© Eric O’Connell

Meet Texas-based photographer, Eric O’Connell, who specializes in advertising and corporate photography. Eric works with clients ranging from Oracle, Microsoft, Wired, Ritz Carlton and more. “My work highlights the heroic, the relatable the contrasts and contradictions in our humanness.”

Do you have a favorite podcast? 
Not a favorite per se, but I like several. I generally gravitate towards either a quick, one-off story, or a longer story spread out over several episodes. In no particular order: WTF with Marc Maron, The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling (from The Freepress) – I recently listened to this, and it’s fascinating. Freakonomics, and RadioLab are always interesting. Some photography-related podcasts I have in my feed: Storytelling for Change; The Messy Truth; Dear Art Producer.

What 3 words best describe your photography style? 
Moody, Relatable, Direct (honest)

What inspires you? 
The heroic in the everyday person; subliminal contrasts; the forgotten, or those with no voice.
Lighting inspires me. Crafting with light. Learning.

What’s your favorite thing about being a photographic artist?
I love that the camera, and this career, has been a key to other worlds I would not normally be allowed to see, or experience. I love that I get to learn about so many different people and places. I am also a fan of the collaboration that happens, especially with commercial photography.

When you aren’t making photographs, what other pastimes do you have?
Cycling is probably #1. Mountain biking and road biking and city biking and … all bicycling.
Also, eating well, and cooking. I love cooking. Hiking and camping.

Who have been your biggest influences?
I am continually influenced on a daily basis by those around me, some having nothing to do with photography, per se. Photographic influences seem to crop up when I least expect them. Perhaps I take a photo, and want this or that in the photo, only later discovering a photo in history that had some similar characteristics that, at the time, I hadn’t thought about. Lasting influences seem to be hidden in the subconscious somewhere. I can point to influences in lighting (Albert Watson), ideas (the design group Hipgnosis), structure and craft (Irving Penn), nature and storytelling (Michael Nichols), beauty, stillness, landscape (Michael Kenna), black and white stark printing and use of negative space and wide angle (Bill Brandt).

What was the best piece of advice you were given starting out? 
I was told to take 2 weeks, use some particular gear (whatever I had), and shoot everyone you know. At the end of that time period I had a portfolio that looked like one person’s vision and that is what I took to NY City and got my first jobs.

What are the current challenges that you face as a photographer?
The ever-shifting technological landscape makes it hard to locate where photography fits within. Getting simple jobs––an actor’s headshot, for example––used to be a little “bread and butter.” But, with the democracy of who can take a photo, what people expect to pay is far less––sometimes not even worth it. AI, and any new technologies always present a challenge. How to work with and use them?

What have been some of the highlights and challenges of your career so far?
There are so many highlights, and challenges. As a kid I lusted after hot rod cars; had debates whether driving a funny car, or a dragster would be a better experience (dragsters always won for me). I looked at magazines filled with images of ‘top fuel’ racing. Later, as a photographer, I had the perfect job: Shoot a drag racer for Silhouette Eyewear (who drives a dragster!). That kind of thing has always been a highlight that only photography could bring about.

As a photographer, I’ve had to reconcile what making images in this time means, and how they are translated across media. For example, my 9/11 images, though striking and moving, and coming out of a photojournalism perspective (I have a degree in photo-j), made me question what I was doing as an advertising and (at the time) editorial photographer. That event alone shook my foundations and made me question my role as one who makes photos to sell something to someone. I questioned whether it was worth it or not. Instead, was it better to take photos that talk about how I see the world? Unfortunately, at that time, my view of the world post 9/11 was cynical, and, for example, looking at a polluted waterway (I did a small personal project on Newtown Creek, the most polluted waterway in the United States) wasn’t something that got me work through my normal channels. I didn’t know where to look, or how to find my own relevance in doing something that I was trying to make a political statement with. The challenge for me is finding what I want to say, and finding a way to say it.

That reflection has made me reflect and pursue some other projects––artistic projects––and led me to Germany and Europe to take a look at different cultures with my Cowboys: East Germany project. That project opened up a new world for me. It also made me realize that part of my process of growing and evolving led me to teaching at a university. Sharing my experiences and knowledge to a new generation has been fulfilling.

What were you doing before you became a photographer?
Wondering how to make a living in photography. Haha. I was considering graduate school. I was substitute teaching in a public school system, and then assisting a big-name photographer. I was getting little jobs in photography that wet my appetite, putting me on a path of knowing what I wanted to do. I just didn’t know how to get there. Being an assistant opened up my eyes to the business of photography, and sort of pointed me in a direction.

If you weren’t a Photographer, what would you be doing?
Making images, or art of some sort. It’s hard to say. Perhaps journalism (which now has its own set of problems), or most likely anthropology (cultural) because I like being out and about in the world and looking at how people live, work, play, etc. Some act of discovery in whatever form that is, is what I would be engaged in.

What do you do when you get stuck?
Reach out to my tribe, my friends, my books, new ideas, art… it’s an active process to become unstuck. Take photos, and let my mind go.

What is the best advice for your peers?
People will hire you for your vision and your POV. Believe in it, and stick to it.

What advice would you give to yourself if you could go back 10 years? 20 years?
Save money. Learn about business practices. Set up your photography business like a business. Believe in your vision then, and go for it! (Otherwise, you’ll get lost).

What is a photographer’s role now that technology has made it so much more accessible to the masses? 
Technology frames the urgency to produce imagery that creates genuine human emotion, instead of something that you prompt into place.

Check out more work from Eric O’Connell.