Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcus Benton.
Hi Marcus, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Photography has held me down a lot. When I felt like I couldn’t talk to anybody when I felt like nobody would understand when I felt the fear of being judged when I felt uncertainty. I got to create and tell my own stories through self-portraits.
Some told stories, some just existed. That came with making locations, settings, and tones my own. Showing the world how I see it, highlighting what I find beautiful, painful, and everything in between, that road started at 15, I and one of the homies would have photo edit competitions. Editing came with me taking my own photos, and that led to 12 years and running of the career I’m still building.
From shooting off of my iPhone 4 that I bought interchangeable lenses for & my Nikon L110 in high school. To my Canon t5i that I used in my early twenties, to the Canon 5D Mark 1 in my mid-twenties. To currently shooting Fujifilm. It was a lot of sleepless nights, those looking for a reason nights.
When I say looking for a reason, I mean looking for the reasons why I was doing photography. Some moments you have to reevaluate those reasons and feelings, sometimes you have to walk away for a moment to become inspired again. You grow as a person, you have to live life in order to create. Through all that I’ve been through, my style of shooting changed. Adding “This” here, and taking that “There”. The essence and intention will forever remain pure, but the aesthetics change.
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?
It hasn’t been a smooth road, but it’s the road I chose for myself. Balancing family, friendships, love life, business, passion, pain, my mental & physical health, and last but not least, the feeling photography gives me. It can get hectic at times, and often some people won’t understand it.
It’s not about making sense to the world. It’s about it making sense to you and others alike navigating through it all.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a photographer, I specialize in storytelling and that’s what I’m known for. I’m most proud of the three books dropped “The Coffee Table Book” Vol: 1 & 2, as well as “2417 -a”. They all hold different weights to me, The Coffee Table Book 1 & 2 are compilations of portraits. Ranging from location-based concept photoshoots to street and environmental portraits.
Then you have “2417 -a”, which was more of an introduction to my roots in photography, even though I’m known as a portrait photographer now, that wasn’t how I started. I shot things that caught my eye, architecture, graffiti, storefronts, corner stores, city landmarks, and the culture around it. Now, I’m rewriting the culture around the city, and I and my friends are a part of it for the next generation and so on.
I’m also proud of the crowd I keep around me, I’ve known most of these people for years. Since middle school, and some for a few adult years. Those bonds are genuine and exist outside of us being artists. Sometimes, friendships get hard but they’ve stuck with me through every phase good, bad, ugly, uncomfortable, secure, insecure, and that weird awkward phase we go through of “just existing”. They work just as hard as me if not harder at times, our motivation comes from self and from one another.
It’s deeper than us creating. That also makes the creating process the best, the level of comfortability can be low because you’re exposing your life, new parts that we may not have been so interactive in due to us just being adults and dealing with life. It keeps it new, relearning your friends, keeping it fresh and healthy through it all.
Contact Info:
- Email: marcusbentonphotography@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neverthemstudios
Image Credits
Terry Suave and Never Them Studios
