Ryan Bolton is a Toronto based photographer who has won awards and travelled the world capturing stunning images of people and places. His client roster includes Apple, Red Bull, Spotify, Gucci, SickKids and many other category leading institutions and commercial brands.

Journalism originally led Ryan to photography as a career and in this session we discuss the backstory which developed his lens on the world plus tips and tricks for improving as a career creator.

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Qasim Virjee 0:29

We are live. It's recording. We're all good.

Qasim Virjee 0:34

All right, welcome back to another installment of the star Well, podcast once again, it is me Qasim in the studio here on King Street West in downtown Toronto. This time joined with a creator. That's the shittiest word. We're gonna delve into that a little bit. The YouTube culture Hills kids. But basically Ryan Bolton, a man of many cameras, is here to share knowledge, from his experience engaging in creative work,

Qasim Virjee 1:07

you know, as his profession, and we're going to talk about all sorts of stuff. We'll see where the conversation goes. Thank you for joining me in the studio today, Ryan. Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here. Right on. So let's get started by you introducing yourself to our audience in whichever way you would like to amazing.

Ryan Bolton 1:28

So my name is Ryan Bolton. Thank you for getting that out there. And I'm a photographer. And

Ryan Bolton 1:35

I like to photograph a little bit of everything, which makes me a little different than your common everyday photographer. So I started with actually writing I was a journalist, and I was paid to travel. And as soon as I started working was actually

Ryan Bolton 1:57

in Ghana, I was at a refugee camp and I was with a organization called journalist for human rights. And I was working in this Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugee camp, and I just started taking photos, portraits. This is 2007 2008, in that ballpark. And

Ryan Bolton 2:18

there was an attachment that I immediately had with putting the photos with the writing. And it just started to click. And, sorry, pun intended. Yeah. And shoot was one of the things too, that other people started talking about editors would then want me to take a photo to go along with that, that piece that was written, which I thought was weird and broke rules at first. But then I saw saw that it was about, like, tell a full story that went hand in hand and kind of get to a crux of something, right. And I fell in love. And so I started shooting more so I started going to music festivals. I eventually became a photographer for like Way Home festival and Boots and Hearts and field trip here in Toronto. That then led to travel work. So I started working with organizations like intrepid travel, who I still work with, which is like small group adventure travel. Oh, cool. And like, like documenting groups, trips, exactly. adventure stuff. Okay, so mash up shoe climbing mash up shoe with all my camera gear. Yeah, that was one. Iceland, Morocco, sleeping in caves in the Atlas Mountains,

Ryan Bolton 3:27

Southeast Asia through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, South Africa, Egypt,

Ryan Bolton 3:35

across the United States, you know, and really kind of exploring,

Ryan Bolton 3:41

you know, just that relationship with the camera, and documenting what anybody would be like, This is amazing. You know, I just had that opportunity that I knew was an opportunity. I always knew it was an opportunity to be like, This is amazing.

Qasim Virjee 3:52

I'm guessing this is in