Today we’d like to introduce you to Zack Szott
Hi Zack, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in Canton Michigan and attended Salem High School, part of Plymouth Canton Educational Park. I’ve been creative my entire life; my mom got me involved in piano at 5 years old. Throughout elementary school, I played the piano and in middle-school I picked up playing the saxophone along with drawing and painting. In high school, I turned to new art forms: graphic design, and photography.
After high school I attended Schoolcraft College in Livonia Michigan to continue expanding my creativity and later transferred to College for Creative Studies in Detroit, where I obtained a BFA in advertising art direction and dual minors in photography and product design. After graduating, I got an internship working at Doner Advertising in Southfield Michigan.
A few months after getting the internship, I took a trip to Los Angeles, California to explore more creative options for myself, and eventually moved out there towards the end of 2016. I did mostly freelance design when I was out there along with street photography on the side. After 6 months of on-and-off freelance work, I came to the conclusion that design work was slowly killing my passion and creativity as an artist so I stopped doing design work and changed my focus to street photography.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
When I first started focusing on street photography, it was pretty nerve-wracking for me. There were two barriers I needed to overcome; fear of confrontation for taking someone’s photo out in public without permission, and people giving me strange looks for walking around with a camera. I learned to not care what other people thought of me while being out and eventually overcame the confrontation fear after someone finally confronted me for taking a picture of them as they were eating ice cream.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Getting out to shoot photos has been a challenge in the past several months due to life situations happening, but I’m still people-watching, and observing my surroundings for possible photo opportunities. I’ve also taken a bit of an interest to abstract and landscape photography.
As of now, I work at PROCAM Photo & Video; a camera shop in Southeast Michigan. I manage the new, open-box, and used products on our website and online shops. The thing I’m most proud of doesn’t necessarily pertain to my work; it’s the drive to always look for improvement in myself and not give up on goals.
One phrase i’m known for saying is this: “I think that’s the best I can do… for now.”
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Do what makes you happy and value your time. You can always get more money in some way, but you can’t always get more time.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zjszott/
