Meet Luke Bennett | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Luke Bennett and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Luke, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
Starting off you have no care in the world other than a burning desire to create and learn more. As you get more serious, social media is the biggest thing with early years of getting your art seen, with that comes jealousy, crippling doubt and demotivation a lot of the time. You learn that networking and pushing yourself as much as you can is one of the best ways, from my experiences, to get seen and meet people who are alike but even then it’s just a constant struggle. Then the whole aspect of trying to turn your hobbie into a business, which leads to the money aspect. Being a creative in photography or media in general isn’t the best paying thing. There’s options like selling work as NFT’s or prints which won’t be a constant guarantee of income unless you know a lot of people. It’s scary, the uncertainty that is. It’s always passion over money but in reality both are equal and need balance.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started off during the first few weeks of 2021. Seeming the pandemic was around, no concerts or anything was a possibility. So for a good eight months I’d just go around the neighbourhoods and towns in and around my area and do street photography. Loved every second of it. This year, the concert photography has been the peak of my creativity. Photographing people such as Robert Plant w/ Suzi Dian & Saving Grace twice, Eric Clapton, Greta Van Fleet twice, Rival Sons, Dirty Honey and Roger Daltrey. Quite the lineup I must say. I wanted to push my boundaries with my creativity, I love dreamy, colourful and vibrant and psychedelic styles that are bold and stand out to most concert photographs you see these days. Taking inspiration from music, nostalgic feelings and just going with the flow of editing.
Then after I’d visited beautiful Los Angeles for most of August I got back and had around 3000 photos to go through, which yes is a lot but seeing beauty EVERWHERE you go on the world with a camera in hand at all times, like my street photography hero Joe Greer, you just capture the most beautiful and outstanding snapshots in time you’ll forever cherish and let people see your way of viewing the world.
I’d implement the concert style of creativity into certain street photos which I now call my Snapsy Street Art…
Ah yes my nickname before I forgot, snapsy, this was given to me by a lifelong mate Sean one day and it’s just kinda stuck with me and it’s now kinda, iconic “snapsybennett” god I love that so much.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
With having split parents it’s kinda hard to pinpoint where I’d take them but the village at my dads hasn’t changed since the 70s pretty much, yknow the classic nostalgia looking villages you see on old TV series or films in the English countryside. Goin’ down to the beach is a fifteen minute drive and it’s a good place for having a walk, reading or having a campfire. It’s where I used to spend a lot of time. Burnham-on-Crouch is a short drive away where my childhood memories with my dad seeing him work on boats. There’s lots to do there, scenic strolls along the riverside, The Cabin is my favourite place for a Strawberry Shake or their amazing breakfasts. Thrift stores are a thing I enjoy looking and buying at, a little too much haha.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My grandfather is the one who kicked off this, spark. I’d always been creative growing up drawing etc. driving home from my grandparents one evening my dad said to me about him photographing Jimi Hendrix. Next time I saw him he talked to me about what he could remember and after that day, something just clicked. I wanna be photographing people with such a high status and history.

Website: https://snapsybennett.yolasite.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snapsybennett/

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/snapsybennett