Cameron Reed is a 19-year-old photographer from Houston, Texas, who has recently gained recognition for his high fashion photography. His work has been recognized by celebrities like Solange Knowles and esteemed publications like Vogue Italia, Vogue Arabia, and The Houston Chronicles. Cameron’s peculiar angles and avant-garde style has led to impressive social media growth while on his journey to becoming one of the best editorial fashion photographers.
Sheesh Magazine chatted with Cameron Reed about his introduction into photography, his distinct style, issues in the industry, and more.
Q: How did you get your start in photography?
Cameron Reed: I was a football player in high school, and I had originally thought that I wanted to be an actor so I picked up a camera to be a part of the behind the scenes action in filmmaking. Originally it was nothing serious, just messing around, but over time I felt a strong connection with taking photos of people in nice clothing because I love dressing up and styling outfits. That’s pretty much how I made my switch to fashion photography in 2018.
Q: How would you describe your photography style?
Cameron Reed: I shoot editorial photos and whatever I do I try and get the best look possible editorially and fashionably. Honestly I don’t really like to describe it, I feel as though others do it for me fairly often. I’ve gotten a lot of different adjectives and styles but I just have to put it out there, it’s NOT The Matrix! Everytime I shoot a trench coat in Texas people think this is the freakin Matrix! I swear people think it gives off Matrix vibes but I have never seen anyone in The Matrix wear a tan trench coat, I don’t even like the movies that much. I haven’t even seen them all.
Q: You seem to have a core group of creatives that you are consistently creating content with, can you tell me more about how this group came about?
Cameron Reed: We met so unorthodoxically honestly. Basically my girl and I had two different groups of friends at the time. We were not officially dating but we had been out, so we had the idea to make this creative group, and I’m being respectful and everything. I wasn’t sure if this was like a test so her friends could feel me out. We all started to talk and work together and we built a connection from there so it was really just bringing two worlds together where we all have a common interest in fashion and photography.
Q: How much of your creative ability do you feel is intrinsic and how much of it do you feel you learned along the way?
Cameron Reed: I feel like I had always had a vision in me, I just had to take it out to Houston. In Houston no one was doing the angles and jumping like I did at the time, so I had this vision and then educated myself on how to produce it. Technically I feel like everything has been learned by knowing my equipment, but the vision was always innate. I feel like no matter where I am in life it will always be crucial to continue to learn and grow, I’ll never be above any of that.
Q: What equipment is a must-have for you no matter what you are shooting or where you are working?
Cameron Reed: I need to have my camera of course, it’s like a glock. It’s always on me except it shoots moments instead of bullets—I absolutely have to have that. Then I need to have my Coach bookbag and my fisheye lens. These are both really important to me to have, I feel like I can’t work without them. As well as my main model Mike! He’s always there and always ready to shoot, plus he’s really talented in general.
Q: What kind of tools do you use for post-processing?
Cameron Reed: I just use Photoshop. I’m not sure why people talk so badly about Photoshop, it’s really all I use. A lot of times the baseline settings that Photoshop provides are fire, it hits differently. I feel like editing can really change your entire photography style, it can even really ruin a photo if you go crazy with the saturation.
Q: What professional photographers have influenced your work?
Cameron Reed: Tyler Mitchell and Gunner Stahl, that’s it. Before I even knew who Tyler was it was a straight Gunner, he really is the one who got me into shooting. I never wanted to do film photography, but he inspired me so much. I feel like when you’re just one person with a film camera and no production and you’re making money, that’s tough, that’s impressive. It’s something different honestly, making art by just shooting celebrities on film. I feel like people really tried to downplay his art, saying oh your only good because you’re shooting celebrities but he really created a whole new lane. He introduced film and portraits in a more mainstream way in the celebrity atmosphere and created a wave, and I am really inspired by that.
Q: Why did you decide to pursue a career as a photographer, as opposed to a more accessible career path? camsvisualart
Cameron Reed: Fuck regular jobs, they suck, fuck it all. Regular jobs are so incredibly boring to me, I could really just never do that. That’s a ‘parents’ job, I couldn’t do it.
Q: What is one thing you would like to see change in the industry?
Cameron Reed: Y’all need to stop touching on people man, stop it! What do you need to be preying on people for, it’s disgusting. The entire sex aspect of this industry, women are already so oversexualized and so torn down there is no reason to be sexualizing them further for a check. I also think speaking to all my male photographers who don’t condone that kind of behavior need to do a better job of stepping up. If you see something, say something. Those predatorial photographers need to be beat up and thrown out of a job. We need to work with people because we believe in them and what they do, and not for what we want from them.
Q: What are some of your career goals within the next five years?
Cameron Reed: To be the best. There will never be an overall best photographer but I want to be the best that I can be, and continually produce work that I’m proud of. To have people ask who to hire and they immediately think, “Camsvisualarts of course.” To be competing with the best of the best like Tyler Mitchell in a friendly way. I’d also really love to shoot for Harper’s Bazaar or Vogue, or for brands like Dior or Louis Vuitton.
Follow Cameron Reed and keep up with his work on Instagram and Twitter. Find his website here as well.
