Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Riddle.
Andrew, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I don’t think my story is that unique, it’s just mine. I can’t think of any moment where I said, I’m an artist from now on and forever.
From ages, 7 to 18 baseball and video games were my life. I don’t even recall owning a proper camera until I was 18. I had disposables beforehand but never any camera that I would be upset about breaking. Anyway, the first camera I “worried” about was the one my dad bought in my senior year of high school. It was a Sony Handycam. When he wasn’t using it for recording my baseball games, I would just carry it around and record my friends goofing around being teenagers.
After high school, I took that camera down to college with me and perhaps that’s when I started thinking more about actually doing something more with it. I teamed up with my buddy Jonny, and we made some video shorts together. All top quality I assure you.
During that first year of college, I thought I should take some “proper” filmmaking classes so I made plans to enroll in some summer classes at Academy of Art in San Francisco. Then I saw how much that was going to cost, so I said, forget that, I’ll just take a class at the local camera shop. So my dad let me borrow his old Olympus SLR and I learned proper film photography the first time in my life. Good ol’ slide film, too. I don’t remember many details about that class but it was taught by a man named Tom Cruz. Thanks, Tom.
Anyway, so that was nearly 18 years ago, and I’ve read more books and taken more classes since then. But regardless of what I’m doing with a camera I still go through ups and downs of what to do with one.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
All I’m doing right now is technically working a camera to do what it can. Take pictures. Record video. Document. Perhaps I’m more of a documentarian than an artist right now. I just feel like I need to be doing something more. That’s more what I struggle with. Challenging something. I feel like I’m just sharing pictures some people think are nice. But they aren’t challenging. I’m not questioning things after looking at my pictures. At times I may push myself to share projects that are unexpected but it feels like those are far and few between. Maybe I’m just taking the easy way out these days. That’s my struggle. Right now I use a camera to share an image with a relatively straight forward emotion. I’d like to use a camera to share an idea. That’s what I need to work on more.
What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
I suppose it just depends on what someone wants to do with their tools. As I said earlier, this is what I struggle with, picking a side, so to speak. Some art is easier to create than others. Some is more personal than others. It’s just a matter of what one wants to share. In some ways, I fear that the internet and social media may be even makes it harder psychologically to share something that is important to you. Something you care about out there for others to pick apart whenever they want. But that’s the fear speaking and probably no one really cares about your art as much as you think they do. In terms of world events, I’d say that anyone who has an opinion can share it. It doesn’t take being an artist to validate anything anyone has to say.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I can be found online at andrewriddle.com. That’s probably the place I’ll keep for the rest of my life. But of course, I have my social media accounts. Instagram is the one that I’ll post to most frequently (though not that frequent): https://www.instagram.com/andrew_riddle_.
I also still work on projects with my buddy from college, Jonny. We have our production company Flying Boy Films. You can find our shorts and documentaries there too, https://www.flyingboyfilms.com/ and our Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/flyingboyfilms/.
In terms of supporting my work, it’s just a matter of discussion and seeing if anyone wants to work on a project together. Feel free to reach out and send me an email: [email protected].
Contact Info:
- Website: andrewriddle.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew_riddle_
- Other: https://www.flyingboyfilms.com
Image Credit:
Andrew Riddle
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