Edward: Welcome to Connex247 site Kurt. Tell us about your yourself.

Kurt: Let's see... I'm 35, 5'10" tall, about 165 lbs., hazel eyes, my sign is Cancer...  LOL.  Ok, I know, I know, this isn't a dating website.  LOL.  I'm a California native, and I've lived here most of my life.  This last year has been a year of living in different places and lots of traveling, but I'm usually somewhat of a homebody by nature.  But, maybe that's just how I used to be.  I've grown a lot lately.  I'm pretty well-balanced between right-brain and left-brain, but my day job was completely left-brain and had no room for creativity, so after 6 years, I decided it was time to leave and do the photography full-time.

Edward:  How did you become interested in a career as a photographer?

Kurt: I had always been interested in photography since my Dad gave me his old 35mm film camera that 'didn't take good pictures.'  I started using it and got some great shots, so that was a hobby of mine for a while in middle school and high school, but I gave it up when I went off to college because of the expense. 

During college, I took an interest in pencil drawing, and I used other people's photography, such as Herb Ritts, as a reference for my drawings.  People saw the drawings and wanted to buy prints.  But I checked into the legality of that, and discovered that it would be a copyright violation to sell them, so I decided to take my own photos and draw those.  That was a little over 3 years ago.  Well, I ended up enjoying the photography and editing process better than the drawing, so that's how it all started.

Edward: Share your special interests as a photographer

Kurt: I'm particularly interested in photography of the human body.  I photograph what I like, and being gay, that means the photography I do for myself is usually of the male body.  I do also really enjoy still-life photography, and love architecture and landscapes.  I also love to find beauty in unexpected places, and to bring out the best in the people I'm photographing.  I've also found it interesting to do a kaleidoscope effect with my photos to see what I will get.  It's all just a lot of fun.

Edward: What do you look most when selecting models to shoot?

Kurt: Hmm... that's a difficult one.  I'm not sure I can nail it down to one thing.  It could be their body, their smile, their eyes,.. their personality... It really just depends on the person.

Edward: You seem to have helped a number of models with their careers. What do you really feel about that?

Kurt: I love it.  I love to help people to do something they're interested in.  That goes for budding photographers as well.  I like to put some good Karma out there, you know?  It makes me feel good to make someone feel good about the way they look.  I love to hear, "Wow, is that ME?"  LOL.  And when I get great shots of someone it helps me too, so it's a mutually beneficial relationship.

Edward: What advice would you give to young models and the aspiring ones?

Kurt: Educate yourself.  Find out as much about the industry as you can.  Be realistic about the industry and your chances.  Modeling is one of the most competitive industries out there and 99.9% of people can't make a living at it, let alone a GOOD living.  There are a couple of websites I point newbies to:  http://www.NewModels.com and http://www.ModelingScams.org.  They're chock-full of useful information.  I've heard too many horror stories of people getting scammed or taken advantage of, and I ask them, "Did you read the info in the websites I sent you?" and the response is always, "No" or "Not all of it."  There are too many scams to mention here, but my advice is to educate yourself.  Knowledge is power.

Edward:  There must be special moments when you feel that you have captured a perfect picture... Share this passion with us. How does this special moment happen?

Kurt: Yes, I love it when that happens.  I almost always know it when it happens.  Rarely do I only realize it when I'm going over the photos later.  Sometimes it happens by mistake and can't be duplicated, and sometimes it's a situation where I say, "DON'T MOVE A HAIR!  STAY THERE!!!" and I take 10 pictures of the same thing.  I can always tell later what I liked at the time because I have a habit of taking basically the same shot over and over again if I like it.  I want lots of safety copies, I guess.

Edward:  If you could select 5 fantastic places around the world for a shooting, which ones you´d choose and why?

Kurt: Oh, there are so many... but here are some I've used:
Santorini, Greece - Because the stark white and bright blue of the architecture, as well as the beauty of the landscape lends itself to beautiful imagery.
San Francisco, CA - Because of the variety of backdrops, from beautiful architecture, to forests, ocean, and industrial.  SF is hard to beat.
Paris, France - Beautiful architecture and very stylish.
Hawaii - With all of the waterfalls, beaches, forests, and fields, as well as some pretty cool architecture, it's a great shooting location.
Italy - I've only been to Rome, Venice, and Florence, but they're all great for their architecture.  If I had to choose a favorite for shooting, it would be Venice. The gondolas, the architecture, the little alleyways... it's all beautiful to me.

Edward:  If a model wants to work with you, how do they get in touch?

Kurt: They can send me an Email to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .  Or, they can hit me up on my MySpace page, which is http://www.Myspace.com/kurt_brown.

Edward: Kurt, leave a message to Connex247 readers around the world

Kurt: Ah, well I guess it would be to trust your instincts and be true to yourself.  Don't let someone tell you you can't do something that's important to you.  Thank them for sharing their opinion and move on.  I know that is a cliche', but that advice has served me well.  View and bookmark my BLOG:  SF Photo Guy.

Be sure to check out Kurts' gallery here on connex247!
Photos are by Kurt Brown and are copyright 2006. All rights reserved.