Shoot, Shoot, Shoot.

If you’ve seen Billy Kidd’s photography, you would probably never put his name and the word ‘horrible’ in the same sentence. But it happened.

Billy doesn’t remember his first camera or his first picture, but he recalls that, probably during a short stint in college is when he found the camera and became interested.  “I really don’t remember. You know, mad cow. My brain doesn’t work like it used to. But it wasn’t that long ago.”

He’s joking of course, about the mad cow bit, but he’s plain serious when he tells us about when he first started taking pictures. “I was horrible,” he says. “I didn’t have any inspiration, and didn’t connect photography with art. It wasn’t until I shot a friend – a woman – that I shot anything good.”

Billy’s not living out some childhood dream. His dad didn’t hand him a camera when he was young and seal his fate. There were of course, “a million little things,” that lead to this point. “Nothing really important”, says Billy, “except I had a lot of support from my family and friends.”

It helps when you consider someone like Hailey Clauson a close friend. “She is one of my muses,” Billy explains. ‘Sexy and intelligent’, Clauson “is a model that as blown through the roof since last season. She’s recently shot for DSquared2, Gucci, Jill Stuart, and walked some of the biggest shows. This season, she’s going to be an even bigger deal.”

Once Billy figured out his inspiration, he put himself out there, but only just.

If you think we mean to tell you that a kid named Billy found a camera one day, and decided he’s going to shoot the hottest new faces in New York, well, that’s the short version, and not exactly.

Billy Kidd knows a thing or two – or everything – about hard work and hustling. Self-made, self-taught, Billy’s compulsion, or rather, ‘obsession’  – as his girl friend, Heather Huey refers it – for photography, pushed him to get girls in his studio. “I went to Marilyn Agency [NY], and they gave me girls, then other agencies started calling, and now magazines are calling. It kind of snowballs from there.”

He didn’t just decide New York City would be his playground. Living in this city has proved to be almost necessary for Billy’s gig. “It’s all in the resources” he says, “everything is here – models, set designers, stylists, etc. Not to mention, the culture. In New York, I have so much more to work with than anywhere else I have lived…” i.e., everywhere along the West Coast. Everything he needs is here, and he knows just what to do with it. As you might imagine, Billy spends lots of time sourcing, shooting, and editing, but always making time for life. “Living life is my inspiration. So, I spend a lot of my time doing that. I do spend a lot of time shooting. a lot of stuff, people don’t see, and probably never will.”

And while he may not visually share all that extra stuff he shoots, he does share it by means of advice for aspiring photographers. “Shoot, shoot, shoot.”

And in furtherance to debunking the short version, he’s not shooting new faces. “That term ‘new face’ is so subjective,” says Billy. “It’s just that a girl can be on the scene for years, and only when she starts to get attention, that’s when she’s considered a new face.”

Should Billy want to know more about a ‘face’, he goes to models.com. “Shout out to Stephan Moskovic [the sites founder]…they are all there.”

But Billy’s not just interested in the face. He takes his time to get to know his subjects, the girls. He gives direction when he shoots, but lets them do their thing too. You should have a personality. A willingness to open up and let loose. He doesn’t just want to shoot a body, he wants to shoot a person. It’s all there in plain sight, in Billy’s stills; the soft yet hard, raw and emotional motion in still-life, a minimal and simple beauty. Arresting.

Some well-informed people are suggesting, that Billy Kidd is ‘the next big thing’, that ‘he’s headed for the big leagues’. Ever humble, Billy replies, “the Big leagues are about 20,000 leagues away. I’m just an artist doing what I do.”

The lucky ones will say, “I was shot by Billy Kidd.”

 Tell us about yourself.

I was born in Panama City, Florida in 1980. At the age of six, my family sold everything in a garage sale and I made 20 dollars. I thought it would be fun to put it in a small wooden box, and bury it in the front yard I still can’t find it… We packed up the few things we didn’t sell and headed to the west coast in an RV. Driving through the southwest was a great experience. Buying a bag of ice in death valley cost $3, in 1987. I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. I have a son who has made me the man I am today. My friends and family are everything to me. I’m addicted to chocolate. I live in Brooklyn, NY.

Favorite authors:
George Orwell
Aldous Huxley

Playlist:
Andrew Bird
Mendelssohn
Aloe Blacc
System of a Down

“Billy Kidd is my real name. My parents named me after my grandfather… and nope, not related [to William Winston aka Billy Kidd, or to Billy Kidd the football player, nor to Billy Kidd the magician]… though I am related to Captain Kidd. [As in the pirate hunter?!]  “As in, the pirate that was beheaded for treason for doing what the queen asked  .”

Why do you shoot?

It’s a compulsion… My girlfriend laying on my bed behind me is saying I have an obsession. Art is all I know. I’m a painter, sculptor, creator. first and foremost, I am a photographer. Creating is all I know.

Equipment?

Any camera, the sun, light bulbs, and my beloved Mac. of course I like Canon more than Nikon, but in the end they do the same thing. They are all tools that help you create.  It’s important to have an idea, but it should always be a vague idea. When you set an idea in stone, and ignore other sights, you loose so many opportunities.

Favourite shoot experience?

So many. Facebooking Hailey to come over and shoot. We played with a black and white sheet for an hour and got so many beautiful shots. One of which is my favorite portraits in white.
…I get excited when I get to shoot any true artist or actor/actress. Shooting Paul Dano for Blackbook magazine made me giddy like a little school girl. Real cool guy.  [editors note: in 2010, Billy Kidd was awarded the PDN Faces for Portraits of Paul Dano directly below & Awarded 2010 PDN The Look for portraits of Pharrell Williams/NERD]

Worst shoot experience?

I’ve made it work.

What do you love shooting the most?

Women.  The Body is an amazing thing, incredibly intricate, it just fascinates me.

Muses?

Heather Huey, who is one of the greatest emerging milliners and accessories designers, and my lover. Bo Don, Hailey Clauson, Merethe Hopland, Anais Pouliot are beautiful models that are well known in the industry. A muse is inspiration, they don’t necessarily need to be in the image, but most often they provoke an emotion.

Favourite photographers?

Paolo Roversi, and old school natural and classic beauty. Nick Knight transcends normalcy. And Peter Lindbergh allows his girls to be natural and doesn’t over retouch, he lets women be women.


What is your dream shoot?

To have the creative freedom to do what ever I want to do… and the budget... I never really know what I do, till I do it, but it will happen.

What is the perfect picture?

The perfect picture is different for everyone. It is what I believe it to be. Just as Aristotle said about beauty. “Beauty is what i believe beauty to be”. It doesn’t matter what others think, it matters what I think, and then I show others my thoughts. I haven’t made the perfect picture yet.

Whats next for you?

The next step is far away. I’m in no rush to go any where. I just want to create. I’ve only put myself out there. We’ll see were I go next.









Images courtesy of Billy Kidd via Think CONTRA

Hilary Lauren Fox
		About the author:
		Sometimes she's a redhead, sometimes she's a blonde. Some days it's H&M, and on other days, it's Chanel. What ever the mood, she is a woman who is passionate about the arts, fashion and social media. Born in Toronto, Hilary Lauren Fox is an only child to artist parents - mom was an illustrator and pattern maker, dad was a painter.  Rather then studying the arts as her parents hoped for, Hilary opted for a degree in psychology with dreams of working in a clinical setting. But after graduating she realized that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and that the arts was in her blood, applying her education within the art and fashion world.
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