Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Caron.
Brian, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in Utah and when I was old enough, I worked with my dad at a print shop where he trained me in the dying art of offset printing. I’ve worked in some form of printing since then. I took a break from printing and moved to Puerto Rico for about a year and lived on a diet of Top Ramen and local rums. Always with a camera in hand, I documented life and the streets there. Moved to New York where I honed my skill in photography and went back to painting full time. I met my now wife out there and when she got a job working for the Do Seum, asked if I wanted to move to San Antonio, I said why not I’ve never been there and so here we are!
I’ve had a couple of art shows out here (2nd Saturday, 1st Friday) and I can’t say enough about this super welcoming community! During the pandemic, I took a break (I guess I didn’t really have a choice) from photography and focused more on social issues. I did a lot of gorilla marketing where we replaced empty billboards, replaced cans on grocery store shelves, and changed the interpretive text on the river walk. All of it was meant to look exactly like what it was being replaced only by political, social, and environmental issues in America and here in San Antonio. I’ve largely stepped back from that and moved on to combining my love for graphic design, printing, and photography with my own business. Where I take care of my 2-year-old son and when I have time create cool stuff.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Man, if it’s a smooth road for you, you’re not challenging yourself enough. It’s hard to live in a new city, it’s hard to transition to new jobs, it’s hard to meet new people, and dang it, it’s hard being a stay-at-home dad with a toddler. But that’s life, isn’t it?
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’ve always thought of myself as a photographer, but during the pandemic, there was A lot of chatter about the gorilla marketing stuff I was doing. I had Vice news and a few of our local papers interested in interviewing me about it. I turned them down. I’ve always been very torn about that work because I really think we’ve heard enough from middle-aged white dudes about what’s wrong with America.
Not really sure why I’m choosing this medium to finally talk about publicly, but here Ya go.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Ha Yea. I’m pretty sure everyone took a step back and looked inwardly about who they are and what they were doing. It was hard not to, the only thing you could do was stare at the news all day and do deep dives into politics. I think in a certain way it made us way more polarized. It made a lot of people rethink their jobs. It def made me rethink mine considering we had a baby right at the beginning of it.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/bria_digita/
