Imagine pausing your life for a whole year, putting school, your job, meetings and responsibilities on hold and packing your bags. Now imagine setting sail in your families boat into an adventure of a lifetime. This is exactly what Parker Cullom Stewart did. Parker, a self taught photographer from Greensboro, N.C, set sail from Grenada in 2008 to embark on a journey that would not only make a lasting impact on his photography, but on him as a person. When asked about his trip Parker’s first words were,
“It’s an experience I’ll never forget and it changed my life forever. I learned more from traveling from island to island on our boat, Panache, than I ever could have in a classroom.”
After such an amazing year, there was no doubt in Parker’s mind that he wanted to be an editorial travel photographer. Parker revealed how his experiences influenced his career. He stated,
“My time in the Caribbean really made me realize that I could turn photography from a hobby into a career. I think every artists get to a certain point where they know that they are going to commit to their talent and build their life around it.”
He has a way of capturing simple things that go unnoticed to the common eye, things such as sunlight passing through a window of an old shanty, or a freshly formed footprint in the St. Lucian sand. He sees beauty in everything and captures that beauty that is often overlooked in his photographs.
From a young age, Parker was drawn to art and the creative aspect of things. With his mom being an artist there was always something lying around the house that ignited a spark of creativity. Even the walls of his house were covered in art. At 13, he asked for his first camera (a Panasonic Lumix) and began snapping pictures of things that he believed to be “beautiful.” That very summer, he and his family took a trip to Italy, where he really began to use his camera. He returned from the trip with a collection of pictures to be proud of and even more inspiration than ever before. Years later at nineteen, Parker now has six more cameras, three of which he uses on a daily basis that range from DSLR Canons to film Nikons.
Looking at Parker’s pictures, you can tell he is driven. His unique style brings something new with every picture he takes. It’s amazing to see how his photography has evolved since he began. Parker has won several awards, and his photographs have been displayed in coffee shops, SCAD art shows, and even sold at auctions. At only 19, Parker has staked his claim in the photography world with a prize winning picture that now hangs on a wall in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C. If his photography achievements aren’t impressive enough, he plays bass guitar in a band called Deep Search. Parker described his band,
“We’ve got a very low-fi, underwater, indie sound. It’s so fun getting into playing music again. I’ve missed it. Besides photography and surfing, music is my next passion. We’re starting to get shows line up with other local bands in Savannah and hope to start playing shows in Charleston and Wilmington eventually.”
Parker is currently a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia and couldn’t be happier. As a declared Photography major he works countless hours on projects, but he loves every minute of it. When asked about his favorite words of wisdom, Parker stated,
“Compared to my friends at home I made a radical decision going into a creative career like photography versus studying something like business at state school. Before coming to SCAD I was given both praise and criticism for making the decision I did. People were proud of me for doing something different and going for what I love but also there were downers who would say “how are you going to make a living?” I never took the criticism the heart. It just pushed me to prove people wrong. I’ve been told to “do what I love” and “Never give up.” That’s what I’m doing, and that’s what I live by everyday.”
There’s so much more to Parker than just a boy with a camera in his hand. When you look beyond the camera, behind it, you find a very special, driven and talented person that has an amazingly bright future ahead of him. His incredible photographs speak loudly on who he is as person. Photography is his passion, and nothing can steer him away from it.
Check out Parker’s Blog here : http://parkstewphoto.blogspot.com/
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