Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Slack.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Joshua. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
It all started when I was born. Seriously! I was raised as a military child until the age of ten. From being born in Maryland to moving to New Jersey to Virginia to finally ending up in Lemoore, California once my mom retired. I have been artistic for as long as I can remember, from drawing, sketching and painting, to singing in church and school choirs, to pursuing acting as my profession, which is how I ended up in Los Angeles. After I had been in my first, middle school production, I knew I wanted to act and direct in film, tv and theater. From then, I joined the Drama Club in High School and went on the major in Theater in college at Fresno State University. Throughout my six years in my undergrad, I performed in multiple productions as well as compete in various theater competitions. I guess you could say, theater really became my bread and butter. I decided to take my training even more seriously and pursue my dreams and went on to audition for the Stella Adler Art of Acting Studio, which I can now say that I have successfully finished my first year! However, while I was in college, at Fresno State, I began to take up a hobby that slowly has become my business: photography.
It started out as me just taking pictures of my friend using our iPhone 4s, she wanted to model and I had spent hours of each day looking at pictures on Tumblr. I would study and admire the art that went into photography without realizing it, which caused my pictures to stand out when it comes to iPhone 4s photography. Shortly I got my first canon camera on my 19th birthday and began taking pictures of my friends throughout college who would then spread the word to the entire campus. I was booked and busy while remaining a full-time student as well as one who performed regularly in college theater productions. I was first just accepting food as payment since being a broke college student that’s really all you care about sometimes. But once I started to take myself seriously, my friends were more than happy to support.
Many friends were heavily involved in pursuing fashion, which led me into doing shoots for fashion shows and clothing lines to the point where publications have started to reach out to me. It also helps in my profession as an actor to really look at things with a photographer/director’s eye while performing or analyzing text and a keen eye for visuals. I never studied photography in a classroom setting, and the only way I really learned was from hands on experience, youtube tutorials, and a mentor of mine, JKP Photography. And since the pandemic has happened, it honestly has been a blessing in disguise, allowing me to really focus on my photography and finally open up my own studio/business that’s no longer just a social media page: J. Slack Images.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Honestly, the biggest obstacle I’ve had and always kind of had is expenses. I realized that cameras as well as their equipment are very costly, and though I was making cool money in college doing photography… let’s be honest that was spent on gas money and food. But I learned to use that to my advantage because what any photographer will tell you, it’s not about the camera, but the one behind it. Although, I will say now that equipment helps a lot! But during those times just having a Canon T5 Rebel and a 50mm lens for five years of, I had to learn how to get really really creative. The other obstacle that I really found was that within any industry, there is racism. Being a black photographer in an area where the majority of the photographers were not black made it so that I wasn’t taken seriously outside of my friends, especially when it came to professional settings such as businesses and events. That barrier of course didn’t stop me from coming out on top in the end. Cause who has an interview about their photography in VoyageLA? This guy!
Please tell us about J. Slack Images.
J. Slack Images is named after myself – Joshua Slack, which comes from a nickname I adopted in high school “J. Slack”. I chose the word image because it means to me it conveys something more than just a picture or photo. There’s a story behind it, you can not only see but feel the personality that comes from it, and it represents something. I wanted to be able to represent those who looked like me, who got their picture taken and someone photoshopped their skin super bright or didn’t know how to make them feel comfortable. So my specialty has always been black people. Though of course, I take photos of all races and ethnicities, majority of my clientele are of those that look like me and that is purposeful. There is such a racist history behind the images that society would have on black people through the use of stereotypes, and my work as a photographer and as an artist in general is to combat that with my art. To show that there is beauty in every moment, from the posed shots to the candid images. And I want to be remembered as one of the ones who left their mark in history in their art. I’m very proud to be consistent in doing so for the past six years. And now, since I’ve opened my studio, I’ve been busier than ever!
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I’m not much of a fan at looking at the past and regretting, but I will say that if I could give my younger self some advice at pursuing his passion, I would tell him not to procrastinate and to focus on his self and his goals and not what other people do. Not to let his big heart for others distract him from the big dreams that he wants to accomplish. To be mindful of the company he keeps. And that remember it’s okay to fail, and God’s got his back. I will say that I had let things get in the way and I would go months without even touching my camera at times, but I needed that to really figure out what it was I wanted to do in life. And I realized I could do literally anything I wanted. So with that hindsight, I see where I stumbled and I keep elevating.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jslackimages.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jslackimages/
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/jdotslack
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/jdotslack/
Image Credit:
All photos are by Joshua Slack (Instagram: @jdotslack & @jslackimages)
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