Mekael & the sea of potential

Life in 5 minutes

“I was born in LA. My mom made her way here from Belize. In fact she was brought here by her husband at the time with my six month old, older sister. [When] they got here, the dude bounced, my mom was in a new country with a six month old trying to figure it out. She's a resilient woman and she met my dad. Six years later, I'm here. Maybe about three, four years after that there was an earthquake that shook my mom up enough to where she was like, ‘We are out of here.’”

“My family makes our way to Florida where I grew up in the suburbs of Fort Lauderdale. In middle school, I started skateboarding and then much of my life after that centered around skateboarding and music. As a teenager, I played in punk bands. If I wasn't playing a show or writing songs with my bandmates, I was skateboarding. On the weekends my friends and I would load up in my van and drive down to Miami, which is 45 minutes to an hour away from where we lived. That's where all the spots were. Lots of adventure.”

“There's not a lot of resources in Florida so as a youth you have to make it for yourself. We would find abandoned lots where there's nothing there other than a big concrete slab. We would bring benches, rails and literally build a mini skate park for ourselves.”

“This was until about 24. My dad's side of the family was still based in southern California, primarily LA. I would come back and forth during summers to see family, my grandma, and my cousins. I was here for a week and a half for my cousin's wedding and I almost missed my flight back. As soon as I landed in Fort Lauderdale, I had the feeling of what am I doing here? Why come back? I knew that Florida could only provide so much for me.”

“I got back from that trip and worked for two to three months, ate a bunch of top ramen, packed up all my shit in my car and drove back here. Since I’ve been here I’ve been working as a photographer.”

What drew you to photography?

“I had a friend who was one of my creative counterparts and we were always sharing and exploring new things together. He was the one who planted that seed. I was filming a lot of skateboarding. One of my favorite issues of a skate magazine called Transworld, was the photo issue. There were no ads. There were no interviews. It was nothing but all of this beautiful photography.”

“Those images always stuck with me. I was following that curiosity. Things shifted from a fun exploration to something much deeper once I started shooting on film. After the first roll or two that I got processed, I realized I gotta take my time.”

“Once I started exploring the world through the lens, I started to slow down and get curious again. For me it was always about trying to capture some authentic expression as small or large or colorful or as stripped down as that could be. Once I started approaching it from that angle, I started to learn a lot more about people. I started to learn a lot more about myself.”

“I think because I started shooting with film first it forced me to be very slow and mindful. Intentional. I've also gotten to a place where I might see something and really sit there with it instead of being moved to take a photo. Is this worth an exposure? Or do I just let it go?”

“I thought I’d try to make some beautiful images but it got down to this feeling of connection. Sometimes If I'm in an environment where there are a bunch of people and I'm photographing it, I can feel more connected and integrated to that pool of experiences, than even some of the people who are in it.”

“[I’m] always trying to find some little slice, some nugget of authenticity. It's like I'm scanning this sea of potential. That's so much of photography, right? It’s timing and chance.”

What do you like to capture?

“Any moment where there is raw emotion being expressed. Kids are so fun to photograph. They're completely unfiltered. They're not self-conscious, they're just being. Moments where there's a group of them together, you can snap a bunch of photos and in 30 seconds, you're going to have six or eight completely different iterations of all of these kids interacting together. It’s amazing.”

Sense of direction

“The direction that I'm drawn in now is community. A lot of it has to do with making space for connecting in ways to understand the challenges that they might be going through. Challenges that I feel many of us share. Creating the space to not just hold that together but also finding ways to surmount some of our blockages and continue to live in a richness.”

“We're a lot more similar than different. Granted we all are our own individual selves but if you pan out, as a species we’re not that different. We have our own unique attributes but at the core we all want to experience love, joy, connection and gratitude.

“A lot of our differences can go out the door. At the same time coming with curiosity. Making space to understand. Try to be more curious. A lot of our fears come from an unknown.”

Biggest opposing force

“It all feels like mirror matches. Self-criticism, that’s like snow on a fire. It's so easy to fall into that and to let that extinguish any creative juices. I feel like it can be just as easy to let it go but it depends on our conditioning. If we feed into that and we don't want to continue the actual work of it which is different from the inspiration that leads to the work, we don't get anywhere.”

