Today we’d like to introduce you to William (Phresh Ingredient) Clarke IV.
Hi William (Phresh Ingredient) , we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started before I even knew I had begun.
As a youth, storytelling always pulled at me. I was a kid who loved movies, grew up in a household where I could watch pretty much anything, but with guidance. My family made sure I understood what I was consuming. That balance shaped everything. I was mischievous like most kids. While my homies were sneaking chips from the corner store, I was taking hip hop magazines, Dub Magazine, and any publication rooted in art and culture. Looking back, I was already engulfing myself in the world of photography and photojournalism; I just didn’t have the language for it yet.
The real connection happened when I visited my grandfather one summer. He was cleaning things out and came across a camera. He looked at me and said, “You want this?” From that moment, it never left my head.
The concept of Phresh Ingredient began forming in high school, but I kept it close. After graduating, like a lot of people, I didn’t know exactly what my next steps were. I didn’t take the traditional college route, though I picked up credits here and there. My focus was on understanding the art gallery world and, more importantly, creating myself. For a long time, I hid behind being an athlete. When sports were no longer in the picture, I had no choice but to show up as my full self — and that’s when my photography journey truly began.
Self-taught, pre-YouTube, I learned from books, exhibits, and connecting with other photographers. The only camera I had was film, and I couldn’t afford digital, so instead of letting that be a limitation, I let it be my foundation. I fell deeply in love with film photography, and a lot of that came through my healing process. Facing my traumas, searching for truth, learning to just be. Out of that work, I created a personal mantra: Stillness is the mother emotion. It means being fully present, making intentional decisions that serve your highest self.
That’s how I approach every shot. Film doesn’t allow you to spray and pray; it’s expensive, it’s finite. So I wait for that spiritual, aligned moment. The one that says grab this.
The journey wasn’t easy. I juggled many jobs while never feeling like I had the resources to fully commit to my practice. I worked in education for a while and eventually reached a point where I was done. I didn’t believe in the system I was working in, and I wasn’t able to make the kind of impact I wanted to make. So I leaped and moved to the Bay Area to be with family and my best friend, with one real purpose: to build a portfolio that actually represented who I was and who I was becoming.
Out there, I started documenting Black individuals in the legal and medical cannabis sector — people whose stories weren’t being told, or when they were, they were being told from the outside looking in. I didn’t like that. So I told them from the inside. And through that work, I realized something — my spirit has always gravitated toward the overlooked, the unknown, the people the world tends to walk past. That became my lane: documenting beautiful people in my communities, and communities that welcome me into theirs.
I eventually moved into the cannabis industry professionally. For the first time, I was making real money, and I poured my energy into it. But God had a lesson in that chapter. The things I thought would define success didn’t measure up. Depression crept back. My hair was falling out. And like I always do in those places, I went back to my art.
This time, I came back with a different level of clarity. Groundedness. Faith. I decided to quit the highest-paying job I’d ever had and fully commit to evolving Phresh Ingredient as a visual storyteller, curator of community, and producer.
That decision came with weight. I knew I was cutting my own water off and walking into the desert, metaphorically speaking. But I took that walk with grace. My resiliency forged through everything I’ve been through has grown into something I can only describe as grace. I leaned into it and trusted the uncomfortable
An opportunity came to travel to Barcelona to participate in a documentary program. It wasn’t institutional, so there was no financial aid; I had to fundraise. In building the campaign, I created a full production behind it, and that process reminded me of something important: I know what I do, and I do it well. I produced a short visual piece, collaborated with friends on merchandise, and built something beautiful. I didn’t raise enough to make the trip, but I gained something more valuable.
That same summer, while managing debt with my landlord and facing one of the hardest stretches of my life, something shifted in a single week. I found out I didn’t make the fundraiser goal. I got accepted into two major art exhibits. And I had to move out of my apartment with nowhere to go. I moved everything out myself, got rid of nearly all of it kept my clothes, gave away the rest, and walked forward.
