The Mobelux Photo Night
I listed “having conversations in loud places” in my resume under Hobbies when I applied for my job at Mobelux.
It’s very seriously one of my favorite things to do. In that situation, two people are forced to be completely present and focus on the story at hand. Even though you might have to yell over the table or repeat yourself over and over, if it really matters to you, you’ll put in the work to tell your story.
Storytelling and photography are two things I’m very interested in exploring, and I’m thankful to be a part of hosting a Mobelux event that brings them together.
Mobelux has an incredible space at our disposal. Saunders Station is a renovated federal post office building built in 1937 and located in Richmond’s historic Fan District. When we moved in, a spark ran through our company culture, and we knew we had to use the space to bring people from our community together whenever possible.
Once a month, the Mobelux production team invites two photographers to come share a story about some of their work. Tickets are available for free to the public, and we’re so grateful to the people who have come out so far.
The event is simple enough:
- 30 minutes of hanging out and networking
- Presentations from two photographers on a selection of their own work
- Q&A at the end of each presentation
- 30 minutes of more networking to talk about the presentations
Part of the wonder of walking through a museum is trying to understand the mindset of the artists who create the pieces — discovering how they see what they create. Photo Night is an opportunity to hear about that mindset, and have a conversation with an artist face to face.
At our second photography night for July ’17, we invited Casey Templeton, an award-winning commercial photographer, and Will Godwin, senior designer at the Martin Agency, to join us and present their work.
We asked them to talk about whatever work they were most interested in — it didn’t have to be their biggest project or most well-known photograph. Photo Night is all about the passion and the story behind the work more than the work itself.
Casey presented a series of pigeon racing photographs he took while interning at National Geographic. He has a huge portfolio full of commercial and corporate work, and it was pretty amazing to hear him talk about work he did before all the success came his way.
Will was up next. He has an eclectic portfolio largely created while establishing the art direction at Need Supply Co. but presented polaroids and 35mms of his friends and family. He sees photography not only as a profession, but as a way to document his relationships and express love.
For Casey, photography is serious work. He’ll talk about the business side of photography with anyone. His photos are finely tuned and always keep the client’s wants and needs at the forefront. Will spoke about photography as an intimate expression. If we hadn’t asked him to, Will might have never shown these photos to anyone outside his friends and family. They were presented as they were shot — simply and purely. When asked about the intent behind each photo, Will rarely said more than, “that was a fun day” or “he had a good smile”.
These differences are part of what makes Photo Night such a dynamic event, and it’s part of why it’s become so important to us.
We realized how truly valuable it can be to bring two artists with complementary styles together to support and learn from each other. It made for a dynamic, engaging event for the audience, and we decided to intentionally choose photographers with contrasting styles moving forward.
Starting with Will and Casey’s night, we have found ourselves in the company of two gifted photographers every month from then on. Each one bringing their own unique language, and letting the audience discover their similarities.
I want to take a second and say how grateful I am to everyone who’s attended the events so far. They’ve given Photo Night a life and an energy beyond what we could’ve hoped for. They’ve turned the Q&A portion into a stimulating, inspiring conversation that speaks to the event’s central idea — that the message behind the art is just as (if not more) interesting and worth talking about as the how-to’s and the commercial successes.
We hope this exchange of ideas between audience and photographer creates growth in our community and changes how people look at photographs or even take their own.
I loved seeing a side of these established photographers that they don’t normally show, and I definitely walked away feeling inspired.
I see it all as a chain reaction.
The food photographer inspires the meticulous side of the fine art photographer > who makes the architectural photographer think differently > who inspires the editorial photographer to work with more lines > who inspires the documentarian to compose in a more ornate way > who inspires the studio photographer to carry their camera around with them more often.
I hope you can join us at the next Photo Night.
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