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A Whirlwind Tour
I met Greg Davis at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival in Dallas in April. Greg was a successful technology salesperson when he quit his job in 2004 to travel around the world for a year. With only a $400 point-and-shoot camera, he documented his experience. Despite his lack of formal training, Greg has developed a new career from his “vacation pictures,” which have won various awards, including Best Environmental Message at International Artexpo in New York in February. I decided to interview him due to his unique insight into international travel, risk taking, and the intersection of culture and economics. While his viewpoint is a little different than mine, I think you will find the change of pace fascinating.
Jennifer Barry: Thanks for agreeing to talk with me about your experiences. What made you decide to quit your job?
Greg Davis: I felt it, I knew I wasn’t on the right path. I decided to embrace coincidence and pay attention to what I call “God winks.” That ultimately led me to becoming a full-time artist.
JB: So, it was a gut feeling that the job was wrong for you?
GD: You could say that. I was 35 when I quit my job. I now have kids who are 16, 18 years old come up to me at shows, inspired by my story. I simply tell them, “You’re closer to your dream than I was. Go for it!” People forget their dreams - they have jobs, responsibilities, kids. They say, “I can’t change.” But you have to go and capture your dream now. Don’t wait for retirement unless of course you’re really close already.
When I was younger I had this dream to be a photographer for National Geographic. In high school I was on the school paper and I was the photographer for six months. I had this old Canon and I took a few shots. They weren’t that good. I had no professional training, and expectations were low. All I needed was to get a few shots of the football team or whatever. But then I got out of that and went to college and moved on. I left it behind. There was nothing to ever give me the idea that I would be on the path I am now.
I rolled the dice. I was given a gift and now I shoot with a purpose. I can already see improvement in my work. Photography is about being in the now. It’s that 1/250 of a second, just a blink of an eye and then it’s gone. When you’re shooting a brief moment in time, you can’t stop everything and say, “Hey, would you all do that again? I didn’t get that.”
JB: Did you ever have a moment of doubt when you thought maybe I shouldn’t have quit my job?
GD: No, I never felt I wanted that job back. I needed a break from corporate America. I was at the end of my rope. In a short period of time, my dad died, my first cousin died, I was attacked by a gang and almost killed, I was in a car crash, and a first cousin was diagnosed with brain cancer. I was saying to life, “Please get me out of here.” That’s when I started embracing coincidence.
JB: I’m sorry to hear that. I can understand wanting a change of scenery after that.
GD: I didn’t have a lot of money at that time either. A lot of my savings were wiped out in the dot-com crash, in tech stocks. I had about US$18,000 after it all, and I didn’t want to invest it in a house. I felt I would then be stuck in the same job trying to pay for it. So I took off. When I came back from my trip I was close to broke. I literally had to start over.
Becoming a professional photographer was a total accident. I was lucky to bump into a local art market in Austin. At the time, I didn’t know anything about how to sell my work. I happened to be meeting a friend for lunch one day and, it was near this little local art show. I asked the show organizer how to get started. I spent about $300 or $400 on getting my work printed and framed and set up my booth with a little bamboo design for Asian flair. I made money that first day and have been doing it ever since. I believe in doing things 100% or don’t bother doing them at all.
JB: Is that how you promote yourself primarily, doing shows?
GD: Yes, I travel all over the country selling my work. I just got back from Artexpo in New York last month where I won an award. I met my girlfriend Lauren while exhibiting at the Austin City Limits last year. She helps me a lot, she’s great. We’re planning to do a mountain tour of Colorado this summer and do some shows there.
In fact, Olympus contacted me four days ago and sent me one of their top of the line SLR cameras for free. So this sponsorship opportunity came out of nowhere. Some people from Olympus had seen the video on my website from Good Morning San Diego where I talk about taking my pictures with a point-and-shoot Olympus camera. I kind of knew it would happen because I’m getting my work out there, but it was still a surprise.
I think the internet helps a lot, I’ve gotten orders from places that I’ve never exhibited. I spent a little bit of money to get a really good website that shows off my work and my style. I also have my own order fulfillment system at http://gregdavisphotography.com/.
JB: Speaking of traveling, what’s the next country you want to visit?
GD: When I travel, I like to go for a month at a time. I go away as much as I can. I have to be careful because trips can run $4,000 to $6,000 plus I’m taking time off. My shows have been a little down lately because of the economy, but I can’t look at what I do entirely as a financial endeavor. To most, art is not viewed as a necessity. I believe it is - people should give it more importance.
My next trip will be in August, in between shows. I would like to go to the singsing (traditional dancing ceremony) in Papua New Guinea. Once a year in August the warriors come down from the mountain and the warriors show off their war paint. It’s friendly but they show what the other tribes are facing. It’s amazingly colorful.
In January, I want to go back to India for the Kumbha Mela, which is the largest human migration to the Ganges River. Seven or eight million people walk for months to bathe in the river. For Hinduism it’s like Mecca for Muslims. It happens once every 12 years. There are all kinds of people from families and old people to naked sadhus (holy men). It’s an opportunity to see humanity and culture and capture that moment with my camera.
JB: How do you choose the places you visit?
GD: When I went away for a year, it was my vacation. I just went around the world, changing countries every month, so it was whatever I wanted to see. If there’s relative peace, I’m there. Now when I’m shooting and I know people are going to see it, I have to think about what they will be interested in. What people want to see, and what comes out in my work is the human condition, culture, color. I want to raise awareness of a country that maybe people have heard of, and although it sounds exotic they might not go there themselves.
That’s what I liked about Morocco, where they have all these different cultures and colors. They also speak Arabic first, then French, then Spanish and fourth English. That’s unusual around the world where English is the default second language. We can thank the British for that.
I went to Burma on my trip last summer because it was so locked by their government, such a time capsule. I actually went to support my friend’s non-profit, Equal Footing. There aren’t many resources for children in Burma. They lack basic books, internet, computers, everything. I helped with their website, to give the project a face, as well as to deliver some computer networking equipment.
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