I am John Dykstra, a fine art photographer, and this is definitely my first Steemit post!

johndykstra (53)in #introduceyourself • 7 years ago (edited)

Dear Steemians, this is the young (well, 26-year-old,) artist John S. Dykstra reporting in for duty, hailing from the mitten-shaped state of Michigan. I am here to deliver fascinating photography and (hopefully) innovative ideas on art and art photography to the Steemit community. Creating my photography is my lifework and passion, two words I don’t take lightly but it really is the truth. After quitting photography and selling all my equipment twice, I realize that no matter how I tried, I simply could not extinguish the smoldering light of the medium that kept drawing me back in.

No, I'm not the special effects guru who worked on Star Wars and Spider-Man.. But some of you may have seen some of my photographs online, on Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, you name it! This photograph below is titled, "The Eye".

Today my practice revolves around creating surreal photography without resorting to Photoshop manipulation or digital compositing. My artistic process involves building stages in my home, drawing designs, and using paint and other physical materials to bring my artistic vision to life. I have some strong views on the power of photography as important artistic medium, as well as thoughts on the meaning and the value of art to our society. I seriously cannot wait any longer to begin delivering these ideas to the Internet through the Steemit platform, and to begin contributing to Steemit’s art community.

Why did I choose Steemit?

From the moment I discovered Steemit, I realized what a beautiful platform it is for content creators across the world. See, as an artist and a writer, my whole life revolves around improving my craftsmanship and developing a deeper creative vision. But without a proper outlet to share my work and ideas with a community I feel I can connect with, I feel stifled. Furthermore, the progress I make in this field doesn’t easily translate into revenue.

Just over a year ago, I quit my job to follow my dream of living the artist’s life; not only to make art, but to discover what art is, what the artist’s role in society is, and how art can transform lives. I’ve gathered a lot of wisdom over the past few years of devout study, and I’ve been wanting to write a book about the artist’s purpose for months on end, but the process has been painstakingly slow. A part of my mind kept stressing over how to generate more revenue on the side, as well as how to deliver meaningful, insightful content to the world in the meantime. Print sales and the support of a generous patron who believes in me has helped me to continue my mission, but what I lacked was a community and a platform that genuinely cares about the creator; one that I felt I could wholeheartedly invest my all into.

Then I found Steemit. From the moment I applied for an account, I was sweating with anticipation! To me, Steemit has the potential to become an ideal sort of meritocracy, in that based on the voting of Steemians, power is vested in individuals on the basis of talent and effort. This is a platform that allows artists and writers like myself to shine!

As much as I attempt to create my work to the best of my ability, I was lacking the proper platform to share my work with the world, with the rewards for dedication on other social media platforms being relatively meager. Steemit, on the other hand, is fertile soil for creative, plentiful with opportunity for growth. There is no other word I can use to describe the concept behind Steemit and the fascinating platform that supports it other than ‘fair.'

So I want to begin my time as a Steemian with this message: I am dedicated to bringing you, the Steemit community, the best of my knowledge of fine art photography and the best of my artwork, for as much as you believe in me, I believe in you. All I can say is that I hope what I have to offer Steemit’s art and photography communities is both enriching and exciting, and that I dearly look forward to watching this community grow.

About my relationship with fine art photography:

I was drawn to the arts since childhood, spending my time reading the biographies of artists on the Internet, learning to draw, and roaming Detroit’s art museum. But I never paid much attention to photography until I discovered the work of Michael Kenna, whose photography felt like poetry to my eyes and convinced me that photography could be art.

I received my first camera on my sixteenth birthday, way back in 2007, and it quickly became an integral part of my lifestyle. During high school I would wake up at 11pm to sneak out of my bedroom window, get picked up by friends to drive around and explore our state, and practice long exposure photography while drinking coffee until sunrise. I would take days off of school to travel to Lake Michigan with my father, who helped me attend photography workshops and practice my compositional skills. Photography felt like life to me.

This ended during my late teens and early twenties, while trying to turn photography into a career. What first felt like freedom slowly turned into a cage. I couldn’t put a finger on it, but looking back I realized why. Instead of developing myself as a better photographer, I became sidetracked with seeking attention, applying for grants and contests, and doing whatever I could to sell prints of my work. Unfortunately, I was looking for approval instead of following my vision, and that’s when I burned out. I sold all my equipment.. twice. And this is how I learned about passion.

What does passion mean to me?

See, I don’t think passion is a roaring fire that excites you out of bed each morning, that always keeps you warm when you feel cold, that burns away all doubts and keeps a light upon your path. It’s important to realize that no matter what it is you work for in life, no matter your mission, there will always come a point when it doesn’t always feel good, when you’re no longer sure why you’re doing what you do. When I gave up photography because it ceased to feel good, it turns out that I was just in the process of discovering who I am. Both times I gave it up “for good,” I eventually felt this itch that I could not shake, a smoldering light in the pit of my stomach that I just couldn’t extinguish, and inevitably I returned to practicing the craft.

