A bit about Justin van Emmerik.
It’s a bit daunting displaying photographs that I have taken in a public forum such as this. It’s almost as if I am bearing part of my soul for all to see, but I wanted to share and it looks like the sharing bit of me has won for now.
With a background in Audio Visual, Design and Web Development it’s only natural that I find myself so interested in Photography.
Photography and its complexities or nuances have been part of my life in some shape or form for a very long time, either through study or via other wonderful people that have remained, come or gone. These milestones are the inspiration and encouragement that have fuelled the little work that I have produced on my own or with some help.
On a few occasions, I have looked at the end product and thought, “this is alright!” It’s by no means world-class or professional but merely enough to make an amateur like me feel content or get that sense of accomplishment. Normally my week is filled with the ever-evolving tech landscape but I hope that sharing with someone what I have captured might make a little difference. Maybe even inspire. I merely take photographs because I like to. Not in the hope that it becomes a career although it would be nice.
Many will attest to having a hobby or artistic passion turn to something laborious because the association of creativity and career made sense. Unfortunately for most, working for the machine that has its vision sometimes deprives us of our own. Yet some of us are lucky and never work a day in our lives because we are blessed with a marriage of earning money from what one loves.
Empowerment is in the retention of that drive, that spirit, that will for you to call something for just a moment your own. If that means I must call myself an amateur then I am okay with that. I can capture what I want when I want wherever life takes me, just so long as I have a camera in hand.
My Gear: A Canon SLR, one or two lenses and some other stuff. Some shots on this site have been taken with cameras that have been kindly lent to me but finally got my own.
I also wanted to leave anyone who reads this with a quote on being creative. It’s the hope and the push that things will improve, the creativity will get better, and that one day all of the efforts will be rewarded:
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
Ira Glass