Meet Christopher McCoy

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I can’t really say that I have a unique story, I’ve always loved art but growing up in the deep South in Mississippi it wasn’t really encouraged, and I was told to strive for a real job, and that always stuck with me. Early life inspiration came from 90s anime and Tumblr post I’d see people killing on that site, but I didn’t think I’d be able to make work like those people. I picked up my first camera for a road trip, and I’ve been shooting since then. I’m constantly looking at photo books and watching videos and shows for inspiration, and I think I’ve almost figured out what I want from the world and my work. Overall I think I’m just like everyone else, average but I like art.

Please tell us about your art.
I’m a portrait photographer, but I’d like to start moving into fine art photography or contemporary photography, but I have decided just yet. I draw a lot of inspiration from other artists like the Places+Faces group, Nobuyoshi Araki, Petra Collins, and Cole Beal (local SD photographer @colebeal), just to name a few. I’m trying to figure out exactly what I want out of my photos but I do know that I want people to feel something like anything at all even if it’s a negative emotion I just want people to feel something and to look at it like a work of art and not just another post on social media.

I usually start doing my work by contacting models, and if I get a reply I’ll shoot them a concept that I want to do, and if they’re not into, I’ll suggest something or keep searching for someone that’s down to do my concept. During the shoot, I actually don’t like to direct my models when I shoot, and I know I need to, but I feel like it takes the realness vs. when someone just does a pose that’s natural to them. I’ve been shooting on film a lot more than digital recently, I don’t think anything is wrong with digital, but film slows you down and makes you think about what’s actually going on in the frame, and I think everyone should give it a shot.

As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
For a photographer I think it’s when someone sees one of your photos somewhere and they know who took it, I think that’s when you’ve made it.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can see my work mainly on Instagram and Tumblr. I hope to have the means to have a website in the future as well as the zine I’ve been working on for the past few months. You can support me by sharing my work with your friends. Word of mouth is a powerful thing in the art world. My IG is @thealphaseries like, share, and comment on the work everything helps.