Jay Coy, the Artist Journey
Show Notes:
Episode Notes:
Conceptual photographer Jay Coy and I talk about how he started his career as a conceptual artist and maternity photographer. We explore his evolution and creative processes in both coming up with the concepts and executing the final photographs.
Along the way, we explore what it means to call yourself an artist, the challenges of the "Imposter Syndrome" and the newest series he is working on, After Earth. And, of course, we also attempt, once again, to define what "Art" is.
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Subscribe to his newsletter, explore his Sweet Blast, Tools and Found on the Beach art series and listen to all of Matt's shows at http://www.theartofmattmckee.com
INSIDE THIS EPISODE:
Guest can be found at www.jaycoyphotography.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/jaycoyphoto
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/momentsbyjaycoy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaycoyphoto/
Follow Host Matt McKee on twitter and instagram https://twitter.com/mckeephoto and https://www.instagram.com/mckee_photo/
This episode was produced by Matt McKee, with help from Suzanne Schultz and http://www.CanvasFineArts.com, the specialists in coaching for creatives, and audio assistance by Bill Shamlian at Orb Sound.
About Cherry Bomb! The Podcast
Join host Matt McKee as he talks with artists, chefs, entrepreneurs and innovators on the subjects of Food, Art and Sustainability.
The Inspiration for Cherry Bomb! The Podcast
After creating Cherry Bomb! and the rest of the Sweet Blasts series of photos, Matt found that every time he showed the works, deep conversations were sparked between him and his viewers as well as between the viewers themselves.
The podcast was the natural next step to continuing the conversation and sharing it with a wider audience.
Episode Credits
This episode was produced by Matt McKee, with consulting help from Suzanne Schultz at Canvas Fine Arts, the Specialists in Coaching for Creative People, and editing from Bill Shamlian at Orb Sound.
Cherry Bomb! The Podcast Transcription
Jay Coy The Artist Journey
Jay Coy 00:00
You know, if you gain one little piece of education or or inspiration from one other artists that you can kind of turn into your own to just slightly take the path that you're on and just make it a little bit different. Well, maybe that's where you want to go.
Matt McKee 00:22
Hi, I'm Matt McKee and welcome to Cherry Bomb the podcast a series of conversations with people about food, art and sustainability. Today I'm speaking in the studio with conceptual fine art and maternity photographer Jay coy. I'll have links to his site and social media in the show notes you really need to see his work.
Matt McKee 00:40
This episode of cherry bomb the podcast is sponsored by Grass Fed!, a part of my Sweet Blast series of limited edition photos available at the art of Matt mckee.com. I created the series of bright, colorful, provocative images with the mission to start conversations in the room about the bigger topics of food art, and you guessed it sustainability, check out the whole series at the art of Matt mckee.com. Jay, I really appreciate you coming in today.
Jay Coy 01:03
Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.
Matt McKee 01:05
I wanted to read part of your bio to my listeners because it resonated with me so much.
Matt McKee 01:11
Jay focuses his conceptual fine art on creating images that tell stories, stories of emotion, trauma, healing, and celebration. His photographs are meant to be read like a book analyzed and reanalyzed, finding new plots and endings as if the viewer was writing the story themselves. His images are dark and meant to reach the depths of your soul, while exploring more than the obvious.
Matt McKee 01:35
This seems a little counterintuitive when you told me about maternity photography. And yet there's no question that your work is both absolutely and artfully beautiful. And dark in a lot of ways. We started talking a little bit beforehand, but can you share with me how you first? When did you start becoming a photographer?
Jay Coy 01:55
Yeah, absolutely. So in 2016, my wife and I were planning to elope to Hawaii. And I knew going to that gorgeous place. I wanted to get photos of it properly. So I got a camera. And before that, my friend Ben Boynton, who's a wonderful wedding photographer local in the area. I asked him to give me a photography lesson. And he said, Yeah, so we met in Boston, we went to the seaport we learned how to do or I learned how to how to do long exposures and and things like that during sunset, it was a really great lesson, it was way too much my brain totally melted out of my ears. And you know, I think to this day, I still don't know what I learned. So I was able to kind of fake it till I made it a little bit. So we went to Hawaii, and I, you know, took some landscape photographer photography when I was there. Absolutely loved it. And for the next year or so, I focused on landscape photography, because that's what I thought was there.
