Rising Stars: Meet Kaire Umoja

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaire Umoja.

Hi Kaire, 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?
Before picking up a camera, I was already a creative person. When I was a kid, I’d love to draw, read comic books, watch anime, and build legos. All of it fueled my creative mind. Going into high school, I took all the art classes I possibly could take, I just loved to create. I found photography my sophomore year of high school. A friend of mine used to watch two photographers, Jared Polin and Manny Ortiz, on YouTube. They’d talk about camera bodies, lenses, aperture, and the exposure triangle. During our free periods, I began watching the videos with him and gained a good bit of knowledge about cameras.

Around the time, I started watching more photography videos on YouTube, I felt that my creativity was shifting from drawing to photography. My first camera was a Nikon Coolplix B500, it was a gift from my grandmother for my 16th birthday. I used to shoot everything I could so that I could get a good feel for using a camera. I began to feel that what I saw in my head was being communicated through the lens better than the pencil to paper.

My first paid photoshoots came in the summer of 2019. I had been taking prom pictures for my friends. That summer convinced me that photography was the medium that best matched my mind creatively. Going into senior year, I took a digital media class and was gifted my first DSLR, a Nikon D5600. With the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the world that year, I watched all the photography videos my head could take and tried to shoot as much as I could with friends, just trying to stay creative through weird times.

Now, I’m a sophomore Graphic Design Technology major at Fairmont State University.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’d say the biggest obstacle right now down my road of photography is being consistent while being a student-athlete. Between sports and school, the time for photography can be little to none sometimes.

Especially being in an entirely different state for school, it pulls me away from the connections that I have in Baltimore. I’d like to say it helps me though as well. Being away from home forces me to have searched for people that want to work and put myself and my work out there more. When I first started taking pictures, I was a perfectionist. I had a bad habit of comparing my work to photographers that had been taking pictures as long as I’ve been alive.

Learning to study what they actually do and what I can take from them and apply to my photographer help me realize that starting out I’m supposed to know everything, it takes a lot of trial and error to find what I like and then work it into my personal style.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I would say that I’m most known for my streetwear photography.

The majority of my photos are streetwear fashion and portraits. I’ve always been into shoes and fashion, so deciding what I wanted to capture was a no-brainer. I’d consider my style right now as an urban guerrilla. Each shoot, I’ve done so far it’s just been me and my camera and whatever the day throws at us and making the best out of it. I never stay in one spot when I shoot, I keep moving to give myself more space to imagine and create.

My approach to a piece depends on the subject, composition, and mood I’m aiming for. I pull my approach to photography from the posters I’d see in the windows of a Nike or American Eagle store in the mall when I was a kid. Each shoot is planned with its own vibe and essence, but I wouldn’t mind having a logo slapped on it or become a magazine cover.

While streetwear is the main style I shoot, I’d like to do a little bit of everything. During my freshman year of college, my photography teacher, Jared Tadlock. gave me a new perspective on being a collegiate athlete and using that to my advantage as a creative. Playing my sport, I know the actions shots I’d want of myself and what to look out for during the course of the game.

I’ve shot a sporting event before and it went well, so I feel with a sporting background I could ease into sports photography as well. I’d also want to try nature photography. Nature itself is a work of art and never-ending, the lengths that one can go to get a nature shot is the story itself.

How do you define success?
I think success is achieving any personal goals that you’ve set and being in a better position than you once were. Be it long or short term, anything you do in life you should want to improve. If you can look at yourself a month from now and notice a positive change in any aspect, that’s a form of success to me.

The better you become at making decisions that will better yourself, the more successful you can become. I also feel that success is doing right by the ones that have supported you along your journey. For me, my dad is the first person that I’ll always credit to the success I’ve had so far.

He’s always done his best since I was a kid to surround me with people that I’ve shown me the amount of hard work it takes to be successful; he’s always put me in the best positions possible to have the opportunities that he didn’t have. So with whatever goals I have, I do my best to succeed for myself, but also for the ones who’ve helped me along my journey.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaisimages/