Today we’d like to introduce you to Tonny K
Hi Tonny, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I thought working 40 hours a week and getting a degree was what I had to do if I wanted to become successful. I had accepted that it would not bring me the sense of fulfillment that I had longed for and that there was a chance that I would fail. I did not go to college and I did not escape my home town– not right away. A life that required me to surrender creativity hurt my stomach. I saw art when light hit in just the right spot and I found poetry in people. How could I abandon something that called to me everywhere? I found my love of photography in the reflections of the creek that runs through my parents’ property. My love of photography found me in the darkened room of a small venue in the cities. I would make the trek to the cities on work nights, tired and desperately chasing the adrenaline rush of a moment– a memory that I could still. I would sleep in my car on weekends, edit in coffee shops on early mornings, always heading home longing for more. I found that my art thrived in the Twin Cities and so did I. I decided that my art was worth the risk, so I packed my car for the final time and moved all of my things in pursuit of the life that I deemed worthy to chase.
I was fifteen the first time I picked up a camera, I knew that I wanted a life behind it. I spent my adolescence hiding the view from my lens, because I did not think myself good enough, but art isn’t perfect, that is why I fell in love with it in the first place.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
This has been one of the bumpiest roads I’ve been on and I grew up on a long gravel road in the country. Finding creatives that share similar minds in a small town are not easy to find. When I started to travel and find my people, I became a lot more confident in myself and the way that I present my art. I have had to remind myself frequently that everyone starts somewhere and that art is not to be compared.
The inconsistency of starting out was intimidating at first, learning to adjust to good and bad months has taken some time. I look at both the negatives and the positives as growing experiences, I am always learning and I am creating something in the process.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am the Creative Photographer behind Poet Captured. I capture artists and their art, in every form- whatever that may look like. I capture Portraits, Couples, Events, Boudoir & anything you could ask for. My goal is to bring ideas to life, capture memories and moments, create a safe space for artists and expand art where it is not always present.
I am the most proud of my growth as a photographer, it has prompted me to express myself harder, do things I never thought I was capable of and it has given me the opportunity to create safe spaces while creating beautiful art for amazing artists.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Turning an idea or a vision into something perceivable to the world makes me happy, because I don’t just get to create, I get to grow with other creatives to create something new and unique. The support from people who believe in me and create along side me fills my heart in a way I didn’t know possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: Coming Soon!
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poet.captured/