Jay Coy 02:56
But I always thought something was missing. Something was not quite right. And I didn't quite love it as as much as I thought I did. So I was like, let's give portraits a try. And at the time, I started following a bunch of local Boston photographers and Instagram photographers and everything and, and one of them actually hosted a Boston photo meetup. And it was funny enough on my birthday in 2017.
Jay Coy 03:21
And so I was like, You know what, I'm gonna go, what, what's the worst that can happen? And this kind of helped a little bit because I was nervous working with people and not understanding how to pose them, direct them without ever having to do it. So I figured in a group setting with other photographers there with models there, I thought it would be really great to kind of get my feet wet. Yeah. And it really was It was absolutely amazing. It was it was really great to meet some of the local community and start to be a part of it. And there was this one model, Michael Mangan, who I worked with, and I met that day. And the funny thing is, is so like I said, it was my birthday. I was turning 30 I turned 34. And I met her and she was 17. And I'm like, Man, I am double your age. And this is, this is weird.
Jay Coy 04:08
She was so lovely. Her mom was there. And her mom was super lovely. That whole family was amazing. But so I started doing that working with local models a little bit. And again, I had a lot of fun, but I still thought something was missing. And I wasn't quite sure it was but in the time. Over that time, I started developing a concept in my head that I wanted to shoot. So kind of backing up a little bit. I'm also a civil engineer. And funny enough that your podcast works with sustainability. Where as a civil civil engineer, we work a lot with climate change as sustainability. So I came up with a concept about doing this Mother Earth shoot where it kind of told the story about how Mother Earth is kind of suffering and dying off and, and whatnot because of climate change and how you know humans themselves are not treating her very well. So I
Jay Coy 04:59
I worked with Michael to do the shoot, I planned the whole shoot. And it ended up being a full day shoot, there was about two hours of hair and makeup, we went to this location near spot pond, it was actually a like a dog swimming pond. And we shot around that. And then we got in the pond, we did some water shots. And there was this one image, I'm on a ladder, hanging over the water, Michael's brother was holding the ladder, so I didn't fall in. She was she was laying in the water, kind of in like fetal position with her skirt like out wide. And you know, me before not knowing my lighting beforehand, I was shooting my flash on my camera, and I took a shot. And I looked at the back of the camera, and I honestly started crying. Oh, because it was I, you know, I was I didn't know what I was doing. And so I just was like, kind of hoping for the best with this shoot. And I looked at that image. And it was like the one of the most beautiful images that I've ever seen, nevermind the fact that I took it. And I think that like all of the emotion of like, the stress and the the planning and all that like just came rushing through, like, Oh my God, and then that's when I knew I needed to tell stories with my images. Like that's, this is what I wanted to do. And from Yeah, and from there, the the, I didn't really know where to go from here. Because the local photographers that are that I knew were all just amazing portrait photographers, and I shouldn't say just but that's what they did. It was portrait photography, there was really no conceptual photographers in Boston that I knew at the time. And it was a couple of months later, I saw a Facebook ad for Brooke Shaden fine art class on creative life. And at the time, I was like who's Brooke shade, like, she just means nothing to me, she's, you know, probably some fake photographer just running. I know, I not laugh, right. So I like went to her Instagram, and I'm like, Whoa, this, this is what I this is what I want to do. Like, this is what I want my images to look like, this is how I want to, I want to learn this. So I took that course. And from there, the rest is history, when it comes to my conceptual fine art, like nice, that is kind of what determines my path to like, Okay, this is what I want to do with my art photography. And since then that's, that's what I've been doing. And I am, as you read in my, my little bit of a bio, my images in my concepts really come from all over the place, you know, some of the images are kind of deep, meaningful pieces where, you know, I kind of take my traumatic childhood that I don't talk about and put them into images, I put them into things that I don't like to talk about, or, or really speak on, but want to express or really, you know, get out of myself and rather than keep all those emotions bottled up. So some of those images are kind of tell those stories. I also when people approached me, whether it be a model or or someone just loves my art and wants to be a part of it, what I try to do is I try to do the same thing for them as I want to get to know them a little bit, find out a little bit about them, see if they have a story they want to tell that maybe they don't like to talk about or don't talk about. So, you know, we sit down and I'm like, Well, what do you want? What do you want this image to say? What what is it that you know, you're trying to get across and then we start from there and we start to kind of mood board the image and and talk about it and then we shoot it.
