Meet Fiyas Kane | Photographer and Film Maker

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

Hi Fiyas, how has your work-life balance changed over time?

When I first got into photography (and I mean REALLY into it) almost 5 years ago, I believed that I had finally found my life’s purpose, prompting me to turn it into my entire personality. You would rarely catch me without a camera within arm’s reach and I could almost never go a full day without trying to take a photo. While this obsession led me to not only expand my portfolio, but also hone my technical and creative skills to a respectable level, I now feel that, in hindsight, it functioned like a double-edged sword; my personal life was cut out of the frame and left abandoned. For the most part it didn’t seem like much of a problem, but it wasn’t until recently that it started to finally catch up with me.

That moment you realize how unprepared you truly feel to function in an extrovert-driven society, it’s like hitting a brick fucking wall, forcing you to stop and look around. You question why it feels so difficult to have regular in-depth conversation with most people and how to possibly relate to subjects that are outside of your personal passions. Part of being an artist is also being a personality (or lack of in some cases) and if that isn’t genuine then it can feel awkward, forced, or even just outright wrong. By finding that healthy balance between being an artist and being a person, one shouldn’t ever feel Inferior to other people; just let loose, underestimate expectations, and focus on having fun. I’ve been forcing myself lately to shut off my creative brain and seek more experiences that don’t require me to put my photographer hat on, allowing me to enjoy the moment and let it feed the parts of me that have been neglected over time. It does feel easier said than done though, there’s always that omnipresent feeling that in order to find success in the art world one must constantly create new work in order to remain relevant. I think the key to truly enjoy living the life of an artist is to know when it’s time to be in the studio and when it’s time to take a break. Life should fuel art, making art shouldn’t have to fuel life.

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

Seeing as how having a career would imply I’ve made money, and the fact being I haven’t made money, then I wouldn’t want to say that I have a career just yet lol. What I’ve actually done all my adult life to give myself a reasonable chance to make a name for myself in the realm of photography, is work way too hard on becoming the best photographer in the world. While that kinda sounds a bit toxic, at least it’s given me an abundant amount of content to share that over time attracts attention as attention to detail, conceptuality, and problem solving improve with practice. I’ve tried my best to always push myself to make work outside of my comfort zone and do as much as I can to stand out; which works up until the point where I’m burnt out and my ego has been inflated so high that I refuse to reduce my workload so that I “won’t lose my consistency.” Yikes. Side note that I stress: once you consider yourself an artist with talent, never overwork yourself unless you are actually getting PAID.

At least in that happy bubble of passionate art making I’ve been able to feel the true joy and freedom that comes with artistic expression and experimentation. In 2017 I was in my second year of college at age 20 when I and other students were lured into the school’s darkroom by the main photography professor Tony Chirinos; my eyes eventually bursting and my mind melting when getting exposed to all the significant history of photography that came before the digital age. Once I got the process down of being able to work in the darkroom independently, I would be the first one to start using the lab during lab hours and most often be the last person cleaning up. It was my home away from home and often times felt like my personal home.

As I was developing my own senses for what I wanted in my photos, I worked on analog photo projects on subjects like: Self-Portraits, pickup basketball games, street photography, underground music shows, South Beach, etc., and then once I felt confident in my creative skills I challenged myself to commit to ideas for longer periods of time and experiment as much as possible [My projects: 365 Days of Self-Portraiture, Extended Stay, Visual Sketches]. By going 120% (film joke) on both practicing making my OWN pictures and feeding myself photography history every waking minute, I’ve been able to present myself as a credible photographer with a dense portfolio and extensive knowledge on the present and past of the field. After having put myself out there for judgement, made stupid mistakes, learned from mistakes and made them again, gotten rejections, blows to self confidence throughout lucky breaks, and constant feelings of anxiety from the pressures put on by expectations, I’m extremely blessed to say that I recently got hired at the Leica Store in Coral Gables and am thrilled to finally experience an example of what it’s like to have a tangible career. If I were in a position to give advice to anyone, I’d say to the person who wants to turn their passion into a career to think outside of the box as much as possible. Your passion shouldn’t only create a visualization of a handful of career opportunities, there should be dozens. Giving yourself more options to try while still staying true to yourself is only going to increase your chance of finding the right fit and can even put you in a position you could have restricted yourself from.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

It’s funny that a street photographer who’s born and raised in Miami would have a hard time recommending tourist attractions (that’s what’s so great about living an hour south of the inner city). According to an article from thehauteseeker.com (shoutout), some hot spots that are initial must-sees include our seemingly overnight construction of the Miami Design District and good old classics like Wynwood Walls and South Beach. I do agree that these areas are full of energy and opportunities for some pretty wild shit to go down, so I’d drive them around to get some experience encountering typical Miami city life and hope that I don’t waste too much time throughout the day looking for a decent place to park. I’m like one of the worst people to ask when it comes to specific (non photography related) site recommendations, BUT, I personally enjoy trying new experiences that just sound interesting (checking out whatever local shops or food joints are down the block, looking up sites that provide entertainment like museums, bars, etc.). It all comes down to what my friend and I agree on doing. Some places that I’ve been to and others that I’ve only heard of but haven’t personally checked out include: Oolite Arts Art Center in Miami Beach, the Bakehouse Art Complex in Wynwood, Wood Tavern Bar in Wynwood, Palm Film Lab in Coral Gables, Leica Store Miami in Corals Gables, B Bistro + Bakery in Brickell, and Club Space in Downtown Miami (if you’re ready lmao).

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

Well, I’ll have to take advantage of this opportunity to show love to a whole lot of people lol. First, I’d like to shoutout some of my high school companions who sought me out to take pictures of them and always made photoshoots feel like fun rather than work: Clifford Sanon, Ariel Chery, Victor Matute, Nelson Gonzalez, and Erick Urbina, just to name a few. When I got to Miami Dade College, I took photography classes under professors Tony Chirinos and Richard Labarbera, two people who filled my brain with decades of photographic history and always gave me unfiltered criticism when judging my images. Without them especially, my love for the medium of photography wouldn’t have grown beyond viewing it as anything more than just a hobby. In one of these college classes I met Lorena Marrero, a fellow photography student who always pushed me to try to get more work experience and create career goals to pursue. She changed my life and I’ll always appreciate her for the impact she’s had on me and my profession. Once it was time to further my education, I applied to New World School of the Arts and met Maria Martinez Cañas, the school’s photography professor who as an artist has worked diligently all her life to produce work that pushes the boundaries of what is considered photographic art. She’s inspired me and many other students to explore what can possibly be done to enhance the physical form of photographs beyond basic prints on inkjet paper, something I’m excited to implement in my art practice. I’ll try to wrap up quickly to prevent this response from turning into a damn novel; so I want to give a general shoutout to all the amazing photographers I’ve been introduced to via Instagram. While the app may get a bad rap for “ruining” the art of photography, there is still a present online community of passionate photographers who consistently share quality work, encouraging people like me to continuously produce new images with the intent to eventually share them. I also have too many wonderful colleagues and local contemporaries that I’ve been grateful to meet to individually name, so you all know who you are. And best for last, I’m happy to shoutout my family for being there for me when I needed them most and for giving me another reason to keep on living. Thanks to all of these caring people, I’ve been able to stay focused on pursuing my passions and become more confident in myself over time. I hope that as time goes by I’ll be able to reciprocate all the love I’ve been shown from everyone who’s supported me on this life journey.

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Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-nina-angeles-825337199/

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