Meet Parker Lavender | Photographer

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

Hi Parker, what are you inspired by?
After recently moving to Colorado I have been inspired by all of the natural beauty. Moving or visiting a new place is always a great refresher for artistic inspiration! While Michigan had so much nature and beauty to offer for 24 years. Colorado has opened my eyes to new geographic options for my photography.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
While much of my artistic work is nature photography I do enjoy shooting portraits. As seen in my piece “FAM” which was for my senior art exhibit a Northern Michigan University I captured 25 portraits of friends and explained how college can bring people closer together to develop friendships and groups you might consider a “family”. With pieces like that, it shows how my work can be more personal and relatable within the ideas that are behind the work and in the artist’s statement.

I do not consider myself a “popular” or “well-known” artist within the photography community. Gaining recognition is HARD! But never stopping what you love and what inspires you will always beat being a well known artist. And keeping that mindset will show within your work and make someone a better artist rather than one that appeals to standard social media views.

I’ve learned to not worry about what other viewers might think or feel about your pieces. While critical feedback can be beneficial in improving your artwork and skills you have to be able to weed out the hate and learn to grow from the beneficial feedback. Life will never stop throwing challenges at you as a person or an artist. So take it all in and learn to improve yourself and your work!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
One of my favorite places has been Nederland! Such a great small town up in the mountains. As well as myself being a fan of the Grateful Dead I found many other locals to have similar interests as I. Colorado has so much to offer for outdoor exploration. a few other favorite places are Rocky Mountain National Park and Lookout Mountain in Golden, CO.

For food and drink, I enjoy going to Cherry Creek and trying new restaurants in that area. Some of my favorites are Cherry Cricket, Blue Island Oyster Bar, and North Italia. For drinks, a fun and hip spot is the Moxy to sit in the lobby or by their firepits.

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?
I graduated from Northern Michigan University with a BFA in Art and Design focused on Photography. Northern has such a great art program I would recommend it to anyone. Christine Lenzen was my Advisor and favorite professor by far. She did a fantastic job at showing her students different photography processes such as cyanotypes and darkroom processes. As well as challenging students to dive deeper and within their ideas and pushing them to excel and broaden their creative processes. She can be found on Instagram as Christinelenzen.

Instagram: Sloans_photos

Facebook: Parker Lavender Photography

Image Credits
Parker Lavender