Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Bilby.
Hi Scott, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I got into photography young, first shooting skateboarding and then working on my high school yearbook. In college, I used my darkroom access to document the punk scene I was part of, photographing bands in our local scene in Columbia, SC including Fugazi, Antioch Arrow, Still Life, Assfactor 4, Premonition, Hoover, Slant 6 and others. I then became interested very early in digital imaging and Photoshop, making composites from scanned slide film while studying digital imaging in graduate school in 1995.
After leaving that program on medical leave, I worked as a systems administrator for an architectural firm, and later co-founded a funded MP3 music startup in San Francisco in 1999. After returning to South Carolina and dealing with substance abuse and recovery, I came back seriously to photography around 2008. My friend Susan Dabney helped me build a strong initial portfolio, and my years of Photoshop and compositing experience allowed me to create the colorful, evocative, constructed imagery that became central to my work.
After a transplant in 2015, I had to relearn how to do photography around some physical limitations. I was also out of practice for a while while taking care of sick family members. So a lot of things have gotten in the way, and now I’m trying to re-energize my career here in Denver.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As hinted at my earlier statement, it has been a very rocky road. I didn’t intend to be a photographer, but I had always done it and I got somewhat obsessed with it around 2008. I saw a photo of my friend and one of my first photo subjects, Rachael Waters, done by a fellow photographer in Wilmington, North Carolina. It was one of the most breathtaking photos I’d ever seen and having been a lifelong fan of advanced artistic,photography from American photo magazine, Harper‘s bizarre. I.D., and especially W magazine, it was even more astounding that it made such an impact on me.
I needed something to sink my teeth into after I got sober in 2004 and I started thinking about something I could do into my old age. I did not correctly estimate this..ha ha. I moved to Boulder, Colorado for a short bit for a failed relationship and tried to do photography there then move back to South Carolina. That’s when I really started in earnest and began to develop my style and portfolio. Along the way my recovery failed, and I found myself needing a transplanted liver, which I received in 2015 after that my entire body and life and outlook were different. I still wanted to do photography but I didn’t have the insanity and obsession that had characterized my earlier outlook and undertakings. After I received my transplant and started to stabilize I tried to do photography and did some here and there, but didn’t reach the same level of output that I have before. I have yet to recapture the golden days, but I am insanely stubborn and I’m still reaching out to develop my artistic plans.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I do what I call Axis Mundi photos. The “center of the world” composition is something I’ve learned about in an art history class with my professor, Brad Collins. I have almost always taking pictures of single individuals in the center of the frame sometimes with very little emotion glaring at the camera and not performing in a way that is to flatter the male viewer. I tend to shoot from a low angle to venerate my subjects and try to be as adoring and reverent as possible when photographing men and women. I am most proud of those moments where I’m able to add my editing skills to the photo session and create something that is beyond ordinary and impossible in real life. My long time goal has been to render impossible magic in reality that was before AI completely consumed the fantastical space in art and now I find myself going in reverse wanting to do tintypes on 4 x 5 cameras.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
It makes me happy when I get something in an image that is extraordinary. When the pieces come together. I don’t act as Director as much as I should, and depend on subjects to bring wardrobe makeup and ideas to shoot so that we can collaborate and make something that is greater than some of its parts. I’ve taken a few photos that I think are perfect and it’s a real burden to try and aspire to that every time, but as I said, I’m stubborn and still do.
Pricing:
- 250$ Portrait Session
- 250$ Band Photography
- 750$ Bridal Portraits
- 1250$ Corporate Day Rate
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.scottbilby.com
- Instagram: @bilbytron
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbilby
- Other: https://www.bilbyvisual.com
