Photos by Colin Hill
Posi+tive Magazine featured Colin Hill, a young american talent: have a look, the photos are really intresting.
Biography
I’m Colin, an awkward, skinny, 17-year-old from Florida, USA. I sporadically take pictures, I constantly listen to music, and I occasionally wear cool things. I don’t know what I want to do with my life, but I like the way I live. The internet is my hobby, my passion, and my home, and the people I’ve met through it are my family. I love jellyfish.
1) When did you discover that photography was something deep for you?
About year or so after I started pursuing photography as a hobby, I received a comment on flickr that said “this image made me cry.” The fact that something I had created somehow impacted someone else emotionally in such a poignant way…It really made me see that I could make a difference with my camera.
2) Looking at your photos, it is clear how important the sunlight is to you. Can you describe what role it plays in your photos?
The sun interests me. In photographs it can produce brilliant flares, glares, starbursts, bokeh, etc—it can really bring a scene to life. These artifacts aren’t tangible, and for the most part aren’t even visible to the naked eye, yet are capable of being captured, manipulated, and used just like any other element in a photograph’s composition. This possibility makes the sun such an interesting and significant part of my work, to me.
3) What do you think of the ongoing conflict between digital and film camera users?
I don’t think much of it. And besides, my opinion on the matter has no authority whatsoever, I’m just a hobbyist.
4) What’s the best subject for you when you want to take a photo?
I am terrified of humans, but I love taking pictures of them. The way a human body moves, reacts to the cold, breathes, exerts itself, etc. The way sunlight glints off of one’s eye, or how one’s hair flows in the wind, or how water beads up and drips off of skin. The way clothes fit and wrinkle. The way some people are awkward, and the way others are confident, and how their body language will tell you which. I love to capture all of that. I have so many self-portraits because I want to take pictures of people, but I’m too afraid of people to find any models.
5) Do you think that flickr has changed photography by providing young photographers with a convenient way to showcase their works?
Flickr has changed photography irreversibly for the younger generation. I would say that it probably wasn’t as much of an art site when it was first starting out, and I’m sure it had no where near as many hipster kids running around on the streets trying to populate its servers with flying glitter and triangles. These days, there is definitely a lot of incredible art on flickr, but there’s also quite a lot of trash. I can’t tell if flickr is about photography as an art, or if it’s just a place to get attention now. But then I guess most art is about getting attention.
6) You are a very talented young photographer: Are you going to study photography ?
I will not pursue Photography as a major in University. I might take some photography electives, but there is very little money in the kind of pictures I would like to shoot. Photography, though a strong passion of mine, is more of a hobby than a future to me.