Matt McKee 08:26
So much of when I first started out I ended up mostly in the studio doing so lives and and was playing with my concepts in there. It wasn't until I started getting involved with more portrait shoots, and more conceptual shoots with people involved in it, that it became a collaborative process. And that's where, God I can't remember the photographer's name. The shoot changes so drastically based on who's coming in front, all the lighting can be exactly the same all the background can be exactly the same. But if you bring a different person into it, that the stuff that they bring from their lives into the shoot changes everything.
Jay Coy 09:04
Absolutely.
Matt McKee 09:05
And that's that's the fun part. That's the fun part to explore. Yeah, right.
Jay Coy 09:08
So I'm kind of a little bit opposite of you where I was doing the conceptual stuff and now I'm in to portrait photography and studio photography. And it's funny because I'm like, I'm never gonna use lights. I'm never gonna use off camera flash like all I have to do is with my conceptual I just want it to be a nice soft lit day and then I added the lighting myself and post once I started getting into maternity photography and learning studio lighting now I'm like, the world has opened up. I just shot some conceptual photographs last weekend in a studio with lighting with gels with you know, and I'm like, Why was I not doing this before? The fact that I can now bring these two worlds together and, you know, kind of take my conceptual images to, you know, another level or, you know, have more more fun playing with it is really great.
Matt McKee 09:57
The amount of control that you don't have with the natural world I sounds by blasphemous to say this, but I got into the studio lighting because I got to play God, you want the light there, boom, there's lights there. Yep. And that made all the differences opposed to going outside. Well, the lights not quite right. And we have to wait or we have to get reflectors. And now that brings in other people. And yeah, that's, yeah, studio lighting is so much fun. So you went to Hawaii, and you started getting involved in these things? When did you decide to make the jump from being someone who? Well, a friend of mine would say the GW see the guy with a camera to professional photographer, somebody who's taking commissions.
Jay Coy 10:40
Hmm, I actually. So after once I started getting into portrait photography in 2017. And started, you know, meeting that, that group of friends. I just kind of did anything and everything as well just to kind of get my feet wet and learn as much as I could, because that's how I work when I when I try something new, I try to learn as much about it as possible. I started second shooting for weddings for a few friends. One in particular, my friend Erin, who's an amazing local wedding photographer, She's incredible. I second shot a bunch for her. I did a few of my own weddings and including one of my friends I you know, that they were one of my first weddings. And, and I and I did theirs. And it was it went fine. It was not the greatest experience on my end because I you know, didn't really know what I was doing or what to expect for my own weddings. But but it was fun. So I just kind of started doing that. And then from there you started charging and for my conceptual fine art I actually don't do commissions as of as of right now, only because those are the the images and that all of that stuff is is I just it's a passion. So I haven't started taking commissions quite yet. I would love to do like album artwork or book cover artwork. So you know commissions for that would be really fun. Yeah, but the art that you see mostly on my page is just, you know, concepts that I've come up with that, you know, I've I've done, you know, TFP with models, or or you know, or vice versa, where a model will, you know, tell me her story. And you know, we'll work together.
