Photographer Hunter Armistead’s story is a fascinating one. From the very beginning, self expression through art and creativity was not a luxury for him.
“I am someone who lost his childhood due to severe PTSD. I don’t have a stick of paper, drawing, recording, or any evidence of the artist I came to be as there was none to begin with. I came to art as a senior in college through a jazz dancing course.
The freedom of expression and the fact that I was outside the confines of any expectations or knowledge of my conventional family and peers turned me loose and got me thinking. It was an escape from normalized society which I had no idea how to authentically navigate.
From that point I became a really good club dancer in the disco era. From that I bounced to photography to film school to having my own rock band. I returned to photography after a successful 17 year career as the front man for that band.”
One could say that he sort of stumbled upon photography.
“I sort of fell into it! A testing service when I got out of college recommended Photojournalism as my best choice– even though I’ve never picked up a camera! As soon as I bought one and discovered I had some kind of a knack for it I was happily surprised.
I worked hard on it for about a year and a half but got sick of the dark room and abandoned it for 20 years until I brought my camera with me to Nepal, where I spent the summer in 2000. While I meant to use it to document my stay, the work actually sold extremely well and I realized I could probably make a career out of it.
It still took me around five more years before I began as a photographer in earnest. That was 2006.”
We asked him about what and who inspires him and he simply said: “my main inspiration at the stage in my life are those artists who imbue meaning and purpose in work which provokes and inspires others.
There are a number of artists in Germany, especially Gregor Hildebrandt, Jaro Straub, and Wolfgang Tillmans, whose work fascinates me. So damn smart, clever, deep, and well-executed. I also follow a number of artists on Instagram who continuously raise the bar.
I also am inspired by great poets such as Rilke and Yeats as well as numerous musical geniuses like John Lennon and Bowie.”
His artistic purpose is slightly shifting, he confesses:
“I’m entering a new phase in my life where I want to be more autobiographical and focus less on solely aesthetic images. The idea and context is most important, but of course the execution has to match.
My overriding message will be authenticity and showing things which are uniquely me. Hopefully that will inspire and provoke others.”
