Meet Kyle Williams of The World of Gwendana in Northwest Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kyle Williams.

Kyle, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am a fantasy, cosplay, and fashion photographer. When I started photography in 2009, I was really influenced by the fashion and lifestyle scene. There was something about creating vibrant, carefree imagery that grabbed my attention and interests. However, my life shifted significantly in 2014 when my mother, Gwendolyn, abruptly passed away from pancreatic cancer. From that moment on, I wanted to do something that was unique and carried more personal meaning. I was very focused on finding ways to celebrate and honor my mother’s life using photography as that tool. Around that time, I became very inspired by the looks of high fantasy, high concept fine art photographers such as Bella Kotak. I quickly came around to the idea of taking that inspiration and creating my own fantastical worlds and concepts and with that, “The World of Gwendana” was created in 2015.

I have long been fascinated by story-telling through imagination and imagery. With “Gwendana,” I had the opportunity to tell my own stories while blending multiple photographic genres. Initially, I planned to exclusively photograph personal and original concepts, though I quickly found that in many ways, the areas of fantasy photography and cosplay go hand in hand.

After attending my first Dragon Con in 2015, I was immediately pulled into the sea of elaborate costumes as well as the sheer unadulterated passion that cosplayers put into their work. You had this group of creatives who by force of will, put in hundreds of hours of work and craft to bring fictional characters to life. With that burst of inspiration, I quickly began to reach out local cosplayers and artists to see who was interested in shooting. After quite a bit of success, “The World of Gwendana” grew to encompass not only my original stories but the stories of so many passionate people and the costumes and characters they love.

Since creating “The World of Gwendana,” I have been given so many wonderful opportunities to work with incredible artists in the Atlanta, across the United States and even around the world. Just last year, I was able to set up shoots and create stories with people as far as Seattle, the United Kingdom, and even the Netherlands. Needless to say, “Gwendana” has grown quite a bit since its inception!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Trying to maintain a healthy work/life/relationship balance can be daunting. Since photography is not my full-time job, I have to find a balance between my day job, my passions, as well as my family/relationship needs and responsibilities. I am finding that trying to strike that balance requires an incredible amount of discipline as well as mindfulness. While I have grown in that regards, I still have quite a way to go. At the end of the day, I am not particularly interested in making my passion in photography my full-time job. I like keeping those separate and at most, have a career that can help enable me to pursue those passions on my free time.

Please tell us about The World of Gwendana.
“The World of Gwendana” focuses on story-telling through costuming and photography. It dives not only into original fantasy concepts but also cosplay. By blending elements of fashion, lifestyle, fantasy, and cosplay photography, I feel that I am able to create visually striking images while helping the cosplayer or costumer I am working with bring a story into reality.

Through the years, I have worked with an incredible number of cosplayers and artists on concepts ranging in size, scope, and genres. One day, I could be tackling a shoot with a high fantasy theme. The next may see something with more of a science fiction sort of edge. The next may even see me shooting with a Spider-Man or Spider-Woman on the top of a parking deck in downtown. When working at a convention such as Momocon in Atlanta or Katsucon in Washington, DC, I would be tackling all of those concepts all within the same day. As such, it requires an incredible amount of creativity to take an elaborate costume and make it look and feel like something that is real. It is something that I am very proud of doing.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
In the purest sense, I am not a person who strictly believes in “luck.” While I realize that I am lucky to have the opportunity to do something I am passionate about and I am lucky to have so many people out there who support me and are willing to help me create, I do not necessarily believe that luck is an “end all be all.” Yes, there is an element of “right place, right time” when it comes to success, but I honestly believe that it is far more important that a person puts in the work so that they are “in the right place” more often. This means working to build a solid reputation, building a strong body of work, and most importantly, building incredible relationships.

One example stands out in my mind. It was late 2015 when I decided to make a trip to Savannah for a photographer meetup weekend. It was a broad mix of photographers and artists with no purpose other than getting a group of creatives to meet and hang out. That weekend, I met one photographer, Dan Almasy of DEDPXL, and we hit it off pretty well. After quite a bit of discussions about our history and passion with photography, I mentioned that I was looking to get into the fantasy and cosplay scene. As it turns out, Dan had some very strong connections with some cosplayers based in Atlanta and he was happy to introduce me to them. Eventually, those connections led to some amazing shoots as well as other connections as I built a reputation as a quality photographer within the Atlanta cosplay scene. Long story short, while I was lucky to met Dan on that one off trip and I was lucky to have those connections, there was still a bit of work that had to be done to build those relationships, build a body of work as well as build trust which could lead to other wonderful opportunities down the road.