Matt McKee 12:16
But you are taking commissions in terms of like the maternity
Jay Coy 12:19
Yes, yeah. So with the maternity stuff. So I started. I have a friend Donatella Nicolini, who's a maternity photographer in Italy. I found her on Instagram part of the photography community and just fell in love with her work. And I was like, Yeah, I I want to do this. It's absolutely gorgeous. So I took a workshop with her in New York City in 2019. Yeah, I think 2000 Summer 2019. After that, I did some portfolio shoots. So model calls, and I did three or four local shoot shoots of, you know, actually, a lot of them ended up being friends. And thankfully, they were pregnant at the right time. brought them into the studio did some shoots. And then I just started advertising that you could hire me, huh? So yeah, so I've basically been charging for that since early, late 2019, early 2020. And now it's, you know, it's, it's kind of been blowing up. I actually, just yesterday, which is the this is the craziest thing to me. I got contacted by a mom who wants to surprise her daughter for Christmas with a shoot. So her daughter's expecting. And she was like, my daughter is the biggest fan of your work. She keeps showing me your work every day. And I want to give her a shoot for Christmas. And I'm like, That's awesome. My brain just like exploded. I'm like, somebody is a fan of my work. Like, like, what? It's yeah, it's I still don't I don't understand it. But it's really incredible.
Matt McKee 13:48
Yeah, awesome. That is, yeah, I I know exactly what you're feeling, though. And early on in my career, when somebody came up and said, I'd love your work. I'm like, Who are you white? How do you know why why? I don't think that ever gets old. Just that validation. But that is awesome. That's a whole new. We always have the challenge that we are doing both our art, which is a very one side of our brain kind of thing. And then there's the marketing and getting the word out and and figuring out all the tech side of it as well. So accounting and all that stuff.
Jay Coy 14:22
Have you figured that out yet? I mean, I have any of us.
Matt McKee 14:28
I've been doing this for close to 30 years. And I would say there's not a year that has gone by that I can't say there was 10 new things I learned about the industry and obviously, you know, industry, the world and everything else is always changing. So you have to adapt as you go along. But there's always something new, always something new to learn.
Jay Coy 14:47
Yeah, that's that's something that I'm becoming very well aware of, you know, the more and more I get into photography and the more and more it's it's, you know, picking up photographers were so many different hats. And it's, it's crazy. And people just don't realize it where, you know. So like I said, I'm an engineer by day and I go in I do my engineering work and you know, project management work, but like, I'm not really in charge of so many other things like bringing in funding or, or finding funding or get bringing in the projects. And all of this were like, photographers have to do every everything,
Matt McKee 15:24
not just bringing in the funding and the marketing and everything else. But we also have to occasionally sweep the floors and clean the bathroom. Yeah, I think that's true for any small business. At least, the small business people that I've talked to over the years. And it's always a surprise. And, you know, I didn't realize I'd have to do that, right. The nice thing is that as you become more successful, some stuff you farm out, when I first started out, I didn't want to bring assistants out, I didn't want to have makeup artists, I didn't want to have a whole team with me, it was very intimidating to think that I was going to be the one in charge of a team of like six people to go out. But after showing up at a couple of shoots, where I'm sweaty and tired from carrying, you know, at that point, I was carrying speed to Tron packs, which back in the 80s, everyone had speed to Tron packs, these things weighed in at about 30 pounds a piece and I would go out with five of them. And it was me. And it was just ridiculous. And I started. Okay, I need I need a Sherpa, I need a Sherpa to come along and then realize that the Sherpa was an assistant who had so much more skills. And now some of these skills. Some of these people have skills in terms of running the laptop, so I can shoot tethered the entire time and show the client and the makeup artist to come along who actually can make sure that even if we're photographing the CEO of a company, make sure the shine is gone from their face and make them feel like rockstars before they come out.
Jay Coy 16:44
Absolutely, yeah. And that's how that's how I run my maternity shoots where I have a hair and makeup artists on set the entire time. So they're doing they're doing touch ups, they're also helping with assisting and wardrobe.
Matt McKee 16:55
Wordrobe can be so key.
