Conversations with Robert Gray

Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Gray

Hi Robert, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I feel like I have had many starts in my life, all leading me to the next new start. Every interaction and every experience can be the start of something if you take that first step. My photo journey started in Egypt in 2008. Although the touristy things were amazing to see, it was really the people that interested me the most. I can honestly say I had no idea what I was doing, but I was fascinated. It was a turning point for me really. I grabbed a Sony point and shoot on the way to the airport, and the most epic adventure ensued.

Years later, I started working on a tableaux series to help me work through my past. On 08/26/17, I showed my masterpiece in an Abandoned Newspaper factory with the help from my friends. Soon after, it was on display in a known local Art gallery and in an International Art Catalogue. This was a major milestone for me. It was personal and it was raw. There is growth when one bares their soul to the public. Even more growth when strangers connect and tell their stories. All of my Tableaux are layered and an experience on opening night.

The Tableaux that I create became a word of mouth and now, I have a team that helps me with the trauma work that I do. This type of art has also led me to teach people resiliency skills. To include Veterans, Universities, and at Resiliency Symposiums. It was all of this that lead me to start Gray Matter Resiliency, which is a nonprofit that helps people work through Trauma and learn resiliency skills where cameras are the tools to accomplish mental freedom.

Holding a camera is a powerful thing. It’s a shield from the public when you don’t want to be in it. Street Photography does that for me. I am often found holding my Ricoh Gr when I am out in public, especially when I am out traveling. Angles, lines, and shadows are my favorite to accompany the story that is unfolding in front of us. I tend to view life in general as a story and I try to capture the day to day to reflect that. There of course is the main character, but I do try to have two supporting characters in every capture. Sometimes it’s people, and sometimes it’s inanimate objects. Either way, there is a story to be told, emotions to feel, and growth to be had.

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?
There have been struggles along the way, but once I really sat with myself, like really listen, like no joke turn my brain off and just listen, everything started flowing smoothly.

Something I learned early on, is to not be in a mindset that you must stay true to the storyboard. It is a rough sketch and directions, but not an absolute. Especially when there are elements outside of your control. Try to be adaptable, if it looks forced, you have lost your story. I also tend to not tell the actor/actresses the story we are shooting until right before the start of the scene to minimize overthinking. The human element is a beautiful thing, and I want to capture the rawness of it.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
For the past five years, I have been developing a program to help people work through traumas and triggers through photography. This originally started as a way to help me work through my past, but through word of mouth, it developed into much more. I now help others by doing the same process that helped me through my nonprofit Gray Matter Resiliency.

I have a team that helps me with the trauma work, and have one on one resiliency sessions, as well as collaborated workshops with other mental health professionals.

All of Gray Matter Resiliency’s programs are funded by donations and grants and are 100% free to the individuals we are helping.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I feel like I was that typical child with a left/right brain that was really just a mix of being a sensitive artist and really analytical at the same time with a vivid imagination. I know, It confused me too.

I grew up in a small country town in Southern Missouri. In the cold months, I spent a lot of my time playing videogames, drawing and bringing in piles of wood for the fireplace and furnace. The warm months I was out having adventures on my bmx dirt bike, mowing lawns and turning broken riding lawnmowers into go-carts.

My personality was very much dependent on my environment. Once I moved to a bigger city after my parents divorced, I really got into music and really just tried to figure out the new dynamics of my new environment. I started playing music in different school bands, trying to finishing Highschool and working on a college degree in Electronics Technology at the same time. That and at the age of 15, I found myself living out of trash bags. I primarily slept on my grandparents couch, but spent many a night couch hoping amongst friends. I was really just in survival mode, but I will never forget the day I met the owner of Community Audio/Video Service. I was just some kid trying to figure out life and he brought my in as intern and later an employee. I knew nothing about repairing consumer electronics, but that didn’t stop him from teaching me. I learned a lot from him and probably wouldn’t be where I am now without him honestly.

Over all, I was much like I am now. I’m just more wiser and way more understanding of society. I am really just a mix of an Engineer that crashed into an Artist all because he forgot to carry the one.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.grayelementsart.com and www.graymatterresiliency.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grayelementsart / https://www.instagram.com/rahbertgray / https://www.instagram.com/graymatterresiliency
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grayelementsart / https://www.facebook.com/graymatterresiliency

Image Credits
Headshot by Brian Tryon