Meet Justin Krompier | Photographer

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

Hi Justin, what is the most important factor behind your success / the success of your brand?

The most important factor behind my brand is authenticity. Most of my business is run through Instagram which can be a really tough place to navigate and stand out. I’ve found that most people on that platform tend to follow the crowd and it feels incredibly inauthentic to me. I’ve always loved the idea that trying to be anyone else is a perfectly good waste of who I am and have really tried to create an atmosphere on my page that feels authentic and now my followers, customers and clients expect that. Authenticity is my standard.

It was always important to me that I build an organic following by simply posting my photography, my story and my life as authentically as I possibly can and Im proud to say that is exactly what we’ve done on my IG.

I didn’t start posting during the early days of IG when photographers were blowing up, I’ve never bought followers, I don’t have an Instafamous love interest who tags me in every story and lets me use their photography presets, my friends don’t have massive feature accounts that they gas me up on, I don’t post racy images or videos of myself in epic places (although that’s subject to change), I don’t ask silly questions in my captions to increase engagement, I don’t geotag specific locations with delicate ecosystems or infrastructures to draw more eyes to my work, and I don’t post fake, disingenuous nonsense because it’s trending at the moment, I don’t even post my van on that one road in Alabama hills for Christ’s sake! It’s just my work, my thoughts and some Seinfeld memes.

Im just grateful my principals have lead to an absolutely amazing, real, authentic support system on IG and even some of the closest friends in real life when it would be easier to follow the crowd.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

My art is a physical representation of a life beyond my wildest dreams, where once my world was so small, now my world is limitless. I feel like im making up for all the times my only view was my bedroom and a small bag of enough drugs to get me through one more day without getting sick. I’ve lived through so much pain and ugliness that it’s an unbelievable and, often-times, surreal juxtaposition to be able to witness so much beauty now with my own two eyes. That beauty not only deserves to be seen but presented in a way that evokes that same joy for life and the natural world that I felt in that moment to the viewer.

While I love the idea of my work hanging in homes and on walls all over the world, my only real goal at this point is to inspire others that feel as hopeless as I did. I think the deepest satisfaction I could get as an artist isn’t that someone look at my work and think, “wow that’s a beautiful photograph!”, but rather, “wow if that guy can do it, so can I.” In that way, every photograph I take is another opportunity to inspire hope.

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?
If I had a week to spend in Colorado with a friend Id love to give them a little taste of the places that have given me the most memories and joy. I’d take them to a concert at red rocks, Id take them for a burger at “the 49th” or pizza at “the blue pan”. I would definitely take them into the mountains. We would hang in Carbondale or I’d take them to Crested Butte or the San Juan area. We would have to hike a 14er and maybe climb the flatirons. We would watch the sunrise at Maroon Bells or dream lake. I’d take them to Orvis hot springs. There really is so much to do and so much beauty in Colorado that it might be impossible for me to fit everything Id want to into one week but those things would be where I’d start for sure.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Endless thanks and gratitude for the network of recovering addicts who took me in when I was broken and loved me back to life until I could learn to love myself again. Without them, I might not be alive to tell my story. My profressional mentors who showed me the ropes and continue to guide me through the ever-present challenges of freelance photography. My friends and my family who supported my decision to quit my 9-5 with nothing to my name but a hope and a dream of becoming a working photographer.

Website: Justinkrompier.com

Instagram: Just_passinthrough

Twitter: Just_passinthru