Jay Coy 16:57
So key, and my wife who actually happens to be a mother baby nurse is my system on set as well. So she helps with you know, doing the wardrobe and helps with posing and stuff. So she's a dancer as well. So she's very keen on hand hand posing and placement. So though, those two being on set, you know, really bring my shoots to the next level makes my clients feel like a rockstar queens are like it's a Hollywood set. And yeah, having a team is so invaluable. If you can have one, I haven't been able to work with any Digi techs yet on onset, I'd love to be able to experience that like having someone with that kind of knowledge. And being able to you know, talk about light settings and placement and and you know, have that electronic knowledge that I don't have to worry about would be really, really cool. Someday
Matt McKee 17:49
absolute Well, no time like the present, I think, sure, I can give you some names like, yeah, absolutely, I'd love it.
Matt McKee 17:56
An artist once said that, I feel like I've been working on the same painting all of my life. Now you're fairly young in your career. But I know for myself, I notice a lot of similarities between what I'm trying to achieve. In my images that I recognize from the images I first created 30 years ago. Do you feel with what where you were at in your career? Do you feel like you're going back to your roots at all, as you're creating? You were talking about? Like, you know, personal trauma and things like that, and bringing out these things that you're angry about? Which resonates hugely with me? Do you feel that maybe this question is too soon to ask in your career, but do you feel that you're you're you find yourself repeating certain aspects of your creative process?
Jay Coy 18:46
Absolutely. Especially with my conceptual fine art photography, where almost it's almost exactly the same process with with every with every image with every shoot where, you know, I, I come up with the concept, whether that, you know, be by mind mapping or just, you know, talking back and forth with whoever I'm shooting for if I just an idea pops in my head, which I hope that happens. I hope that happens more often. So yeah, so then I kind of sketched the image what I think needs to be done and figure out what pieces of the image I need to photograph whether it all be all in camera in one shot or other pieces to come composite in later. Yeah. And then I get to editing and my editing process is very similar almost on every image and you know, composite the image, add lighting to it light direction, where do I want the viewer to look first? And then I add textures and basically I map the image so I bring up the shadows a little bit. Bring down the highlights. Yeah, it's all square crops. Yeah, so my process is very, very much the same and when it comes to concepts, so that's where I struggle the most. I feel like because I don't do it as often as I would like my creative muscles.
Jay Coy 20:00
It's like, it's like starting to work out where just you're just like, oh, it's it's really, really hard at first. And then once you get a groove, it's it's easier, but because I don't do it very often, I have a lot of trouble coming up with new concepts sometimes. And you know, somebody will, you know, message me and be like, Hey, I love your work, I'd love to work together. And I'd be like, Yeah, that's awesome. And then it's like radio silence for like six months until I'm like, Hey, I have an idea. Let's work together. Yeah, and that's, you know, that's something that I'd love to be able to improve upon. And I know there's exercises and stuff that I can work on. And again, Mind Mapping and, and just like, have you read the book, the artists way?
Matt McKee 20:41
I have it, I've read part of it. And then in typical ADHD fashion, I got distracted. But there's, I think there's too much information in it for myself. There. There are people that I know who can sit down with one of these books and just read from start to finish, or they go through and they do every single exercise along the way. I find one exercise and then I have to go practice it for a couple years.
Jay Coy 21:06
I am exactly the same way. So I made it. I think about halfway halfway through that book, not realizing that it was like a 12 step process. I thought it was just a book that was all of a sudden going to enlighten me and then I'd be an amazing artist or no so far. Yeah, right.
Jay Coy 21:22
But the thing that I did really find really interesting was the morning pages that it made you do every day where you were supposed to write three pages, stream of conscious writing, start to finish, don't stop, right, whatever, just whatever, you know, can be the same word over and over again.
Jay Coy 21:39
And eventually what was what was really amazing is like, even though every morning, I would get up at set my alarm for like 5am. And I would start writing. And I would you know, the first couple of sentences were always like, I don't know what to write, I don't know what to write, what am I supposed to write, and then all of a sudden, it would just change. And by, before I knew it, three pages were written. I never went back to them. You're not supposed to I'm sure it's all horrible writing and who knows what's in there. But during that time, I was able to come up with some concepts that I you know, I thought were really great. I can't tell you what, those were off the top of my head because it was so long ago now.
