Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Irick.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Well, I guess you could say that everything lowkey got started for me back in high school. I used to take tons of photos of the cat we have and just post those to Instagram. Eventually, I was about to graduate high school and there was always this perceived notion that I had to go to college, and I pretty much had no idea what to do. With the cat pictures getting love and my parents buying me my first point-and-shoot camera, I decided photography it is. So, I went to a technical college for 1.5 years and was able to actually learn a lot about how to really use a camera and how to actually use photoshop. People hate on college a lot, me including, but if you have the right instructors, you can learn an incredible amount.
After that, I pretty much just took pictures here and there for people if they asked while working jobs at a pizza place, a hotel, and my last job was changing tires and oil on cars. I rode that bus for a long time it seems like, but eventually, I realized that things wouldn’t change in the ways that I wanted unless I did more myself to make it actually happen. It sounds obvious, but it just literally hit me in the face one random day at work. Then from that point on, I made a point to be more active in the community and to do anything I could to put myself out there more. From going to and shooting any and every local rap show, I heard about, to then hitting up my favorites from those shows to link and create. That’s when things really began to change for the first time for me and the photo game.
As I was shooting more people, other random people would see my work and then be interested in shooting. As I did more work with more people, I was eventually asked to shoot a video for an art party being held in downtown. They were fully aware I had never shot video before but thought I could do it for some reason. I had always told people I would never do video, that I was a photographer only. But when the opportunity actually came about, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to see what could be done. Since it was my first video, I had never edited video before and immediately thought to outsource and there was only one person that came to mind when I thought of local video editors: my now brother, Drake. I had seen his music videos he was making and I just knew that he was onto something that nobody else in the city was onto. I had never met him, but I decided that I would just hit him up and see if he would be down to work and see what we could do and he was.
Long story short from there, we’ve shot close to 150 music videos, interviews, commercials, vlogs, and even a 23-minute documentary on a local artist. He’s easily been one of the realest dudes I’ve met in the three years we’ve known each other and has undoubtedly helped elevate the overall look and standard that the local rap scene now has. A lot of people will tell you it’s always better to work by yourself and to not get too close to people with your work. I really think that if you can find the right people/person, everyone’s talent can be taken to another level because of each other.
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 really feel like it hasn’t been too bad for me. I can’t even lie. My main issues seem to stem from my own lack of self-confidence and lack of money. It’s hard to keep up with $15,000 cameras with a Nikon D750. Which apparently isn’t even a videographer’s camera, but it sure does get the job done in the right hands. I’m working on saving up for something much nicer, but I kind of want a house first, so I still gotta see what’s up.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
In short, Irick Images is currently a photo and video business. More known for our music video production and live performance photography. We really try to set ourselves apart by being as engaged with each artist as possible when working with them. I’ll go as far as pulling up on them and sitting down and talking out the full video/idea face to face. I really feel like that’s the best way to create what’s best for each individual artist. No two artists are exactly the same, so there’s always different things you can do in every video and meeting up with them makes it way easier for me and the artist to convey what we both think would be best. I also do this all before they put any money down or anything. I just don’t want them to feel pressured into doing something and us having to comprise the overall quality of the video just because of a payment.
The most proud moment as a company so far would definitely have to be winning Best Music Photographer and Music Video of The Year in the Upstate Music Awards on two separate years. I’ve been working extremely hard for years now, and to be recognized by my peers means more than almost anything.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
To keep pressing forward. It is really easy to get drained and want to quit, but if you want to truly succeed you are going to have to do more than you may be used to. In the end, it is going to be worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: irickimages.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/irickimages
- Facebook: facebook.com/irickimages
- Twitter: twitter.com/irickimages
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JustinIrick/
Image Credits
All Photos by me, Irick Images
