Photographer Brandon McClung aka B. Media is a self-proclaimed recovering perfectionist. That alone should explain how his intense work ethic led him to quickly transitioning from a standout intern at Cam Kirk Studios in Atlanta, to a highly sought out portrait photographer/director for huge global brands including Sprite, Apple Music, GQ and Revolt.
Brandon recently sat for an AcknowledgeMINT podcast conversation to discuss the current his storied career path. Here are some excerpts from the talk.
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NOT GOOD ENOUGH
I wasn’t supposed to be a photographer. My dad is a serial entrepreneur, my mom is a lawyer, so there are no real creatives in my family. Growing up I was in high school and I was a writer for my school newspaper, as part of a journalism class, and I was covering a football game during the beginning of my 9th grade year. The girl that was supposed to be taking photos couldn’t make it, and they said you’re gonna have to write the article and take the photos. So that was the first time I held a digital camera.
When we went back to go review all the footage, they basically told me to stick to writing. I didn’t take too kindly to that because I am a recovering perfectionist, and so in ninth grade I was like, I don’t want to be bad at anything. I told them I want to keep shooting.
MOREHOUSE COLLEGE
I got accepted into Morehouse which brought me down to Atlanta, and I was immediately overwhelmed with the number of photographers that there were, just in my freshman class. I thought I was going to be able to come down here, like yeah, I’ll be the dude in my class that’s the photographer. I didn’t even own my own camera yet, but I said I’ll figure it out. I’ll make it work.
GAME CHANGING CAM KIRK STUDIO INTERNSHIP
I dedicated a month to each piece of equipment that we had in the studio. So I said okay, we have one softbox. What all can I do with one soft box? And then once I felt like I perfected what I can do with one, I added in another one. Then I went from the soft boxes to an umbrella. I said okay, how does this umbrella work? And I would leave here and I would go back home to watch YouTube til 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning.
MENTORING 101
Cam is a very open person in terms of what he did, how he got to where he is, and the hardships that came with it. I’m a big learner by avoiding hurdles, so I’ll listen to people that are further along than I am, and I’ll ask, ‘what did you do in this situation?’ I had been a photographer for six years before I shot a major artist on my own. One of the biggest things that I learned through being around Cam, and even having conversations, is understanding the long game in the photography space.
