Art & Life with Keith French

Today we’d like to introduce you to Keith French.

Keith, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
At 8 Years old I wanted to be a pilot that was all I read about, and looked for any information about. That continued through college as I went to a solely aviation related school in southern IL called Parks College. It was actually quite renowned for its position in the aviation community. By start of college I was also getting pretty interested in the possibility that I might one day end up in military aircraft so I began to investigate that as well. After much testing, and physicals I ended getting accepted into the Marine Corps being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant after graduating with a B.S. in Aviation Science.

Nearly 8 months later, after completing Marine Corps Leadership School and Infantry training I was off to flight school. It was during my time in Northwestern Florida after I bought a “real camera” I began my second passion, although I didn’t realize that’s what was going on at the time. The jet pipeline is nearly 3 years of schooling so I had plenty of time to practice my new passion as well. I thought once I joined a unit and was on “real” active duty that I would have to put aside my camera. Well quite the opposite. The opportunities were endless, aviation photography, neighbor’s kids, a few corporate photos for friends I met off base. I wasn’t trying to create a business but the opportunities kept coming my way.

With my military days coming to an end I found myself in the executive role in corporate America. Not taking as many photos but still staying in touch, I still had opportunities but I was too busy making other people rich.
Then the crazy decision. I had the opportunity to buy a camera store. I left corporate America and after a year of investigating the retail side of the photography industry, spending a lot of time working in the store, with a studio and a client base, I became the owner. From there I was totally immersed in the industry. Building the studio clientele was a big priority, as well and maintaining the highest quality in photographic printing, while selling and teaching about equipment. That was many good years until the real estate bust of 2009. The store was like a ghost town. Cutting employee hours, not taking a pay check, no customers buying products, the stress was unreal. I had to make a decision. It took me two years, Marines never surrender, but I made the very difficult decision, after reinventing the store a couple of times, it was time to close the store.

Expecting to go back into corporate America, many of my customers were “hunting” me down. Looking for the services I used to do in the back room. That’s where the studio was, and the photo printing lab. Several of my customers were professionals and my store put out magnificent prints. Film or digital it didn’t matter. It was a core quality of the store and many of them hounded me to keep doing it. So I converted my garage into a small studio, and print lab. I also followed the encouragement of a couple of friends and began setting up photography workshops.

That is my business model today. I run a very high quality output photography lab today processing 35mm or 120 film or printing digital images. My lab clients range from novices to professional. I still have my awesome Noritsu Lab that I maintain and repair as it is reaching nearly 3 million prints. I do a lot of photo archiving, or digitizing customer’s photo albums or other precious printed memories. I also restore a lot of damaged photos, which is so rewarding. Many of these images are the only ones of passed loved ones that were found but in terrible shape. The look, the emotions, the joy the restored image brings is priceless. On the photography side, I shoot in house and on location concentrating on images for marketing and advertising. Lots of product, industrial images, executive head shots, and food. I have so many of my photos on Amazon right now for clients, I don’t think I can even begin to count them. I also love architecture shooting. It has a certain challenge but I invested in the right tools and receive great responses from my clients. Whether it’s a realtor or a custom builder.

My experiences have made photographic workshops a real success as well. So local and destination locations all receive their fair share of attendance. As the following grows so does the list of destinations. It is a nice change of pace and I learn a lot as well from my clients during the workshops.

It was 1984 when I purchased my first “real” camera. I have been blessed to shoot all over the world, owned and operated my own camera store, run a commercial photography studio, and still get to travel while teaching photography. I have had several opportunities to present at photography conferences, and local camera clubs. I learned a lot over the last 30 plus years. The passions are still there as I continue to embrace and learn new technologies while still applying the old ways for the best quality product I can produce for my clients.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
All of my art is photographic. It took me a very long time to even come close to thinking of myself as an artist. I mean come on, I’m a Marine, we aren’t artists. LOL!! Well after a few attitude adjustments from outside sources and a serious look at the definition, I humbly and gratefully accepted the title. When I’m shooting for myself, I want to convey a story, or draw up an emotion. I don’t have a single favorite topic but I do seem to stay in a certain interest for a time. Call it a phase if you like. I don’t believe I’ve actually made a conscience decision of what my next phase will be, it just happens. Something catches my interest and I follow up on it and build into it. Although lately, I seem to have a few interests running parallel. I’m really hooked on abandoned buildings, not so much the urban old factory look but old homes, churches, barns, more rural targets of opportunity. So for a few years I’ve been jumping into and out of that genre. Living in the Chicago area of course I love shooting the city. Never a dull moment in Chicago, from street scenes to architecture, airshows to parades, Chicago is a photography mecca. I seem to think that whatever inspires me should inspire others too. So many times I turn one of these inspirational artistic opportunities into a photo workshop and share what I’m learning or have learned. It’s fun to share the passion and see others light up with excitement when they feel a similar interest beginning to ignite inside themselves. I don’t plan a shot, or present my prints with a specific plan or goal for others may take away from it, I to it for me, for what I want to share or convey. Without trying to sound harsh or selfish, I don’t care what others take away from it when they see it. Not because I don’t care about them, or their feelings, because I do. But rather I want to stay faithful to my drive and to my eye as the maker. I don’t want the drive or the influences of others vision to hinder or dilute my inspiration. I want to stay loyal to my vision so when I am done and present my image, it is my image seen the way I wanted it. That being said, I have gone to sites and locations inspired by other’s images. But the beauty about photography is I can tailor that shot to my style or inspiration without copying someone else’s work. It is possible to be inspired by others and put your twist on a great location.

