Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyi Reddick.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Wow this is a lot of empty space to fill. Well I am a Colorado transplant (been here 30+ years). I’m also a military kid so Colorado Springs was home when we moved here in 1992. Before that I grew up in Hawaii which was not as terrible as it sounds. Moving to Colorado was an experience because it was one different than all the other places we had moved to during my dads military career. I didn’t get a long with a lot of people in middle school and I kept to myself. I think everyone always saw me as shy and reserved so I just stayed in my lane. I got decent grades and did what I was told. I still remember when Power Rangers came out in the early 90s and I would race home from school to watch it at my neighbors house with him because my mom had a block on the tv so we couldn’t watch anything inappropriate – inappropriate was Mtv, VH1, and BET. Sigh. Fortunately I had a little brother who was a genius and he figured out the codes to unlock the parental locks.
High school was drastically different. It was when I figured out I was gay. And its also when I figured out I was not like the other kids especially in the 90s. Lets just say high school was hard.
I turned to drugs in my early 20s and it was all down hill. I’ll spare you the details but I became someone I didnt’ recognize over the next 17 years until I finally said I need help.
February 26,2018 I went to treatment for the first and only time and it stuck. I have been sober for 8+ years now. In that journey of recovery I was handed a camera as something else to do with my hands. I fell in love.
I started chasing fire trucks around the city of Denver and would get some cool snaps. My inner 5 year old was in heaven. Eventually I would be contacted by people high up in the fire department to share my photos. That exchange ended up giving me 1100 brothers and sisters as well, a relationship that I hold near and dear to my heart.
Then came Denver Pride. In 2021 I was approached to lead the Denver Pride photography team. No experience just someones suggestion that I try it out. I have had the honor of being invited back year after year to lead the team and we have grown in both skillset and size over the years.
Then there’s my day job because I am not a full time creative. I am a clinical case manager for a medical detox facility and I’m pretty damn good at what I do. I oversee a facility of 16 people that are all in early stages of withdrawals and recovery and I help them figure out what their next steps are going to look like. Its a pretty important role I hold all while maintaining my own recovery.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Addiction creeped into life way before I ever picked up a drug but it was around the time I started using that I started picking up charges left and right. I destroyed an 11 year relationship with an incredible human being. I walked away from owning a massive stake in a restaurant that I worked for. I ended up being sexually assaulted both before and during my active addiction.
Earlier than that I had immediate family that struggled to accept me in my entirety. I had a mother who could only see what I was doing to the family by living my “lifestyle.” I had a father who just wanted to keep the peace so he would tend to agree with my mom. I had a brother who wanted my parents to accept me and I didn’t know how to be myself.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
ITs so weird to talk in depth about myself. I have a lot of parts that make up who I am. I’m in the recovery space. I treat my recovery like its a lifeline. I respect the anonymity of most spaces in the recovery realm but I prefer to live my recovery out loud. I am not shy about sharing my recovery with others.
I am also a photographer – if I didn’t already mention that. 😅 I picked up a camera early on in my recovery – a gift from my mother- and it was the best thing to ever happen to me. I saw the world in a way that was unique to me and I didn’t have to share it with anyone that I didn’t want to. The quiet introverted kid had found something that allowed him to experience the world without having to get too close.
Because of my camera – I’ve upgraded quite a bit in the last 8 years- I have had some amazing opportunities like traveling to photograph weddings, going behind the lines at fires across the Denver and Boulder area, leading and photographing with Denver Pride team and meeting Pattie Gonia and photographing her several times. *swooning over here*.
I can tell you what I have done in my life but sometimes its hard to tell people how I feel but when it comes to photography and the relationships I have because of it, that brings up something deep within me that I can not even put into words.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Riding in the car with my dad across the country late at night going to Florida or Texas I believe and watching him fly over an armadillo doing at least 80 miles per hour while Aretha Franklin was playing on the stereo. Listening to Steve Winwood on other days but riding in the car with my dad was probably my favorite memory.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tyis_eyes/
- Other: https://tyireddickphoto.studio.cloudspot.io/scheduling
