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A FASCINATING JOURNEY INTO THE CREATIVE WORLD OF JOEL ROBISON
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Joel Robison is a famous fine art photographer from Canada who creates amazing images where the real world takes on unusual properties. The influence of the author’s inner world is clearly traced in his works. It makes them absolutely unique and highly recognizable. Joel has a great reputation in the world of photography and he has instructed over 900 students in 10 countries in the last 8 years.
His work has been used world wide by clients such as Coca-Cola, FIFA, Yahoo, Adobe, Oprah Magazine, Mariott, ArcAngel, Trevillion, PhotoNews Canada, and many more.
During 2013/2014 he worked exclusively with Coca-Cola and FIFA as the lead photographer and voice of social media on the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola where he travelled and photographed more than 80 countries over a 9 month period.
I certainly agree that events in our lives really do shape our creative outputs and certainly my own life experiences have impacted me and my work. I think if I had to choose 5 I would choose:
– Attending my first Photography Meetup – I got started in the pre-instagram days and Flickr was where many photographers started to share their work. Through Flickr I was able to meet friends from across the globe and in 2011 a large group of us decided to meet for the first time and have a photography meetup of our own. That experience truly marked a new direction for me, it gave me a lot of confidence and a sense of community with other artists.
– Being Stuck in a Bad Relationship – It sounds bleak but being in a really unhealthy relationship was incredibly pivotal in my work. I needed an escape and photography was exactly that. I spent hours each day outside by myself taking photos that allowed me to live in a more peaceful or whimsical place than I was in at the time. This need for an escape was truly a way for me to develop a personal and connected theme of images.
– Moving To UK – In 2014 I moved to the UK on my own without knowing anyone there. It was a huge step and a big test of my own comfort zone but it really opened up my creativity. I met a lot of fellow creatives while living there and I was able to pursue art full-time for the first time. This experience of being in a new place really pushed me as I had to search for new locations, new opportunities, and new friends.
– Mental Health Struggles – In 2015-2017 I experienced a lot of personal life events that really impacted my mental health. I was impacted by suicide in my family and friends and it really changed the direction of my work for a while, because I needed to find a healthy way of processing all the emotions I was feeling. This really opened my eyes to how art can be used as a way to heal and express the most difficult of emotions.
– Teaching – Over the past 6 or 7 years I’ve been teaching workshops and classes around the world and this opportunity to teach other people has given me a lot of insight onto why I create and how I can help other people find the freedom to create their own stories. It’s given me a lot more of an opportunity to reflect.
As of right now, the situation hasn’t been resolved. There is, unfortunately, a big divide within the art community and it will take time for the legal side of things to work itself out. I think it will take even longer for the ethics to be defined. Just because something is allowed or accessible doesn’t always mean it’s ethical. I truly don’t believe AI will replace creativity, in my opinion AI Art is an output that someone agrees with, it’s not a creation that exists because of emotion, or imagination, or desire to share a message. I view AI as an image, but not necessarily art.
This image has always been one of my favourites. I created it almost 10 years ago and for me it marks a definitive moment in my life. I took this photo right before I set off on a world tour where I was hired as a photographer. I was gone for 9 months and visited over 80 countries and during that time my entire life changed and this image always speaks to me of that moment just before everything changed. I remember creating it, it was a very calm evening and I was just alone with my thoughts and it felt like a dance creating it. Everything just worked exactly as I needed and it just fell together perfectly for me.
I created these cards during the pandemic. One of the questions I get asked the most is how I come up with ideas and the second question I get asked is what do I do when I get creatively blocked. These cards were my way of creating a tool that could help with both of those things. I often find that I create better work when I have a little bit of a constraint, a theme to create inside of. I designed these cards to provide that small amount of direction. They’re a helpful resource giving someone an opportunity to build a prompt that includes an item, a location, and an emotion and to create as story from the results. I started using the cards myself in 2021 and I’ve been using them almost weekly since, without fail they help me to find a new image to make.
I think for me the way forward is to challenge myself to learn new skills and to work on projects that are just outside of my comfort zone. Over the last few years I’ve taken on client projects that are largely within my skillset but often contain one or two things that I have to push myself to meet. This helps keep me learning and progressing and also thinking of new ways to share my work.
For me, I think a professional victory was last year having 3 different solo exhibitions. I was able to show my work in my hometown for a 4 month show. I had a month long exhibition inside Blenheim Palace in the UK and then had a weekend show in Vancouver. It was really reaffirming to me to be able to see my work printed, and sold.
Photography and mental health have always been hand in hand for me throughout my career. I think that there is something truly therapeutic about taking emotions and thoughts and creating something from them. It allows us time to process them, to name them, to face them and to put all that energy into something that exists outside of our minds and I think that can be incredibly healing. There are so many ways that art can help us process things, and I really encourage anyone that is struggling with their mental health or having a hard time processing things, to try and show what it looks like. Draw or paint or photograph what it looks like for you and it can be really freeing and helpful.
I’ve always loved reading and I’ve found it be a great way to get lost in a new world for a short time. For as long as I can remember I’ve always loved Alice In Wonderland simply because it blends reality with whimsy and surrealism in a really original and creative way. I also really enjoy the work of TJ Klune, especially The House in the Cerulean Sea.
It’s a book that again blends magic and reality with heart and a message of hope. Books influence me because they’re like portals of magic, they’re simple objects but they contain entire universes inside them and I find that endlessly inspiring. I use the imagery of books often because I think of myself as a story teller, a visual one telling stories that could exist inside the pages of the books I use.
I love wandering and I love being outside (often by myself) so a lot of my locations are found just from me walking or cycling and finding an interesting spot. I’m always looking for good fields with nice clean lines, I like neutral locations that don’t have a lot of busy backgrounds so that I can make them feel like they could be located anywhere. But I also like using interesting one of a kind spots too, like castle ruins or old buildings to use a backdrop. I feel like it’s my way of adding to the lengthy history of stories told in those spots.
Don’t ever feel like your story isn’t worth telling. Our community is richer because of all the diverse voices that sing, dance, paint, act, sculpt, photograph, and share what the world looks like to them. You’re the only you we have, and we need you.
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