Matt McKee 22:17
But I was just gonna ask, are you still doing?
Jay Coy 22:20
I am not. So that was the other thing too, I'd say I stopped doing that. So I'd like to get back get back into that. But speaking of concepts, I actually am working on a current series. So I talked about Mother Earth earlier. Because I love that image so much. And I loved how it was shot from above, I came up with a series to expand upon that, then I'm calling After Earth. And this ties into sustainability and climate change. So every image is kind of climate change natural disaster type image where off the top of my head, I have an oil spill, I have a kind of a monsoon image, a wind image, a pollution image, a like ice cap, melting image, and a few other images that I can't remember in the way that I'm going to present them. So Mother Earth is a blue image, I'm going to actually do a grid of three by three, so nine images. And going from like top left to top right, and then row by row, it's going to be the colors of the rainbow with black and white caps on the end. So it's going to be a black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo violet with a white image. So all nine images will be kind of in that color spectrum, in in, you know, presented in a grid as a series. So, so I've been working on that. The tough part is there's some images that it needs to be warm out to shoot because it's there either in water, or outside that I don't want to subject people to what this weather is and throw them in some water freezing cold water. So it's slow and steady. But I've shot I've shot the Mother Earth I've shot the oil spill, I've shot the wind, I have shot pieces of the earthquake image that was another one who actually worksheet and modeled for me.
Matt McKee 24:05
Oh, wow.
Jay Coy 24:05
So I have to I have to edit that there's still some plate images that I need to shoot for that. And then the other images, I'm hoping that spring to summer of next year, I'll be able to finish the series and maybe look into doing a gallery show of those images on Yeah, I think it would be really cool. Let's but yeah, it all kind of ties into my experience with engineering and climate change and, and sustainability. So when when you first approached me and asked me to come on as a guest, and I was reading up about the podcast, and I was like sustainability, I'm like, This is too this is too in my wheelhouse. I'm like this is this is awesome.
Matt McKee 24:40
Well, that's awesome. I appreciate that. Two questions occurred to me. gonna forget one of them right away, I'm sure. The first is, as you were talking about your conceptual process. When I'm creating something when I'm thinking about a concept and thinking about the image I want to present. I always have an unconscious audience in my head of who I'm, I want to tell the story to so that I can tell them in a way that they would understand. Does that resonate at all with you?
Jay Coy 25:09
No, no, it doesn't. So only because I feel that the art that I create has mostly been from myself, I've mostly been expressing myself. And I mean, I hope that it resonates with someone, I know that it's not going to resonate with everyone. So I feel having trying to create something for someone. I don't know if that would work for me for like, for what I'm trying to, to do. Okay, but I do love, I do get a lot of messages and a lot of feedback that, you know, people love my work, and it resonates with them. And I absolutely love that. But I also like, with my images is I don't necessarily want to tell someone what it is what it's about, or I agree with that. Yeah, I want someone to look at it, and make it something for themselves. Okay, so I feel like if I were to try to work towards an audience, I'm, I'm, I might kind of stifle my my creativity a little bit. And I don't know if that's necessarily the case, because I've never tried it. You know, I think although, on the flip side, if it was for a specific project, yeah, like if it was for like, an album cover or a book cover, and like, you know, this band was hiring me to do an album cover. Well, I this needs to work for their audience. Yeah. So, you know, I think that would be a fun challenge to do something like that. So yeah, so it's, it's interesting to hear, like, everyone's thought process on on how when you start to create, like, are you creating for a specific group or not?
