Today we’d like to introduce you to Britain Botsford.
Hi Britain, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve always had a camera in my hand but it wasn’t until this past year that I started to take it seriously. My friends and I would go around South Florida and take pictures with my Canon Rebel t5 just for our Instagram which at the time I thought was the top-of-the-line equipment. I just truly always knew I would be creative.
I had and still have many passions in life and I wanted to make a name for myself through one of those passions. It was never an issue for me trying to find something that I wanted to do in life, it was a matter of which one of these many subjects I’m interested in am I going to choose. I’m kind of still all over the place when it comes to that, if it were up to me I’d try every single creative major there is.
My mom is very artsy and my dad likes to claim I got my eye from him. I am very fortunate to have parents that not only support my career choice they also believe in me. It’s a very difficult road to go down and I cannot imagine having to do that without a strong support system back home. I got to where I am today based on 2 things, my parents and pure determination/stubbornness.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been easy but I mean whose story is ever easy? Art was always with me but just until recently I never had an environment where I could fully be myself. I’ve played tennis my whole life, I trained 6 hours of day full time at an academy for years and because of that I never went to public school. I did online school my whole childhood, the first time I entered a classroom was my first day of college.
Over time I became extremely burnt out from tennis. I was constantly told that I need to take a gap year and forget about playing in college because no coach would want to recruit me. But, I was way too stubborn to listen to them, I worked way too hard not to get into college through tennis. I ended up committing to State College of Florida which overall was a huge blessing that I’m very grateful for but at a lot of times was extremely rough. I lost all sense of who I was and along with that my creative side.
My mental health was at an all-time low and just getting worse with the pressure of having to go through the recruiting process all over again and on top of that COVID hit my sophomore year. After 3 years at SCF, I got an A.A. Degree in English Literature and was committed to SCAD. It’s funny because I always thought I would have to pick between athletics and a creative career, I didn’t think those two could coexist. I spent the summer before I went off to Savannah doing a lot of self-healing and tapping back into my creative side.
I declared my major as Film & Television which honestly was bold because I knew absolutely nothing about film or had no training at all and I was going into an extremely respected program filled with very talented filmmakers. I just knew that I had an eye and if I put all my energy into it that I could become successful.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Although I am a Film and Television major I’m definitely known for my photography. I mean films are just a bunch of frames smashed together so it’s basically the same as photography right? Lol. Portraits are my passion or literally any type of photography that involves a model. I struggle with social anxiety but when I’m behind a camera that feeling isn’t so prevalent anymore.
There’s no hiding from a camera once you’re in front of it. It’s almost like I can see everything that person is thinking and feeling and when I click that button that feeling is forever solidified in time. Photography is what I’m constantly thinking about without actually thinking about it. First month at SCAD, I found out about film photography and immediately had tunnel vision. So I went on eBay and bought myself a $15 film camera that is my actual baby. In my opinion, it’s not about the price tag on a camera, it’s about the person behind the camera.
You can produce amazing work with a cheap camera. I spent the entirety of last year with that film camera attached to my hand. I must have spent hundreds at Bay Camera buying and developing film. My friends became my models, I just loved being able to capture authentic moments between the people I love.
Because I am constantly taking pictures I got to capture the progression of my two best friends falling in love with each other, which is really special to me, a lot of people don’t get to see that or be able to capture that true growth of emotion through photos. Another piece of work that means a lot to me is the album “Call Me When You Wake Up” by my friend Haley. She asked me to do a shoot for the cover as well as every song on the album which is 12. Seeing your work as an album cover on Spotify is truly the coolest thing ever.
It’s something that if you would have told me a couple of months ago would happen I would think you’re lying. It’s difficult to give yourself credit when there are so many amazing photographers at SCAD and in the industry that it’s hard to not compare yourself to other work. But I think what sets me apart is the fact that 99.9% of the shoots I do is a team of just me and a model.
I’m the one styling, doing makeup, figuring out lighting, securing a location, and editing. Using natural surroundings and lighting is all I know. I’ve never shot in a studio where I could control lighting and the background. I truly enjoy being a part of every process when it comes to film and photography. Pretty much every step that I’ve taken has been self-taught, I’ve only taken one photography class.
Everything that I’ve learned has been from myself through trial and error. I’m extremely proud of where I am being self-taught for basically only a year. It makes me hopeful and excited to see what future work I’ll produce once I get further along in my academic career. Recently I’ve been sitting with the thought of what is my style. Every professional photographer has a certain look to their photos where you can look at them and know who was behind the lens. I quickly realized that you cannot force a style or even think about it in preproduction or when shooting.
It’s like driving, how are you to know whether to turn right or left if you don’t know your desired destination? I have no idea where I’m going to end up, so why would I stick to one style? I had no idea I would be where I am today a year ago. Not knowing where you’re going to end up is a scary thought to many but it should be looked at in bright light. Does it just mean there are endless possibilities and opportunities and isn’t that the beauty in all of this?
What do you think about luck?
I love this question I think about luck in my life all the time. Don’t get me wrong I have worked very hard to get to where I am and went through many rough patches, but sometimes people don’t always come back from that. I got so incredibly lucky to end up in the position that I’m in.
Something that I’ve noticed in my life is somehow everything has always worked out for me even if I didn’t notice it at the time. I don’t know what I did in a past life to deserve that but I’m not complaining, lol. If you would’ve asked me this 2 years ago I would’ve probably had many things to complain about when it comes to luck but I would’ve seen it as bad luck.
What I went through is just character development that everyone needs to experience and great inspiration for my art haha.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://britainbotsford.com/
- Instagram: @bbritainnn
- Twitter: britainbotsford
