Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Woods.
Hi Justin, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
My name is Justin Woods more commonly known as Sensei. I’m a photographer, videographer, director, graphic designer, animator, and 3D artist. I do a lot now but I started out by simply following my passion. In 2015 my father passed and one of the last things he said to me was to see life. After that, I went out and purchased my first camera to begin my journey as a full-time artist/entrepreneur. I took that camera everywhere with me and created opportunities to shine and make a name for myself as a notable photographer in Detroit. I started off by sneaking into music concerts with my camera pretending to be the official photographer and getting great shots of celebrities from local artists to bigger artists at the time like Lil Uzi, Travis Scott or Lil Yachty. I graduated from Michigan State University in 2020 with a bachelor of arts in Media Information. Being a photographer for 5 years was door opening and pushed me to pursue other creative facets such as graphic design and animation. After just a few weeks of creating and posting my art, I was getting noticed by local musicians that wanted to work with me on cover art and animated music videos. From 2020 to now I have 15+ animations and 750k+ views for my work.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road was never smooth from the jump but that’s what we do where we’re from; Power through adversity. Missing my father in my life at the age of 16 was challenging but it was one of my primary motivators. The fact that he wasn’t here made me go harder for the ones that I can still love today. Gaining respect as an artist from Detroit (specifically photographers) was difficult, to say the least, because we spend a lot more time criticizing our creatives rather than celebrating them. The key to standing out though was consistency, diligence, and the ability to adapt or be innovative.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’d call myself a multifaceted creative because of the different mediums of art I take to but at the moment my specialties are photo manipulation and animation. While I was known for my photography of local music artists from Detroit, I made a hard pivot to graphic design and animated music videos. Some of my most popular music videos are with the Coochie man (YN Jay), Teejayx6, Damedot, and more. I feel like what sets me apart as an all-around creative is that I’m not afraid to try new things or things that seem too far-fetched for reality. As long as I put my mind to it photos, videos, graphics anything I want to do is within my reach.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up I was typically the most social person in the room. I was an only child so what brought me joy was spending time and activity with my friends and peers. I always found people would come to me for help or advice and of course, I’m there for them every time no question. I was the one making sure everyone was having a good time, even above myself. If that goal was met, I was having a blast regardless. I was always into fantasy video games as well as Japanese anime. It seemed to me that was all I had to keep me company in my involuntary isolation so I dove deeper into it and eventually developed the pseudonym “Sensei”.
Pricing:
- Animated Music Videos: $600 for under 2 minutes/ $750+. for over 2 minutes
- Graphic Design: $200 (Add motion +$150
- Photography: $200 + $50/hr
- Videography: $500 for under 2 minutes $650+ for over 2 minutes
Contact Info:
- Email: juswoods98@gmail.com
- Website: https://linktr.ee/DojoProductions
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mr.senseiwoods/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrSenseiwoods
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJCG07RxR-K4eMdZTT3ic8A
- Other: https://dojo-deck.webflow.io/
