For our third volume of Quality in Life, we have been lucky enough to have our good friend Kevin Kwong, a Vancouver-based photographer, who has agreed to tell us about his journey with photography and how it has transformed from hobby to career. Throughout his journey, Kevin has taken to shoot a variety of things such as nature, travelling, lifestyle, and more recently the automotive industry. Whatever the case may be, his journey with photography has been a constant learning opportunity to provide the best quality for whomever he is shooting for. Most notably, Kevin has shot for major brands such as Lexus Canada, Porsche Canada, WestJet Magazine and many more. If you are able to shoot with him, it is quite easy to see through his work that he always goes that extra mile and strives to produce something amazing. Over the years he has done amazing work and greatly expresses both quality and community. What started as taking photos casually has now transformed into a passion-driven career for him. This is the reason why we took the time to learn more about who Kevin Kwong is and how his work has grown into something that people know, respect, and want to be a part of.
When we asked about Kevin’s journey with photography the answer we got was quite unexpected. In the beginning, Kevin noted that photography was not his passion, but something that he thought was interesting. At the time, it was his father who was into photography and that gave him his first camera at the end of high school. He said that it was not only to teach him about photography but also to teach him patience as this was a time in his life where he claims he did not have much of that. The summer after high school, he began to dive deep into research about photography. Around the same time, Kevin says he was mainly doing astrophotography and also taking photos of nature during 2016, which was his first year at UBC Okanagan. During the summer that followed, he says that he went from only taking his camera out sometimes to doing so almost always. A few months later, Kevin’s interest in photography began to deepen as his father took him to a Leica camera store in Seattle. It was after that day that he said his passion for Leica cameras was ignited. It was not until his second year of university in 2017 that Kevin began to attend various events where he was able to shoot cars. He noted that this was quite enjoyable as he had always been interested in automobiles since a young age.
From the time between 2018 and 2019, Kevin had purchased a new camera and was contacted by one of his high school friends to shoot for Lexus Canada. It was this opportunity that allowed him to understand that his passion lied with commercial photography. After this, Kevin notes he was able to shoot at several events and meet some of his now close friends at one event named Diamond Rally, which grew his network. During this point in time, he was also able to shoot for a number of other big automotive brands within Canada. A year later, during the pandemic, Kevin had a lot of time to think about what he truly wanted to do. He stated that during this time he was able to find that the pursuit of his post-graduate degree was not quite what he wanted for himself. He then decided to leave his position at the law firm he was employed at during this time and take photography more seriously as a career. It was at this time that he began to adjust the pricing of his work and took on new clients and was able to both foster a community of people who appreciate his work and be able to have creative freedom with his process. However, Kevin said that he had struggled for a while to be able to have clients who truly appreciated his work and the price point associated with it. Nevertheless, he kept pushing forward and continued to produce quality work that he knew was something people would begin to appreciate. As such, his determination and hard work had not gone unnoticed. In recent months, Kevin had been contacted by Fueler magazine to shoot for their upcoming magazine. Afterwards, they asked him to be a part of their team to go shoot in Berlin for Formula E’s last race of the season, which he more than happily accepted. He said that this was a surreal experience which he would use as motivation to try and be successful in his career. He now looks forward to more opportunities with shooting from a commercial standpoint and hopes to keep improving on his passion that has turned into his career. Kevin’s journey with photography has been one filled with trial and error along with some obstacles. However, his journey is specifically why we had so much fun learning about his creative process and how he is able to express quality and community through it.
As we found out more about how Kevin expresses quality and community through his work we could not help but be amazed. The first thing to note is the amount of detail that goes into each and every shot he does. For example, if he works on a shoot for cars on a strip of road, he makes sure to go to that location a few days prior in order to scout the location and spend a lot of added time to make sure that the shoot goes as planned. He even goes so far as to use applications to know where the exact position of the sun will be and how it will impact the photos being taken along that road. Kevin stressed that within his profession, quality really does stand out because everything is interpreted from a visual standpoint. As such, he says that commercial photography is where he feels the best about the work he produces because he knows that he will have full creative freedom with the shoot and have the ability to produce the best quality. However, along with the quality of work comes balance. Kevin stressed that in order to produce quality, he needs a good balance between work and rest. There was a period in time where he overworked himself to the point that he could not sleep properly, which ultimately impacted the quality of his work. Moreover, Kevin said that the community aspect of his journey was more noticeable in 2020 when he went to look for his dream camera from Leica. He noted that he was able to find his own community in the Leica world as the community was more niche and that they were more willing to learn about you, help you more, and keep in contact with you. During his experience shooting with Fueler for Formula E, he even had the opportunity to become friends with a Leica ambassador and has since kept in touch. The automotive community has always been there for Kevin, but the camera community that he found was quite unexpected and turned out to be very nice. Further, he stated that gaining a community in photography directly translates into fostering a community in general that can appreciate the level of quality he aims to produce.
Kevin says that through his work he is now able to keep growing a community of people that look forward to a level of quality that he maintains for each and every shoot. This is exactly why we were so excited to have the honour of interviewing Kevin. The level of love and care that goes into his work is something that Koterie also strives for in our journey with creating garments. We hope that through this article, you were intrigued and learned more about what quality and community mean to Kevin and how it is expressed through photography.