I finally decided, at the age of 23, when I had the least direction in my life, to take the study and practice of photography seriously - not as a career, but as my passion. I enrolled in a community college program focusing on photographic technology that changed my life.

This was ultimately the right decision for me, for three reasons:

1.) it provided a small community of likeminded individuals, who helped keep me accountable and critiqued my work,

2.) it allowed me to focus completely on developing my portfolio and dedicate myself to the craft,

3.) it forced me outside of my comfort zone through several classes focused on studio photography and portraiture.

The photography program was fully outfitted with six large studios and a ton of lighting equipment, and this is where I fell in love with portraiture and conceptual photography, when in the past I had sworn that I was going to be a landscape photographer.

Unfortunately, because it was only a two-year technical program, it placed very little emphasis on artistic development. I knew that if I wanted to be an artist, and that if I were going to quit my part-time job to focus on my education full-time, I would have to supplement my technical training with artistic training. So outside of class I spent my time reading artist biographies, digging into art history, exploring essays on philosophical and psychological views on art, visiting galleries and making connections with professional artists and directors, picking up a job as a studio assistant for a full-time painter, interviewing artists I admired over email, and lounging around the Detroit Institute of Arts.

During my third semester, I had a class called “Personal Projects,” in which each student was to create a series of photographs about anything they wanted. I decided I wanted to a create a series of fine art photographs that focused on surrealistic environmental portraiture. During 2015, we had been focusing a lot on Photoshop and I learning how to create Photoshop composites, so I was pretty interested in practicing my polished digital manipulation skills. I still remember bringing a composited photograph of myself floating mid-air in front of a waterfall, to which my “Personal Projects,” class instructor told me, “If you’re going to create surrealist photography, try making it believable and avoid Photoshop tropes.” This was the single best piece of advice I received during my entire time in that program, because it challenged me to think differently about photography. It made such an impact on my process as a fine art photographer, that after I had completed that project, I decided from thereon out I would avoid Photoshop manipulation and compositing, and explore everything that was possible through the single, straight photograph alone. Of course, I might have taken a different twist on her advice, because now I create photographs that look Photoshopped, but are completely real!

Somewhere between my third and fourth semester, I found my vision. The following photograph has been the most defining work of my career thus far. It is a single, lightly edited photograph titled, "Penalty Box":

I would love to tell you all about this image, how I created it, and what it means to me, but I think that I will save that story for another day. In the meantime, I would love to hear what you all think of my work. I'm signing off for the night, but feel free to follow me if you want to see more surreal photographs like these. I'm looking forward to sharing new work, discussing old work, and writing my thoughts about art and photography right here on Steemit! :)

A special thanks to @rodent for suggesting Steemit to me.

Social Media:

My Personal Website
My Instagram

Yours truly,
John S. Dykstra

#photography #art #photo #life

7 years ago in #introduceyourself by johndykstra (53)

$32.62

Sort:

Trending

[-]

welcoming (59) 7 years ago

Welcome to steemit John ;) Love the picture "Penalty Box", it's stunning! The people on steemit will definitely love your art and images!
Resteemed you via @welcoming, my page for showcasing promising newcomers!
Greets, @theaustrianguy

$2.63

2 votes

[-]

johndykstra (53) 7 years ago

Thank you, @theaustrianguy!

$0.00

[-]

sulimur (52) 7 years ago

Dear @johndykstra,

Welcome to Steemit. I joined two weeks ago, it is an amazing platform! :-) Looking forward to your photographys.

All the best,
Sulimur

$0.85

2 votes

[-]

johndykstra (53) 7 years ago

Thank you, Sulimur!

I've only been on here 5 days and I'm already having a blast!

$0.00

[-]

swerdan (53) 7 years ago

Sup John, my name is also John and @rodent also got me to sign up for the site. Im also from Michigan... Weird right?

With that being said, welcome and I hope you enjoy you time here. Dont give up on the site like I originally did. Starting out isnt easy and getting upvotes at the start can be hard. However, if you post they will come.

Look in to #contest to see if you can compete in any of them. @photocontests is a good starting place, they have two daily contests for photography. You can learn more about it here.

Another good place is @czechglobalhosts. Tomas holds a contest every day. I suggest checking him out.

If you use discord photocontests has on. You should also check out Peace, Abundance, and Liberty. They are a great grop of people and @aggroed is a great guy. They run @minnowsupport which can help you get starter.

Any questions feel free to ask. :)

Have fun.

$0.71

2 votes

[-]

johndykstra (53) 7 years ago

Awesome advice, thanks John! I don't meet many Johns, as a matter of fact, so it's great to meet one from Michigan on Steemit :D