Today we’d like to introduce you to Senon Davis.
Hi Senon, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My story started way back when I was in high school- I had a mentor who recruited me to film for a theater production company and learn the ins and outs of documentary filmmaking. I carried that into college where I learned both just how hard the life I signed up for was and how adventurous it could be.
My senior year, I was asked to do grad photos for a friend and it was the easiest $250 I ever made in two hours! So now I also learned how lucrative having a camera could be.
Years of successes and failures later, I’ve found myself in a fully realized career as both an awarded photojournalist and a published photographer telling stories and helping people feel magical and confident in themselves. I couldn’t be happier with what I’ve accomplished and what I will accomplish.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
One of my biggest struggles was getting over social anxiety and learning how to do business. Both are things I still struggle with to this day. Sometimes you get clients who give you the runaround, sometimes you get collabs that don’t work out on either side, and sometimes balancing the passion and work can be overwhelming.
I think the further I went along, the easier dealing with folks became as I began to have answers for most situations, and the easier learning business strategy became even though I was never really taught how to be a businessman.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My primary focuses are documentary filmmaking and editorial portraiture, with a favor towards vintage, nostalgic imagery. I like my work to feel like a page out of history rather than overproduced and over-polished. I’m heavily inspired by work that feels lived in, like you could step right into the frame.
Being a news photojournalist gave me strong technicals, foundations, and taught me how to make magic under pressure. That experience shaped the way I approach everything else I shoot. I care about clean visual storytelling, but I’m equally interested in the texture and atmosphere of what I’m expressing.
I’m proud of the artistic voice I’ve developed. When I was in college I felt very lost in trends and making pretty pictures but now I feel like I’ve graduated past that at least to some degree where I can compete with the artists I followed when I started. My next goal is to really dial in who I study and take my work to the next level.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Are you having fun with it? Are you the person you always wanted to be? If someone came and took it all away from you, would you at least be satisfied with what you accomplished?
If you answered yes to all of that, I think you succeeded.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://senondigital.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/the.goodlord/
- Twitter: https://x.com/thegoodlordtv