Matt McKee 26:39
Yeah, for me, there's always, I'm always envisioning it up on somebody's refrigerator, or, or in somebody's living room, or, you know, and I start thinking about what's around it at that point. So it's not specifically necessarily a specific person, although a lot of people have, when I've been talking to them, I say, you know, I created this for mom, kind of thing. I wanted to tell her what was going on. But it's interesting. You're obviously, you're not the only person who's ever told me this, that they're just, you know, they're they're just expressing themselves. I wonder if it's some thought within myself that I need to have somebody else in order to figure out how to express myself. The other question I wanted to ask you was about your background? Civil Engineer. So creating projects for obviously, for cities and towns and things like that? Did you do art classes and things like that back in school or resist just some
Jay Coy 27:35
Nope. Leyton desire that oh, yeah, absolutely not. And I mean, you know, so I've, you know, like I said, I picked up a camera over five years ago now. And I still have trouble calling myself an artist, because I don't believe that I am, I just believe that. Sometimes I can create pieces of art. But I don't necessarily consider myself an artist. And which is funny, because before, I didn't consider myself a photographer, I considered myself like, you know, more of an artist because I wasn't really doing photography, I was creating art. And now, I do both. I mean, I would call myself an artist, but I still have trouble actually believing it. I fully know that I suffer from imposter syndrome. Probably one of the worst cases ever. And, you know, and I don't, I don't, you know, I don't know why that is, I, you know, I know a lot of people love my art and my photography. And but like, with the engineering side, you know, engineering is so structured and, you know, numbers and math and where art is totally different. So, when you're using the different sides of your brain, I think that's where, you know, I struggled to come up with concepts sometimes because I'm so analytical that like, I have a hard time just letting my brain just kind of Daydream into something,
Matt McKee 28:54
make those Association exactly form without exam structure on top.
Jay Coy 28:57
Exactly. And that's why I think I actually picked up photography so well, in the beginning was because for me, it was what's the math of photography? Yeah. And not necessarily like, what is lighting ratios and all that it's basically like, Okay, well, I understand the exposure triangle and where light supposed to be. And I can understand how to set a light so that it needs to look the way it looks. And so like the technical aspect, I picked up really quickly. It was the other part of photography that I'm and I still struggle to this day, the, you know, the actual creativity side of things, you know, I a lot of my work is, is basically inspired by other photographers or art pieces. And you know, the more and more I work, the more and more I'm able to, like just kind of do my own thing.
Matt McKee 29:44
And yet there is a science to color theory, there's a science to composition. All of these things, you could put a structure on top of them. Although I think your work could become very formulaic after a while and certainly a number of artists have have used those structures to build their positions. It's an interesting transition. Interesting way we can do a transition here, because one of the questions I wanted to ask you what is, what is your definition of art?
Jay Coy 30:12
That's really tough. I think my definition of art is anything that evokes some type of thought or emotion from the viewer. And then that can be anything and everything, if, you know if it's, it's something that you hate that, you know, whether it be a book, or a painting, or a photograph, that's still art. I mean, just because you don't like it doesn't mean someone else won't or will. Yeah, so I think if if it gets you to think about what this is, and, and have some type of thought or feeling towards it, it's a piece of art. You know, for instance, like portrait photography, while it is an art, I wouldn't necessarily call it art. Because it's, it's a photo of it's a nice photo of a person. Now, that doesn't mean it can't be turned into a piece of art or, or, you know, depending on the photography itself, but like, let's say headshots, I wouldn't necessarily call headshots like art, I would call them what they are, they're photographs. They're in like the kind of art world, I would call the photographer, an artist, because certainly they need to create this piece. But if it's a headshot on a wall, most people are like, Oh, it's a picture. But there's, you know, different levels that you can take into that, that photography in to make an art. Hmm. So yeah, I, you know, it's a it's a tough question to to answer. What is art? I mean, I guess what isn't art is, is maybe another is another question. Because, you know, my definition of art is totally different from probably anyone else's.
Matt McKee 31:48
I've asked this question numerous times. And I, there is no repeat.
Jay Coy 31:52
Right.
Matt McKee 31:53
That's amazing. That's great. I know, it's early days in your career. But what do you wish you knew when you started?
