Today we’d like to introduce you to Kris Kulah.
Kris, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
Well for starters, I was born and raised here in Palm Beach County, FL. As a child I was always around the arts and my parents encouraged that kind of self-expression. I’m a bit of an artistic soul I’d say. In school I was always into some form of it and somehow some way I grew an affinity to creating. I learned to be in tune with myself more being an only child and often found my imaginative escapisms in ideas and creative influences and influencers growing up. I grew up around a pretty mixed community which I think has helped me embrace diversity and compassion for culture.
Funny enough I was heavily into music before I started into photography. I feel being a self-taught musician and learning what I feel creatively in a sense has helped me and continues to help me understand how to materialize emotions and capture feelings in my way. If you told me as a child I would be involved with photography later on in life I would have called you bluff. However, there is a curiosity I have always been attracted to about the world around me and stories and images that may strike from a conversation, a dream, or just out and about capturing moments that I see.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I consider myself a portrait photographer with a desire of tapping into the genuine emotions of man and woman in hopes of finding things devoid of anything pretentious. Some emotional narrative in its most vulnerable states. That being said, I also capture music, artists, and documentary related themes and stories. Sometimes stories documented of folks that feel their voice may not exist. Other times the feeling of knowing our voice and theirs does exist. I often times materialize ideas inspired from conversations, dreams, or music I hear, fashion and so forth to visualize what I feel throughout portraits. More of these visual conversational pieces than anything in hopes of seeing reflections of myself thru them. My hopes, fears, imagination, vulnerabilities and everything in between. Kind of this social canvas you paint and experiment your perspective of the world on.Whether at times my approach to shooting is minimal or conceptual in nature the ultimate theme is human subject first and their ways of telling their stories.
I would hope for my work to shed light on social issues, humanity, and the comings of age and identity in between. It’s my way of saying how we as a unique group of people and minorities perhaps marginalized actually are and think vs how society sometimes looks upon each other with a one-dimensional lens and never taking the time to… well understand each other.
What would you recommend to an artist new to the city, or to art, in terms of meeting and connecting with other artists and creatives?
It is in fact at times. I know for me having some creative solitude is really being honest with myself and what I look to see in photography I shoot. I think the issue is due to so much social media visual content and the craze of everyone shooting you kind of need those moments away from it all just to refresh your identity as an artist yourself. At the end of the day what I may create is not for everyone but it reaches who it’s supposed to. My advice is trust your process and the people you are supposed to connect to will. Consistency and belief. Even at times a simple comment under someone’s page you would like to collaborate with goes along way. Really just network and get involved with local events and shows somehow some way. There really are no more gatekeepers and who can and will see your work and where your dreams connect. Someone is watching your truth.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
You can certainly follow me and my latest work and collaborations at IG kriskulah_avc or my website thekriskulah.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: thekriskulah.com
- Phone: 5612554966
- Email: kookulahrose@gmail.com
- Instagram: kriskulah_avc
- Facebook: facebook.com/cadillacrose
Image Credit:
Kris Kulah
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