Any advice for aspiring or new artists?
There are so many cliché answers to this question and they are all right. But lately what comes to mind is be faithful to your dream. There are many MANY distractions that will try to bump you off your path. Including self-doubt created by failure and disappointed outcomes. Work through that, never give up and stay faithful to your dream. You will fail, more than once. Failure is a great teacher. It teaches you about yourself, and allows you to see what you are made of. It also builds with in your tenacity for success. Some or our greatest leaders and inventors in our history failed numerous times. Family and friends, shunned them from their inner circles, because they were thought to be careless and unguided because of their different thinking and radical approaches, they were scorned by many. But when they succeeded they were considered pioneers and visionaries. Artists have to develop thick skin because everyone is a critic. Photography is a challenge to break away from the pack because everyone truly is a photographer. In their own mind anyway. You have to decide what you want from your art. Just personal pleasure, something used to decompress from the stresses of life or a livelihood. The latter is very competitive but attainable if you are willing to put in the work, allow yourself to fail a lot and keep learning. The more pain you have invested the more rewarding the achievements are. If you have to take a detour to survive, do it but don’t allow that detour to become permanent. In fact if you can parallel your dream with the detour do it. I mean day jobs and night jobs that feed your passion until your passion feeds you. The rewards for following your passions aren’t always financial but they are still big and they are still rewarding. Eventually they all tie together if you stay the course. There are very few people that step into success with little to no effort and are truly satisfied in what they are doing. Dream big, write it down, remind yourself often, and do not let others convince you that your dream is wrong for you. It’s just wrong for them.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I do routinely put a lot on my website, but that is more for my business than my art. My website is the engine that drives my revenue, whether is photography or printing, archiving or restoring old photos. The website is my beacon for that. My official business name is a real original. Keith French Photography.

www.kfrenchphoto.com

We are blessed these days as artists to have the online exposure that is out there. For me, today anyway, the single biggest outreach I use for recent work is Instagram. From there I share it to my Facebook page and twitter. When I remember I jump into my Flickr account and post there as well as Google plus, if that’s what it’s still called. I have a Fine Art America account but it’s not very time friendly and as a “one man band” I find it too difficult to expedite uploads. I’ll list the sites lower on the page.

Recently I have tried a gallery approach. The first was a fundraiser that the camera club in Elgin held. All the proceeds went to an organization that helps military veterans suffering with PTSD. That went very well. The majority of my prints that sold were of my prairie life images of the old empty buildings still standing in North Dakota, one of my workshop destination locations. The camera club has done this twice now and it looks like it will be a regular annual occurrence in the early summer. Lighthouses were also a big seller as well as some mock portraits of military figures taken during reenactments around the area with a very long lens in a photo journalist style. Lots of very good artists participated. You can find this by following the Elgin area camera club on Facebook.

By the way, Operation Horses and Heroes is the organization, look them up they are doing great work for the men and women who so faithfully served us.

To see my recent works please follow me on Instagram at: KeithFrenchPhoto I try not to go more than two days without a post so follow me there are you see what I’m up to. Sometimes it’s client work, other times it my own art.

Other places to view my work is www.facebook.com/kfrenchphoto

To join me on a workshop visit www.kfrenchphoto.com/workshops

I’m listed on Flickr as Keith French Photography

Googling my business name will also take you to my Google Plus page as well as any one of a few Google rabbit holes. Again that’s Keith French Photography

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kfrenchphotography
• Phone: 847-401-2017
• Email: kfrench@kfrenchphoto.com
• Instagram: keithfrenchphoto
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/kfrenchphoto
• Twitter: @KAFrenchPhoto

Image Credit:
All images by Keith French Photography. A few for fun, most for hire.

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