The inspiration of Vanessa Paxton

I have always been into art. I love to create and I would do anything to make a living doing something artsy. I cannot even stand the thought of having a regular 9-5 job. My hands are too idle.

Magazine

Our printed editions, circulating throughout various galleries, festivals and agencies are dipped in creativity.

The spirit of DODHO’s printed edition is first and foremost an opportunity to connect with a photographic audience that values the beauty of print and those photographers exhibited within the pages of this magazine.

We invite professional and amateur photographers from all around the world to share their work in our printed edition.

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ban30.jpg

My name is Vanessa Paxton and I was born in Kingston, Jamaica. I moved to Canada eleven years ago. I am twenty-two and I have been doing photography for the passed seven years. I do not have one of those breakthrough stories where I happened upon someone’s Flickr stream and decided to give photography a go.

“I have always been into art. I love to create and I would do anything to make a living doing something artsy.”

I cannot even stand the thought of having a regular 9-5 job. My hands are too idle. Thus, in Grade 9 of high school I made the decision to pursue a field in the arts on a professional level. I started off with drama classes, and then switched over to drawing classes, sculpting, painting and then finally digital photography. And that is the one that stuck. I have a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Ryerson University in Photography Studies. I graduated last spring. I have since worked as a digital retoucher, photographer’s assistant, and am now a full time natural light portrait photographer. In my spare time I like to create, and sell my work.

Inspiration comes from all areas. I am mostly inspired by music, novels, and my dreams. I am sure my dreams reflect a melting pot of all the images I have seen, music I have listened to, books I have read, recent events and relevant past events. So it is really hard to pin point where exactly my ideas stem from. I was doing self-portraits long before the 365-Project came about and I remember ignoring the invite for some time before finally deciding to give it a try. I found it unnecessarily stressful to be taking a picture everyday, editing and uploading to meet a deadline, so I think I gave up around Day 160.

The 365-Project was good in the sense that it pushed me out of my comfort zone and that is definitely when I had my biggest learning curb. However, I started to feel like I plateaued on the creative front so I gave it up. It served its purpose. After the 365-Porject I worked on a number of personal projects, such as: The Color Project II, The Polaroid Project, Ballerina, Miniature World, The Clothes Line Project, and A Portrait Series (Link) . The portrait series developed into the style that I use today with my clients.

I also tried the 52-Weeksproject for a while after I graduated, but that only lasted until I started to get really busy with client work. That is when the reality of the real world kicked in. So far I have been doing well but I could always do better. It is difficult at times to juggle the two worlds, creative and professional, on top of my relationship with my long time partner, Mitchell LeBlanc. I only create when I feel the inspiration. I can’t force it and I refuse to force it for the sake of keeping active. I used to worry about falling into the shadows if I didn’t create, create, create, now, now, now, but whenever I forced it I ended up with something that had been done before and wasn’t truthful to my emotions. And those are often the images that don’t stick and get deleted. That is when I learnt that I create from within. I hope you enjoyed reading a little about me and that you will continue to follow my work. Feel free to ask me any questions or share your work with me: [email protected] [Official Website]

Image_01Image_02Image_04Image_05Image_07Image_08Image_09Image_10Image_11

Other Stories

stay in touch
Join our mailing list and we'll keep you up to date with all the latest stories, opportunities, calls and more.
We use Sendinblue as our marketing platform. By Clicking below to submit this form, you acknowledge that the information you provided will be transferred to Sendinblue for processing in accordance with their terms of use
We’d love to
Thank you for subscribing!
Submission
Dodho Magazine accepts submissions from emerging and professional photographers from around the world.
Their projects can be published among the best photographers and be viewed by the best professionals in the industry and thousands of photography enthusiasts. Dodho magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted project. Due to the large number of presentations received daily and the need to treat them with the greatest respect and the time necessary for a correct interpretation our average response time is around 5/10 business days in the case of being accepted.
- Between 10/30 images of your best images, in case your project contains a greater number of images which are part of the same indivisible body of work will also be accepted. You must send the images in jpg format to 1200px and 72dpi and quality 9. (No borders or watermarks)
- A short biography along with your photograph. (It must be written in the third person)
- Title and full text of the project with a minimum length of 300 words. (Texts with lesser number of words will not be accepted)
This is the information you need to start preparing your project for its presentation
To send it, you must compress the folder in .ZIP format and use our Wetransfer channel specially dedicated to the reception of works. Links or projects in PDF format will not be accepted. All presentations are carefully reviewed based on their content and final quality of the project or portfolio. If your work is selected for publication in the online version, it will be communicated to you via email and subsequently it will be published.
Contact
How can we help? Got an idea or something you'd like share? Please use the adjacent form, or contact [email protected]
Thank You. We will contact you as soon as possible.
Submission
Dodho Magazine accepts submissions from emerging and professional photographers from around the world.
Their projects can be published among the best photographers and be viewed by the best professionals in the industry and thousands of photography enthusiasts. Dodho magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted project. Due to the large number of presentations received daily and the need to treat them with the greatest respect and the time necessary for a correct interpretation our average response time is around 5/10 business days in the case of being accepted. This is the information you need to start preparing your project for its presentation.
To send it, you must compress the folder in .ZIP format and use our Wetransfer channel specially dedicated to the reception of works. Links or projects in PDF format will not be accepted. All presentations are carefully reviewed based on their content and final quality of the project or portfolio. If your work is selected for publication in the online version, it will be communicated to you via email and subsequently it will be published.
Get in Touch
How can we help? Do you have an idea or something you'd like to share? Please use the form provided, or contact us at [email protected]
Thank You. We will contact you as soon as possible.
WE WANT YOU TO SHOW US YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS SO WE CAN SHOW IT TO THE WORLD
AN AMAZING PROMOTIONAL TOOL DESIGNED TO EXPOSE YOUR WORK WORLDWIDE