Today we’d like to introduce you to Travis Lovell.
Hi Travis, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I discovered photography by accident. I was a computer science major at Utah Valley State College and it was a stressful major so I decided to take one fun class per semester to keep my head straight. One semester I took an intro to photography class and ended up loving it.
I found myself not doing my computer science homework and spending time shooting and in the darkroom instead. So, I signed up for another photo class the following semester. On the first day of this second class, the teacher was going through the role and getting to know the students. He saw my major was computer science and so he asked for clarification if I was aware that this was an advanced photo class and to make sure I knew what I was signing up for. I answered that I was in computer science for the money and taking photography because I loved it. He stared at me with a long pause…then told me that was the stupidest answer he had ever heard.
He asked me why I wanted to be rich and miserable. He told me to follow what I loved and that the money would find a way to get to me. I took his advice to heart. I left the class and walked straight to my academic advisor and dropped my major. I then applied to Brigham Young University because they had a good photography program and UVSC did not have a bachelor’s degree in photography at that time. My life has been photography centric ever since. I got my Master’s of Fine Art at Maine Media College in photography and then received a tenure track position teaching photography at Utah Valley University immediately upon graduation.
My own photographic efforts often meld with what I do as an educator. As such, I describe my photographic and teaching philosophy like this: help yourself and others to see—see what others do not, see in a way others previously had not, or expound upon ways of seeing that have been previously exhibited by others—and then share that vision with others. In other words, I believe photography is a form of teaching. It is the ability to critically analyze the world and translate our observations visually onto paper so that others may appreciate or learn from our efforts, or at least be able to broaden their perception of the world as a result.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Nothing in life is a smooth road. If it is you are not trying hard enough. Photography can be expensive and insanely time-consuming. There were several days that I was convinced that I should sell all my gear and go get a “real” job. I’m glad I never listened to those moments of doom and gloom. Photography doesn’t have a logical or obvious path toward success. Not only that, most photographers will have different definitions of what success means. Just before I was to graduate with my bachelor’s I went and visited with my professor, John Telford. I told him I had no idea what I wanted to do with my photography now that my schooling was ending. By this time I had met some really amazing photographers so John asked me if I could pick one photographer whose life I truly envied and then start making decisions that will help me progress in the direction of that life.
I didn’t have an answer. I thought about it for months and months. I graduated and kept working doing traditional portraiture and weddings while also being a prepress manager reproducing artwork. In the end, the only name of a photographer that kept coming to my mind was that same professor, John Telford. When I finally made that realization, I spontaneously stopped by UVSC to find out if there were any opportunities to teach in their continuing education program. I went to the wrong person I talked to them for a while and showed them my portfolio and they ended up offering me an adjunct teaching position on the spot. Since then, whenever things get hard I think back to the life I am trying to create and the answers get more obvious. I have not regretted the path I have followed at all, regardless of the bumps.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I found myself drawn to things often overlooked. My senior project ended up being about my hometown in Idaho. I was raised in a small farm community called Ririe with only about 500 people in it. I left home with very mixed feelings about my experience there. Now years removed, I was very curious to look back at my hometown anew from a different lens. It was eye-opening both from a personal level and also become the most defining experience in establishing my style and photographic interests in anything I have done. Later, I spent years photographing at Utah Lake. This interest began after seeing locals being shown a beautiful photograph of the lake. These images were often accompanied by declarations of how beautiful they found the image only to completely shift their position upon finding out where it was taken.
They would then go on a tirade about how ugly and gross that lake was. Again, I had a chance to explore the overlooked, or in this case also often reviled. Even when I travel to places of incredible beauty, I spend a lot of time looking at what else is unique besides the obvious. Using the camera to try and learn what others have not. Even in my working methods, I have often gone against the grain. I entered the photographic world just as digital photography began to take off. I chose to stick with large format cameras and shoot with film. Now, I have progressed to working in older historic processes and making my own photographic paper or methods of capture by using processes such as platinum/palladium, wet collodion, and other historic methods. I seem to use photography as an excuse not to follow popular trends.
What are your plans for the future?
I now consider myself an educator as much as a photographer. I have often tried to blend these two realities and work right along with my students on projects. A lot of my efforts in the last decade have been in creating a fine art book series at Utah Valley University where I teach photography. We choose a theme and then spend a year researching, traveling, creating, and then sequencing and editing the images into a coffee table book. We have published seven books so far with an eighth in the final design stages and a ninth that we will be entering the travel and creation phases this summer.
This has been a big focus of mine and I hope that it will continue to provide creative outlets and educational opportunities for me and my students for the foreseeable future. Each project is so different in tone and theme that it really provides opportunities for me to push my own vision and try new things. This has provided me with incredible opportunities to see areas of the world I wouldn’t have considered visiting and rethink my whole worldview. I then hope the experiences are just as transformative for my students as I have found them to be for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: travislovell.com
- Instagram: @travislovellphoto
Image Credits
Portrait by Kevin Wellman
