Daily Inspiration: Meet Bil Brown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bil Brown.

Hi Bil, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My mother carried me three months premature, my grandmother delivered me, didn’t even wait for the paramedics to help my overworked, overridden with responsibility, mother. My sisters and brothers were there. I had five siblings, three are dead now, I was number six. They didn’t know Mother was Pregnant? That the man she had seen earlier in the year, the same one that gave one of my brothers fifty dollars to leave for the night (my mother’s bruises would tell the story in the morning). The same man that delivered the message loud-and-clear when Mom told him she was pregnant. He said, “Didn’t you know I was married?” He wouldn’t even remember my Mom twenty years later, when I used a pay phone to call the man I thought was my dad. She finally told me his name; I looked him up. Not even an acknowledgment that he knew. Just, “That was a long time ago…. Son.”

My grandmother Florence, raised me. She was sure god had delivered me to her in a dream. “Take this boy, Shirley’s son, and raise him for me. I will pay you your wages.” She and my grandfather Clarence, raised me until I was 18 years old, then in succession then died. They were born in 1900 and 1904; this was 1988. Grandpa used to say that we were only promised, “four score and 7.” He lived one more year past at 88. Then I was on my own.

I became an artist, or I found a talent and cultivated it, which means unlike a doctor, lawyer or really any other job — you have to work for the rest of your life. My retirement is my legacy. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wasn’t born rich. My sibling’s father was from a rich family and abandoned my mother. There was no child support enforcement in 1969. I grew up on my grandparents’ social security check. Everything I have done since they died when I was 18 was 100% my own drive.

I’m the only member of my siblings to finish a degree. I started a school in Prague. I founded a magazine. I’ve had gallery shows and published books myself. I have not taken anyone’s word that I could not do it, for any reason. I believe 90% of doing anything is actually trying. The rest is not up to us.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a photographer and writer, what might be referred to as a Lens-Based Artist. Mostly, you can find my work in editorial magazines like FLAUNT here in LA or Purple Fashion Magazine out of Paris, France. I work mostly on stylized documentary work and portraits. I use experimental or often unused processes and do not focus my work on strictly commercial work. I work with clients, for sure. But typically, they want me for the way I shoot, my vision. The way it should be. What sets me apart? Am I you? You can’t be me. That is my operating principle. You are not me.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I could be glib and say that, “every day is a risk as a creative.” But I will be more specific. Every. Day. Is. A. Risk. As. A. Creative. We don’t have the luxury of not working, retiring or even stopping. If the market seems bleak, create your own! You may not be selling your work at Sotheby’s or Christies, or even at a major gallery or on the bookshelves of a major bookseller. So what??! Are you happy? If you are good enough, something will hit. Once it does, you follow that. Then the next thing, then the next. Eventually, you realize that it is ALL YOU. Your vision. You are driving the car. You make this happen, or not. Don’t take anything for granted.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.bilbrown.com
• Instagram: bilbrown
• Twitter: bilbrown

Image Credits
This is very bad by Bil Brown; contact Leica Gallery LA, gallerist Paris Chong for print.