GENESIS: What art classes have you taken?

Andrew Fullhart: I have taken intro to 2D Art, Photo I, and Photo II. And I’m currently in AP studio arts.

G: How long have you been doing photography?

AF: I’ve been doing photography since probably 4th grade when I discovered instagram and got a little carried away.

G: Who inspires you?

AF: People are what inspire me. Certain scenes can draw us in and make us feel loved; Or hated; Or ashamed. What inspires me is the way people feel. I see someone on the street who looks a bit sad and with just a photo of them, I can create a story. A story of a soldier who never came home, or of a mother struggling to feed her kids. That’s the beauty of photography, everyone sees a different  story. “Every photo is reality, but none of them are the truth.”

G: Why did you decide to take photography?

AF: I took photography as a class because I’d been in photo club in middle school and wanted to  pursue it, as my teachers told me I was talented.

G: Describe your photography “style.”

AF: My style can vary. Just like  as people grow up they change. As I take more photos, my style changes, but I usually shoot monochromatic, so black  and white, and my main style for a long time was dark contrasty photos of abandoned and decrepit things. Probably because  for a long time that’s how I felt. I felt abandoned and like I was falling apart and deteriorating. And I wanted to show people that even trash and unwanted things  can be beautiful and tell a story. My current style and focus is on street photography and candids, so basically photographing people being people. Purely them being themselves, sometimes without ever knowing I’ve snapped a picture of them. I’ve been trying to focus on emotion.

G: Where do you get your inspiration for your photos?

AF: I get my inspiration from so many things it’s almost irritating. What I do a lot to get inspired is to listen to a song over and over until I hate it, and then I shoot photos based on however that song made me feel. The best way  to explain my inspiration is as a flow. Once I start to flow and take photos, I can’t let anything interrupt me. I turn off the setting on my camera that lets me see the photos I’ve taken, so I don’t focus on one certain shot for half an hour and miss out on others. Inspiration is about finding your sweet spot and just hanging out in it.

G: Do you plan to continue doing photography after high school? If so, what would you like to do?

AF: I’ll always be taking photos. Making art is something you can’t just stop doing. I don’t plan on pursuing it as a career though, but if that’s what I end up doing, that is perfectly fine.

G: What advice would you give to anybody wanting to try photography?

AF: Advice I’d give to someone wanting to try it out is to not worry about not having a camera. I mean there are famous photographers who only use homemade cameras and film made with egg whites and other strange materials. The other thing that discourages so many people and causes them to quit is not being happy with their art or photos. You just have to keep taking photos, take at least one a day. You won’t have one you like until  you have 10,000 you hate. And if you hate your art, let that drive you to be better. Not drive you to give up.