Retrofuturism is a category that always catches my eye, blending the nostalgia of the past with the promise of the future. Mixing old and new technologies to tell a story is endlessly fascinating. I caught up with Brendan North about his upcoming drop on SuperRare.

Can you start by introducing yourself? Your name, where you are from, and the mediums you work in?

My name is Brendan North. I’m based in Los Angeles, California and I specialize in fine art conceptual photography.

Nice! Who are some of your creative inspirations? You’ve got a great classic style in much of your work I'm wondering who some of your early influences are.

Thank you! I absolutely take inspiration from the great photographic artists that have come before me. I often look to Slim Aarons for color, Helmut Newton for style, and Irving Penn for everything in between to mold my style into something that is uniquely mine. I’m also lucky to be personally mentored by one of the great living artist photographers of our time, Tyler Shields. I think these figures plus my affinity for the high society lifestyle present in Los Angeles give my photos that timeless glamorous feel.

What was your early experience with creativity? Was it encouraged or warned against in terms of a career path?

I come from a small suburb of Boston where traditional 9-5 jobs and security are highly valued. It wasn’t until my junior year at university that I really started to explore creatively. Going to school in Washington DC exposed me to all kinds of new mindsets including that of the career artist. It was something I had never even considered but with the rise of social media I had started to see people my age making a living on the internet.

It started with iPhone photographs of the monuments and city streets of DC. Eventually I borrowed my room mate’s camera and started asking strangers on the street if I could take their portraits as part of a made up blog I called “Humans of DC," a knockoff of the Humans of New York page that was incredibly popular at the time. This path eventually turned into a real online magazine I was running from my dorm to feature and interview artists I enjoyed.

When it came time to graduate a year later I was dead set on becoming a photographer and moving to LA. I had numerous arguments with my parents over the validity of that desire but they eventually gave me their blessing and I made the move.

Awesome dude. Glad you stuck with it, the world is brighter with creatives like you. Tell me a bit about your upcoming NFT drop on SuperRare, and generally how you feel about this new world.

So this drop is my genesis in the NFT world. It’s kind of funny using that word because I make my living on my prints so this is far from the first time I’ve sold art. Nevertheless, this world has me more excited about creating than I have been in a long time. The energy in the NFT space is absolutely electric and incredibly inclusive of so many art forms and artists.

My drop will be my “Digital Daydream” project. It’s a contemplative story of the possible futures of humanity and our relationship with technology. It’s a series of 5 moving images that will be 1/1s available on SuperRare. Up until recently I would have considered myself very much a purist in terms of how I go about photography, often shooting on film and favoring practical effects over digital manipulation. But this revolution of art happening right now has broadened my creative horizons immensely.

I’ve spent the last month learning to animate my still images in After Effects to breathe life into them on the screen. It’s something I’ve been intrigued by but my preconceptions of what “photography” is we’re holding me back. I believe the art world belongs to those who embrace the future and study the past and that’s what I’m aiming to portray with my genesis drop.

Awesome man. Yeah this world is fascinating, especially in the way it’s pushing different creative communities together in novel ways. I’m so optimistic about the future of creative work, especially if we can decouple it a bit from the attention models of social media.

What would your advice be for a creative who is just starting along their own path?

I get asked this in my DMs all the time so my response feels almost automated at this point. It’s so deeply engrained as a mantra of my life that I actually trademarked this first sentence in 2018: Trust Your Direction. Creating is hard and being a critic is easy. Never let anyone tell you your creative dreams are unrealistic. Make what you want. Unapologetically. I often have to remind myself of those words when I’m feeling like I’ve lost my way or feel like my work is going unappreciated. Keep going. No matter what.