Last Updated on 05/18/2015 by Chris Gampat
All images by Brandon Kidwell. Used with permission.
Brandon is a visual storyteller and a photographer who specializes in double exposure work. In fact, he’s sought after for it. He resides in Jacksonville, Florida and spends time with his kids and wife. His kids are some of the motivation behind his work. His project “Wisdom for my Children” features photos of them inspired by real life events; except that the photos then have special captions that make them even more grandiose.
Brandon talked to us about the project.
Phoblographer: Talk to us about how you got into photography.
Brandon: I’ve always been a very visually stimulated person and a student of human nature. Everything in this world is fascinating to me so since you can’t trap time, photography is the closest thing, it is kind of like souvenirs of life experiences. I always loved photography but didn’t become actively capturing and learning until 3 years ago.
Phoblographer: What got you into double exposures?
Brandon: I love the dynamic storytelling ability of them. You can connect portraits with landscapes and object and create a narrative relatively simply.
Phoblographer: This project is very creative, how did you go about concepting the ideas? Did you story board at any point or time?
Brandon: Thank you very much. It was a very organic project that I didn’t even realize until I put it together to share well after most of the images were captured and created. It happened just as the experiences my children went through, randomly and spread out over the course of a year or so. Looking back I don’t think it would have been the same if it was preconceived. It makes it more special for me and a great surprise that they compliment each other well enough to be a series. It’s like a year in review for me and my kids captured in image.
Phoblographer: Every photographer tries to express themselves creatively in some ways, how do you feel that this project helped you express yourself?
Brandon: It was a successful storytelling device. I added the titles to compliment the image and portray the meaning to me but I think they still came out to be interesting and impactful without the title so that was a surprise to me. It was a natural creative awakening.
Phoblographer: Each image has its own caption; but why would you choose the specific textures and images for each photo?
Brandon: Each one relates specifically and is inspired by real life events that my kids were going through at the time. I generalized the wording to a grander scale but each instance is based on something most parents can relate to.
Phoblographer: How long do you plan on doing the series?
Brandon: Well hopefully forever, I’m sure it will evolve and I’m not sure they will always be double exposures but it will be something that I always try to capture. Monuments of important moments. Memory is a fickle thing if not exercised enough, this helps us remember where we were and where we came from as a family.
Phoblographer: How do you go about getting the inspiration for the scenes and images for the series?
Brandon: I always let it come to me, it’s everywhere if you’re open to it you just have to be patient. If you go looking impatiently for something that’s right in front of you’ll most likely look right past it.