Tools for self-judgment

“Meditation was a huge one. Any opportunity to slow down and stop. Be with what's there and not judge it immediately. Be able to let that either pass or evaporate. Say, ‘Well, this is a way to think but I don't necessarily have to embody this right now.’ That idea of panning out and getting an objective look at my circumstances or anyone else's circumstances is an opportunity to see things as they are.”

“Literally seeing my conditioning and then choosing whether or not I want to continue with that. Acknowledging how that has had an influence or continues to have an influence and then bringing it back to intention. Choosing how I continue.”

What’s the most damaging myth about creativity?

“That it's pointless. You might be making something and then someone asks, ‘Why are you making that?’ If the why is just the making of it, for some folks that’s not enough. Is this going to lead to money? Is this a means to an end? What is this for?”

“Art’s never been for anything. It's just expression. Creativity is tapping into that pool and making room for it. Whether it's a painting or a song, or a dance or anything really. I feel like one of the reasons why that's so damaging is because if you embody that idea that adds to a lot of those blocks that we talked about. It becomes a pressure for everything you do to have a reason.”

Most treasured memory

“This isn't necessarily one specific memory but it's an experience that I've gotten to have in multiple iterations and whenever I look back on it makes me feel really good. How do I put this? I'm very into exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness especially through plant medicines. Oftentimes if I'm sharing these experiences with people who are very close to me, we grow this tighter web of connection through that experience. Afterwards, after the effects have subsided, one of the things that is so special to me is the conversations that we end up having after that experience.”

“With some of the insights or the feelings or the things that we experienced during it. In those moments, it's like an extra layer comes down. There’s an even richer connection than we typically share and it without a doubt always ends up being some of the most meaningful conversations that I have.”

What gives you hope?

“No matter how challenging or difficult things are. No matter how heartbreaking life can be. It does always eventually get better. It's this oscillation of experience. All of this is so precious. That understanding begs an appreciation for the things and the people that surround me. We get it for a very small slice of time. That acknowledgement can inspire an understanding that everything, no matter how small or large, can be very meaningful, if you appreciate it.”

“The genuine goodness that people possess and have the opportunity to tap into at any moment. And gratitude for this gift that we have called this planet and our lives on it. I do believe that there are a lot of people doing a lot of good in the world.”

“Also the idea that as clever as we are, we often don't do things until our backs are against the wall. We're very resourceful at those moments and that inspires hope that in the 11th hour we're still able to come up with some creative idea to surmount our problems. Ideally, it wouldn't take getting to that point. We can be proactive instead of reactive but those are some of the things that give me hope.”

Lesson you’ve learned about yourself

“The value in trusting your gut. Trusting your gut and making room for intuition. That's something that continuously provides for me in my life.”

“When I was in my early 20s we'd be on our way to a skate spot and because we were coming from a direction we don't typically go or maybe it's the first time we'd be going to the spot we would have a skateboarder spidey sense. I’d feel like there's something in this area, there's some really good spot. We were following our intuition and a feeling that’s so incredibly intangible, but nine times out of 10, it would lead us to some discovery. Trust what we feel, not what we think about it.”

“When you create a little more room for spontaneity and exploration, that's where discoveries are made. It might feel a little scary but that's also part of the adventure. Exploring the unknown and following that internal compass and saying, ‘I don't know why, but I'm being drawn towards this way or this thing or this person and and just making space to be present and curious with that.’”

Wonderful people

“Gratitude. That's like a life force. I'm grateful for the people who I've gotten to know and connect with and learn from. There's meaning in all of this, no matter how big, or how small so long as you choose to recognize the sacredness in it. I've been very blessed with a lot of really wonderful people in my life.”

“Like anybody else I've also had my fair share of people who I wish I could have avoided. But having come out the other side, the lesson that I got through that connection and ended up being even more valuable. That's something you get to take with you and continues to shape who you are. For all of those things, I am incredibly grateful.”

Mekael Dawson • June 12, 2023