Logan Reeves’s love for photography has turned into something more
May 7, 2021
Sitting on a log, getting low to the ground, senior Logan Reeves adjusts his camera before snapping a shot of a nearby frog. The frog seems to pose for the picture, providing a good shot for the photograph.
Reeves has been doing photography for the past five years. He loves creating social issue pieces and landscapes, expressing himself through this artwork. Reeves’s love for photography began with a close friend who got him into it.
“He started creating a portfolio and I was like ‘well that’s cool,’ so I kind of did too,” Reeves said.
Reeves may go months before taking his next photo as he frequently gets into a rut as his emotions control his work.
“I’m definitely in this rut of not knowing what I want my next piece to be,” Reeves said. “I don’t know if there’s things that inspire me; it’s more just like an overall emotional feeling. I’ve noticed over the years that the social issue pieces are created when I’m feeling deeply sad about a topic— that’s normally when I take the photos and when they are passionate; however, more of the landscape photos are taken when I’m in this explosive state of happiness, or passion or inspired or all of those, all of those feelings and emotions.”
Although he loves his work, Reeves never puts his photos up for awards.
“[Photography] is an expression of myself and it makes me happy,” Reeves said. “It’s one of those things that I’ve worked hard on. I really don’t care what other people think and that’s why I’ve chosen not to put it in places like awards, because to me it just doesn’t really matter. I’m doing something that I love and that I’m pretty good at.”
Reeves’s photos are mostly raw with very minimal editing; however, he will sometimes do what is known as color correcting— messing with the colors of the photo by making them brighter or duller. He loves things that pop with color and when looking at his work, he frequently uses “earthy” tones: greens, greys, browns and blues.
According to Reeves, photography is all about expression. “It’s not about other people, it’s about me, it’s about finding something that you’re passionate about, it’s about finding something that makes you passionate,” Reeves said. “That’s my favorite part is feeling that feeling. That’s why I do it.”
Throughout his time as a photographer, Reeves has never made his work for recognition of others. Instead, he uses his work to inspire people.
“I know other photographers are recognition-based— they do it because they want recognition,” Reeves said. “But for me, it’s just because I want to inspire other people. I know that sounds weird because I don’t have the biggest following and I don’t expect to get one. But I think it goes back to that original friend. He inspired me to start something that turns out that I really liked. So if I can do that to one person, that’s cool and I’m okay with that.”
Currently, Reeves is looking at careers in either photojournalism or children’s therapy.
“I’d probably major in something like photography then minor in journalism,” Reeves said. “The other thing I’m looking at is completely unrelated, and that’s more like children’s therapy and then just leaving photography as a hobby later.”
To see more of Reeves’s work, check out his Instagram @logannreeves.