That was the turning point.
Since then, I’ve been a part of the opening exhibit at Dupont Underground, collaborated with Press Club Bar of Records here in Washington, DC, shown work at Monad in Brooklyn for their Black History Show, and participated in the Black Creatives RVA: The Stories We Tell exhibit at the Library of Virginia in Richmond.
Through all of that, I stayed a student. I connected with one of the directors of photography and media at MICA Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, and was encouraged to apply for their MFA program in Photography, Media & Society. I was hesitant. I don’t have a bachelor’s or associate’s degree. But my portfolio spoke louder than a transcript.
A few weeks ago, I found out I was accepted. I’ll be starting in the fall.
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?
Has it been a smooth road?
(laughs) I have no idea what a smooth road is.
What I will say is this: my journey has been the scenic route. The route may seem longer than others, full of twists, turns, and sometimes backpedaling. But it’s been the most impactful journey because it’s mine. Taking the scenic route allowed me to truly see and feel every part of the process. If I had gotten somewhere too fast, I might have lost it just as quickly. Instead, I’ve been able to learn how to pace myself and, more importantly, how to accept myself, honor my truth, and resist the urge to compare my path to anyone else’s.
I spoke on a lot of the struggles already, but at the core of it, the main thing was not having clear direction or guidance on how to become who I was trying to be. There was a period where I wasn’t even approaching photography from a place of purpose; it was just therapy. It was survival. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, the clarity of why I do what I do took time to develop.
The struggles have been real: unemployment, housing instability, personal trauma. All of it. But I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything or anyone.
The deepest struggle, though? Not trusting myself. Having access to all of this, knowing this connection to something higher, but still learning how to fully embody it. Learning how to surrender. Learning how to walk in my power and purpose without needing external validation to confirm what I already am. That has probably been the biggest battle of my life. I’m not where I used to be, but it has been a genuine journey and healing process to translate that trust into every area of my life and to truly arrive at the understanding that I am already who I am and who I’m becoming.
That knowing doesn’t need anyone else’s stamp on it.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a visual storyteller, curator of community, and producer. I specialize in documentary portraiture and long-form photojournalism, with a focus on people who have existed on the margins of belonging and built something extraordinary from that place.
I shoot on film intentionally. Film demands presence, patience, and intention. My mantra, Stillness is the mother emotion, guides that. I’m not capturing everything; I’m waiting for the moment that tells the truth.
People say my work feels like I’ve known my subjects forever. That’s because I show up fully present, with genuine curiosity and no performance behind the lens. When people feel that honesty, something opens in them. That’s where the real image lives.
I’ve always existed slightly outside of wherever I am, a foreigner and an intimate at the same time. That tension is not a wound. It is the lens through which I create, and it’s what allows me to step into any community and be genuinely welcomed.
What sets me apart is that I don’t just take photographs; I build spaces where people feel seen.
What am I most proud of? The body of work I’ve built entirely on my own terms. Self-taught, no traditional degree, every obstacle navigated, and still carving out a lane that is undeniably mine.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Just being outside. I was the kid playing every sport, building forts, riding my bike miles from home to link up with homies in different parts of the city. Ding dong ditch, exploring, just playing. Getting hurt and having to suck it up because now you gotta walk all the way home and possibly face consequences when you get there. That’s just being a kid, and I loved every part of it. What’s beautiful is that it never left me. To this day, I love being outside, exploring, and traveling. A lot of the subjects I photograph come from me simply being out and about with my camera. I can draw a straight line from that kid always wanting to be outside and in the community to everything I do now.
And then there was the music. I’m an 80s baby who grew up fully in the ’90s, and I’ll just say it, that was one of the illest eras of hip hop, full stop. Rap City in the Basement is still my favorite show to this day. The VJs, the culture, the music just being on in the house constantly, all of that shaped me deeply.
My childhood was dope.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://phreshingredient.com
- Instagram: phreshingredient
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PhreshIngredient
