Meet Kristen Ballard

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Ballard.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I go by Kris for the purpose of my photography. I am a 20-year-old photographer from Atlanta, Georgia. I was born and raised in South East Atlanta specifically, just a few miles away from several famous and infamous Atlanta landmarks. I lived with my mother and younger brother, and we are very close to my grandmother, who lives only a few miles away in Stone Mountain. Photography has always interested me and I was often seen shadowing and mimicking my grandfather as a small child. As I got older and more serious about it, I received small digital cameras to use on school trips and family functions. Shortly after I turned 16, I received my first mirrorless camera and that thrust me into a newfound hobby. I would take photos of my classmates and friends every chance that I had and I started my photography Instagram page. In November of 2015, my grandfather passed away and it was extremely devastating for my whole family. For a long time, it was hard to pick up my camera, but I did and I was able to start capturing everything that I thought was important on camera. As my senior project in 2017, I self-published a book of my photography titled, “The Atlanta Book of the Living.” Now, I am currently a Multimedia Journalism student at Georgia Southern University as well as one of the on-staff photographers for the campus newspaper the George Anne. I am still very actively running my freelance photography business, Kris Ballard Photography, in both Statesboro and Atlanta.

Please tell us about your work.
I am a photographer. My favorite type of photography is portrait photography because I’ve always been drawn to faces and emotion and how each person expresses themself through faces that they make. Photography is a hobby turned business venture that I pursued heavily after the passing of my grandfather, Elijah Haliburton, who was also a photographer. After taking his passing particularly hard, I channeled my pain into creativity and took an interest in starting my own freelance business called Kris Ballard Photography. While it started off as taking photos of friends and family, it has grown into my own personal network of meeting other creatives, models, and people that are interested in having themselves or their work photographed. I take extreme pride in my photography and I hope that people take away an appreciation for people and their individualities when they look at my work and the fact that beauty really does encompass more than just outward looks and bubbly personalities. My artwork is made of my connections with people and it exudes the confidence that comes out of people when they become comfortable and let their inner personalities be shown on the outside of themselves. As long as any person who is letting me capture their moments and emotions, trusts me and my process, I can only ask that people see my artwork as a genuine expression of what was going on in the moment and enjoy the many faces of the artwork.

As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
Success for me is not just about being known, but having people support what I am doing and what I stand for. I think that the most essential quality for success as an artist is truth. I think that the best thing that you can do as a creative is to be true to yourself and be true to your audience and art. I think so many people try too hard to conform to what they see is most popular in their artistic lane, and it leads to a lot of people trying too hard to create the same type of art even if its not the type of art that they even want to be making, they are just doing it because they want to get attention on social media or make money. I think that I will only consider myself successful if I can stay true to my own artistic interests, and get other people interested in my interests as well, without having to compromise the type of photography I want to take or the type of business that I would like to run. I want my photography to represent me and my truth no matter what.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can view my work through my Instagram (@krisballardphotography) and website (knball5.wixsite.com/kaughtbykb). My work can also be viewed under the hashtag that I have created (#KaughtbyKB). People can support my work by booking, sharing my page with others, and following my work and journey through social media. My goal is to spread my work by working with other photographers, artists, and models, to create a strong network of creatives that want to capture important moments.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.knball5.wixsite.com/kaughtbykb
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krisballardphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/krisballardphotography/

Image Credit:
Kris Ballard

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