SPOTLIGHT: Carla Dyck Photography

This week’s spot­light artist is one of my pho­tog­ra­phy idol’s. Carla is the owner/artist behind the incred­i­ble pho­tog­ra­phy you see here today. She has a keen eye for com­po­si­tion and unique sub­ject mat­ter. Carla was kind enough to give us the 411 on her­self & her work so here we go!

Image Cred­its: Carla Dyck

1. What are your favorite kinds of projects to work on?
I love to have a large block of time to head out to do a photo shoot. Because I work largely as a fine art pho­tog­ra­pher, my shoots’ sources can be inspi­ra­tion rather than being com­mis­sioned. To head out with a gen­eral idea of what I’d like to cap­ture stirs the excite­ment in me and kick-starts the cre­ative flow. Inter­est­ingly, once I am on site, I find that my shoot often ends up being some­thing entirely dif­fer­ent than orig­i­nally intended. It is as though my sub­ject finds me once my cre­ativ­ity and inspi­ra­tion is at its height.

2. What advice do you have for aspir­ing artists?
Keep going and be true to what inspires you. At times I can get dis­cour­aged. The world of art, though artis­ti­cally and emo­tion­ally reward­ing, is a tough mar­ket. It seems when I am ready to throw in the towel, some­thing hap­pens to encour­age me and I keep going. It is the act of keep­ing on through thick and thin that affords me growth as an artist and in my per­sonal life as well. The jour­ney is reward­ing, not because of the goal achieved, but rather the process of reach­ing for the goal. Being true to what inspires you is impor­tant. At times I dab­ble in trends but this is not always the kind of pho­tog­ra­phy that is true to me. Some­thing is lack­ing in these images; I think it is pas­sion — that which makes my work unique to me.

Image Cred­its: Carla Dyck

3.What is your favorite mem­ory from child­hood?
One of my favorite mem­o­ries from child­hood has to do with Christ­mas. My mom strug­gled with men­tal ill­ness from the time that I was born to this day, though now she is pretty sta­ble and has found ways to live her life well along­side her ill­ness. When I was lit­tle, she was quite ill but one year, she and my dad took time to hand­craft Holly Hob­bie dolls for my sis­ters and I as Christ­mas gifts. They would spend evenings, pre­sum­ably after we had gone to bed, stitch­ing and stuff­ing these dolls. It was really quite incred­i­ble that they were suc­cess­ful in keep­ing this a secret from us until Christ­mas morn­ing as we lived in an apart­ment and there was very lit­tle we as kids didn’t explore in that place. That my mom (and dad) used her moments of well­ness and clar­ity to make trea­sured dolls for each of us girls is such a ten­der and lov­ing mem­ory for me.

4. What are you doing when you’re not cre­at­ing?
I am a wife and mother of two adult chil­dren. I help my hus­band out by doing the books for his busi­ness and I take care of any­thing that needs tak­ing care of in the home. I am a woman of faith and firmly believe that my cre­ativ­ity comes from my Cre­ator, God. Spend­ing time nur­tur­ing my faith is what fuels me and anchors me, both.

5. What couldn’t you do with­out?
My faith.

Image Cred­its: Carla Dyck

Thank you so much to Carla for tak­ing the time to share with us today. To see more of Carla’s gor­geous work — VISIT HER SHOP! To learn more about her work — VISIT HER BLOG!

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