I’m Not A Travel Photographer. I’m An Artist Who Travels.

I didn’t decide one day to pick up a camera or start making art. My mind has always been sparked by creativity and curiosity. As a kid, I tried to find interest in what the others were into…sports, fashion, cooking, movies, games. I kept coming back to art. I loved music, writing, and imagery. I’ve always felt connected to sound and sight. I hear the individual notes in a song. I see color and light and how they can change the way things look. My imagination has always shared stories with me. I’ve never had trouble with creativity, but understanding the kind of artist I actually am, that’s another story.

An Artist Who Travels

For a long time, I had a hard time describing myself as an artist. I worked as a commercial photographer, but people in the art world sometimes look down on that kind of work. They often say you can’t do commercial work and still be a true artist. I never really understood that, and I’ve never liked following those kinds of rules.

I started traveling to take a break from that world. Traveling gave me new ideas and the freedom to show what I see in my own way, without limits. Each place I visited became part of a story I told through my photos. It also helped me use those images in my artwork.

Still, none of the labels felt quite right. Travel photographer didn’t fully describe me, and fine artist felt incomplete. Photographer and mixed media artist were close, but it still didn’t capture the inner drive behind my work. Then I finally realized it, or maybe I just stopped ignoring what I had known all along.

“I’m not a travel photographer. I’m an artist who travels.”

There’s a real difference. A travel photographer goes somewhere to capture the destination. I go somewhere to find the story inside it. The history soaked into the walls of every place that I visit. The things around that have been there for so long that they are overlooked, and nobody thinks to photograph them anymore. And the people who are different from me, their clothes, their culture, all of these things have a story. 

These are all connected to the energy I’m looking for. The overlooked. The layered. The things that are still there if you slow down enough to see them. The stories of those things and how they make me feel. This is my connection to the world, and they define the kind of art I create.

“The story comes first. The art follows.”

Here’s the personal thing that I believe matters most. I don’t separate my photography from my fine art work. I never have. For me, a photograph is the beginning of something, not the finished product. It captures the moment. The light, the feeling, the setting of a place at a specific hour. But the story, I get to begin the narrative. How I handle the lighting, how I frame the subject, the technical aspects, the colors, the arrangement, and the overall composition. And the beauty with a photograph is that it doesn’t end when I click the shutter.

That story, my story, is only the beginning. The goal is that someone connects to the imagery, and it becomes their story, their meaning, their connection. This is the beauty of art and the goal of an artist. We are the link to the connection. We translate our feelings into our work and hope that someone else finds their own meaning within it. Whether it’s a photograph, a drawing, or a song, the beauty is within the beholder. Art starts as a feeling. A moment where I stop and think there’s something here.

That’s the thread that runs through everything I make. The stories, the imagery, they are all part of the same conversation. They’re all trying to answer the same question,

“What’s here that’s worth seeing? And what do I do with it once I’ve seen it?”

What This All Looks Like in Practice

A couple of years ago, I drove part of Route 66, from Arizona to Texas. I traveled on a tour bus with a camera and a few good friends. I went in thinking I was going to take some photographs of a road I’d always been curious about. What I came back with was something harder to explain. As I stood at the Twin Arrows Trading Post in Flagstaff and photographed the one remaining arrow still standing, I realized that these places, these stories need to be remembered. 

I photographed the ruins of Two Guns ghost town in Canyon Diablo, where the old zoo cages are still standing, and the entrance sign still reads Mountain Lions. I stood in the middle of Tucumcari, New Mexico, at dusk, surrounded by neon signs that had been glowing since the 1940s, and I didn’t want to leave.

There was not enough time, and there was so much more to see. I came back with hundreds of photographs. As I began editing the images, I started asking what those photographs were really about. What they were asking to become. I wanted to know more about the history and the stories behind these places.

Some of them have become fine art prints. Some are currently being layered with other forms of artistic expression as mixed media pieces. Some ignited a spark within me to design some fun memorabilia t-shirts. All of them are a part of a larger story I’m still discovering how to tell. That’s how creativity works for me. The travel starts the research. The studio is where it becomes art.

My Plan This Year

Route 66 turns 100 this year. I am hoping to head back to document it. I want to be more intentional and to capture the best remaining highlights before they disappear. Later this year, I’m also hoping to spend a week in Rhode Island and Providence, a place I don’t know well yet, and I’m curious about what I’ll find there. I also hope in the near future to spend some time in my hometown down in Florida.  It’s a place I’ve somehow not considered photographing, even though it’s where my story started.

I’ll be sharing what I find, the photographs, the artwork that comes from them, and the stories
behind what I discover. I’m an artist who travels, and I would love for you to come along with me on this journey. If you want to follow along, head over to my YouTube channel and subscribe or sign up here for updates. Be sure to visit my collections too!

Here are some travel resources if you are looking for something adventurous! And if you’ve been to any of these places and there’s something I absolutely cannot miss, tell me. I’m genuinely curious.