Jay Coy 32:01
I don't know. To be honest, I both that's tough. You know, I I'm always one of those people who? I don't know what I don't know. So I don't know what I don't know. So and I know that seems obvious? Or maybe it's not obvious, but when there's things that I, I don't know, how am I supposed to know that? I'm supposed to go learn those things, or I'm supposed to go kind of venture and, and, you know, try to explore those things. You know, it's like, it's, they don't exist, because I don't know that they're supposed to exist. I guess if, if there's one thing that I wish I knew, when I first started that I you know, now is to just continue to explore other artists, try to gain as much knowledge as you can, through those artists or through through art itself. Whether it be photographers or you know, actual paintings, or museums or whatever, so that you can kind of form the artists that you want to be with all of that information. Because going back to you don't know what you don't know. Exactly, yeah. Well, if you if you don't continue to explore and learn and educate yourself, and, and, you know, find all of these things will you're only going in, you know, a straight line path to maybe it's where you want to go. But maybe it's not, you know, if you gain one little piece of education or, or inspiration from one other artists that you can kind of turn into your own to just slightly take the path that you're on and just make it a little bit different. Well, maybe that's where you want to go. Yeah. So it's it. You know, I guess I it's, it's really, I don't I don't know, like I said, I don't know what I don't know. So, you know, it's just, I guess continue pursuing and, and making sure that I continue to explore this passion for Yeah, excellent.
Matt McKee 34:02
What do you hope your legacy is going to be?
Jay Coy 34:04
I am one of those people. So I'll call myself an empath. But I am one of those people who I like to make people feel great, feel great about themselves just feel better. Yeah. And I try to do that through my images, when it's someone that I'm working with. And I want to tell their story, my hope is that in a way, it's kind of a therapy session for them that it helps them express or get out the emotions that they're bottling up so that they're not holding that in anymore. gives them a sense of relief. So I hope that I leave behind a legacy that allows people to just be like, just allows them to just feel better about anything and everything.
Matt McKee 34:44
Oh, wow.
Jay Coy 34:44
Yeah, I just I feel like being kind is is so important. I become such close friends with all of my clients. It's really amazing, especially with the maternity side of things where I get to see my clients become mothers, to see them that change. It's so incredible, where they're like going, when they come into my shoots. They're all just like, most of them are just like, I don't love my body, I don't know what's going, you know, it's going through a change that's makes their body not their own. Yeah. So I aim for those shoots, to have them look at themselves in a different view. Like, they look at these images, and they're just like, how, wow, whoa, like, how was that me? How am I that beautiful, they leave the shoots feeling so amazing. They love their images, and I get I get such amazing feedback. And then like I said, like I said, I become really close friends with them. So I get to follow along their, you know, now motherhood journey and see them become mothers. And it's just, it's amazing. And going to my conceptual fine art, it's the same kind of thing. It's, you know, being able to help someone express themselves or, you know, get through some sort of issue that they're dealing with or, you know, mental struggle. It's really powerful. And it's, it's really amazing to be able to be a part of that.
Matt McKee 36:05
Wow, I almost don't want to follow up with this question at this point. Because it really seems kind of silly, but due to my relationship with food, I have to ask it. End of the day, you've had a maternity shoot or worked on a fine art concept or journaling in the morning and all the way through the day, end of the day.Just want to sit down relax. What is your go to comfort food? I love food so much.
Jay Coy 36:29
So there was there would be two things that I would be hard pressed to choose from sushi or good ramen.
Matt McKee 36:41
Thanks for listening to this episode of Cherry Bomb podcast. I'm your host Matt McKee. And today we're speaking with fine art and maternity photographer Jay Corey. I'll have links to his website and social media in the show notes and at the art of Matt mckee.com. Just click on the link for cherrybomb the podcast. Please share this episode to your Facebook, Twitter and all your social media so your friends can listen and join in the conversation. I'm also available on Twitter for Comments, questions and suggestions at McKee photo. This episode of cherry bomb the podcast could not have been done without the help of Suzanne Schultz and Canvas fine arts.com. The specialists in coaching are created. Thanks for listening. And let's start the conversation