never be proud of me, without my therapist sexually harassing me, without the mental breakdowns and suicidal thoughts, without my artwork being removed from the annual art exhibit in high-school. I think about how that person might have been had those things been a little different. And I don’t want to know her because that life would not have shaped the person that I am. That is another life in another time, but it is not mine.
My artwork is not solely inspired by the pain I have endured but by the hope that in each picture I create I am getting closer to the other side. My art is an olive branch to my past selves in hopes that one day I will forgive myself for situations that were out of my control, or release grief that I try and hold onto. I had to create a closure that was never given to me and with each picture, the embers turn into a spark, which eventually turns into a flame. Right now I am pressing the rock against the steel in hopes that the sparks will catch to the kindling and start a fire. And if the spark falls out then I will keep trying again and again and again until I can get it right.
In sharing our stories as artists we help others out by showing them that suffering and trauma are not isolated experiences. My art is sometimes inspired by books that I read or quotes that I stumble upon and I felt it was important to share this particular quote with you all: “You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discovered it happened one hundred years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important. Art would not be important if life were not important, and life _is_ important.” ~ James Baldwin.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Shilo Rayne Photography story. Tell us more about the business.
I would say it’s like most photography businesses as in, we’re all here to create art. Plain and simple. We have control over the narrative in the photograph and ask ourselves, “what are we trying to say?” For me, I’m trying to say with my business that you should not limit yourself to what you see right in front of you. My company is not much of a company at the moment but I hope that the same values and mission I have now will translate over when things start to slowly take off.
What do I do? Well, long answer short, I’m a photographer. I create Fine Art pictures but I have also been working with fashion/beauty portraits over the past eight months and can also take headshots as well. If I had a particular element that I was known for, it would be my Fine Art pictures.
I would say that I am most proud of my will to keep going with this craft even though it doesn’t pay the bills. But who am I kidding, if I was doing this for the money I would have quite a long time ago. I wasn’t in this for the money, I did this because I wanted to continue to create art after my art classes in high-school were all said and done, but if I can make a viable income off of it then that’s a perk!
I think one thing that sets me apart from other photographers is my style. I know that sounds cliche but it’s true. My work may have a similar feel to other photographers but it will never look the same and that is something I can be grateful for. Style is one of the most difficult things, in my opinion, to develop when you are starting out as an artist. We spend so much time trying to replicate other artists around us and establish the basic foundations of technique that we often forget how we really want the end result to look like. Typically that’s something that can speak to how we create and not necessarily what we create.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Oh, let’s see. I have a few things in mind over the next decade – that sounds like such a long time from now. I would like to hold more exhibits for my work in galleries. Ideally, I would like to open up my own studio space with my own stylists, make-up artists, studio equipment, etc. That’s a stretch but a possibility. Every dream starts in our mind, right?
I would also love to have the opportunity to shoot editorials for Vogue, Marie Claire, InStyle, and more. It’s been a big deal for me to already have my work published once, so imagine how elated I would be if I could have my work published with a magazine that was established internationally. I don’t beat myself up too much about this because I remember a photographer saying that “just because a picture is published doesn’t make it a good picture, it just means it made it to publication.” So even if my work isn’t getting noticed now, I know that most of what I make is pretty good. And that’s not me being egotistical, it is me being humble.
Lastly, I’d like to hold workshops for people who are trying to get into the business or learning different types of editing techniques. I remember what it was like when I was first starting out editing with Photoshop and it was jarring, and it is easy to feel beaten down from all of the different tools that are at your disposal. But once you do it regularly and play around with all of the different layers and functions there are and see how they create a certain type of effect on a picture, you eventually find out what works for you. So if I had the ability to teach small or large groups of people skills that I am still developing then that would be a dream. It’s important to build others up in this industry because it can be such a toxic place if you’re working with someone who is not looking out for your best interest.
Pricing:
- Fine Art Portraits: Starting at $500
- Fine Art Prints: Starting at $75
- Editorial Work: Starting at $350
- Headshots: Starting at $250
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shiloraynephotography.com/
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: shilo.rayne_photography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rayne.Photography/
- Twitter: Shilo_Rayne
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