Photography + Art

I “met” Timm Chambliss of creative^artifacts via a friend/sorority sister (thanks Jan) and commissioned him to design our first website for a non-profit that I’ve been passionate about for years.  At the time, I was living in Hawaii and Timm in Georgia.  The website was created over many long hours of phone conversations and emails while we were miles apart.  During this time, I thought this man has a gift – I just can’t quite put my finger on it.  After moving to Georgia, I finally met Timm in person. I was able to see a small portion of his photography and graphic art. Once again, I would say, “this man has a gift. ”  The more I saw of his work  – the more I knew – God has truly blessed him with a talent and a gift like none other.

I had the opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with Timm and wanted to share some of his insight on how he got started and why he calls himself a visual artist more than a photographer.  You will also get to see “THE GIFT” in his pictures and why Mr. Chambliss’ work is so amazing!

LHE:  How did you get started?

TC:   Inevitably when someone achieves some degree of success in anything, the question is asked of its origins. In my case, I’m often asked how I started with photography, drawing, painting or even writing. In first grade I drew an elephant from the alphabet chart, you know the one with a capital and lower case E and an elephant to illustrate a word beginning with that letter. My elephant had palm trees ripe with coconuts sprouting from lush grass and even as I remember the details of it today, I have to admit it was pretty good for a first grader. My mother saw it and raved about it to everyone in the neighborhood and within telephone reach (except long distance, not in those days). She called me an artist and that is what I was from that day forward. She bought me oil paints and canvas, pastel chalks and sketch pads, I entered and won contests. Creativity became as much a part of me as anything else in my personality.

LHE:  So, your interest began as a child?

TC:  My interest in photography as an art form began while I was a non-commissioned Air Force officer in charge of pediatrics. My boss, Dr. Larry O’Brien, was an accomplished photographer with his own dark room (remember those?) and studio. When I purchased a fully manual Pentax 1000 SLR Camera, he gave me lessons. I shot hundreds of color and black and photos of various subjects including an albino deer that I happened upon in Del Rio, Texas.  After a couple of years concentrating on drawing and painting, I returned to photography as a part of my civilian job as an Air Force publicist at Incirlik Airbase in Turkey. I continued to use my own photography in conjunction with corporate images to create advertising for my German ad company http://www.facebook.com/l/ccf17RFyiOVPjcS7wCENyXSLM7Q;Eye.For.Graphics. During this time, I also started to produce stand alone artwork from my photography and photo software.

LHE:  Are you a Photographer or Visual Artist?

TC:  I’m hesitant to call myself a photographer, though it’s quite obvious that photography is a big part of what I do. I would prefer to call myself a visual artist because I’m concerned about the limitations associated with the title photographer. When I’m recording events, I try to provide a translation of what I think my clients want. It’s not my vision but theirs that I try to capture. There are two types of photography that I do actually: directed, which is what I do for others such as weddings, parties, events and family portraits; and non-directed, which is when I go out and have fun and shoot and create what I want either to support a story for a magazine or to make a statement or political point. Creativity is mostly about individual and independent thinking and it is expressed in everything that I do. Image making is just the most demonstrative way to express an idea, message or opinion or, in some cases, simply to record history.

LHE:  How can you be contacted, if someone is interested in your work?

TC:  Check out my website for what my company (creative^artifacts) does at http://www.facebook.com/l/ccf17cVgrZ6sUBcURFaUJaMjRHg; website at www.creative-artifacts.com or visit and like us at (creative^artifacts) on Facebook.

LHE: Thank you so much for allowing us to see a glimpse of what you see! Your work is too amazing not to share!

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF TIMM CHAMBLISS AND creative^artifacts