Check out Katie Blankenship’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Blankenship.

Katie, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Ever since I can remember I’ve been taking pictures whether it be with a flip phone, smart phone, or point and shoot. While working in Alaska in June 2017 I was finally able to afford to get the DSLR I had dreamed of and immediately began taking pictures. I took photos of everything because I’ve always been one of those people able to find the beauty in everyone and everything I see. In 3 months, I had taken over 15,000 photos, I improved my skills and knowledge using YouTube and the internet to learn how to take the photos I see every day on Social Media.

Eventually people started asking me on a regular basis how much I charged and I never dreamed of making it anything more than a hobby. I talked to some talented photographer friends I knew and started charging and eventually advertising myself. Photography became more of a passion for me than a side job, it became my release for creativity that I couldn’t find going to school to become a dental assistant. Although I have a different drive and passion for my job, photography gave me the ability to create artistically and work with people I’d never have gotten the luck to meet in the world. While in Alaska working for Golden Wheel Amusements, a local carnival, they hired me on to do photography of all their rides. I took over 400 photos for them of each ride, food stand, game, ticket booth, etc. Then upon returning to my home state of Arizona after the carnival season was over in September, I was hired on by a resort called Rancho De Los Caballeros in Wickenburg, Arizona. I took family and vacation photos for guests from October 2017 – May 2018 during the ranches winter season. I followed families out on horseback rides, jeep tours, and family cookouts to capture special moments for them to remember their vacations. I took a wide variety of different styles of photos which really rounded me in my profession.

After my time with the ranch ended as they closed for the summer I work freelance. I’ve gotten very involved in the creative community doing collaborations with other local photographers and models. Started my own monthly meet up, the first being July 14th 2018 at Tempe Town Lake and Mill Ave in Tempe, Arizona with over 100 creatives attending. The Az Neon Lights Meet Up was centered around getting Arizona creatives together to network, work with each other and have a good time! We started at Tempe Beach Park, mingled for half an hour and took group shots, the split up and rotated with each other working with different models, photographers, and videographers until 8pm. At 8pm we walked to our second nearby location Mill Ave and worked with the vast array of neon signs to take our hand at night photography finishing up around 10pm. It was a night of laughter, hard work, and new friends! The second meet up is unannounced yet but should be held sometime late September with the location yet to be announced.

I’ve found a new community and growing friendship with the large number of talented creatives throughout Arizona. They’ve even inspired me to try the other side of the camera as a model. After one year of being a photographer I’ve added two hired photography jobs, tons of freelance work, hosted an event, accepted into three magazines for publication, and the list keeps growing! Look forward to the new things to come in my second year as being a photographer!

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
People inspire my work; portrait photography is my favorite genre of photography to capture because people have so many unique traits and sides that you can portray. I originally started photographing nature because it was so easy to find beauty in the natural and unflawed but as I began capturing people I found beauty in the flaws and uniqueness that people exhibit. Everyone is similar in so many simplistic ways but we all are so uniquely different in an unimaginable amount of ways. No two people have the same colors and freckles in our eyes or same curl and wave to our hair. To be able to take someone and tell a story with an image is profound and unexplainably beautiful.

Every kind soul I meet it opens a whole new creative world for me to capture. I find inspiration in everything! I can’t go to one location without having a million different shot ideas come to mind. Finding my own style and using other peoples to inspire and curate my own is half the fun! I use Pinterest and Instagram for basic inspiration but everything else comes from my own personal creative style. I really like to look at everything as the Ugly Location Challenge, which is a concept of going to somewhere you wouldn’t normally see as a place to photograph but getting creative to capture things that most people wouldn’t think of. Even in the dreamiest of locations I’m always on the lookout for out of the box ideas! Be your own inspiration and don’t be afraid to try new things!

Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
The world and current events are great ways to find inspiration for your work! So many events create such emotions that I believe as creatives we can feed off to inspire our work! It’s all about perspective in the photography world, weather your focusing on the little things or keeping your eyes on the big picture the world shapes our creativity in interesting ways!.

One way the world inspires my art is I like to look at all the changes that have happened over the years, decades, and centuries! I like to look at an era and use particular elements that defined that time to inspire my work and bring back a nostalgia of that time. Whether its fashion, technology, or cultural norms I use those events and pivotal moments to bring out the specific elements that I think defined the time. For example, when I shoot a 90’s inspired shoot I look into the popular fashion trends, pop culture, and burning issues at the time to inspire my shoot.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can find my work on Instagram @Katie.Blankenship.Photography and don’t forget to like, comment, and share my work! Also, on my new releasing website KatieBlankenshipPhotography.com

Contact Info:

• Website: KatieBlankenshipPhotography.com
• Email: KatieBlankenshipPhotography@gmail.com
• Instagram: @Katie.Blankenship.Photography

Image Credit:
Personal Photo by Alyssa Pakes Instagram: @PakesPhotography_
All other photos taken by Katie Blankenship Instagram: @Katie.Blankenship.Photography.

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