Who Am I?
My name is Christian Hunt, go by Chris most of the time. I am from Western Washington, right across the water from Seattle. I have lived most of my life here, a few years in New Mexico when I was a kid and then a short time in California when I was in the military. But life always brought me back here, and honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I have always had an interest in photography, starting as a small child with my Grandmothers old 35mm film cameras. As the years went by, I was drawn further into the realm of art, taking web design classes, art classes and eventually into Photography classes. When I was a sophomore in Highschool a photo program came to my school, by the end of the year my teacher had came up with the idea to run advanced classes and eventually AP level classes, I like to think I was part of the reason since I never left him alone and was always seeking more knowledge and skills. By the end of Highschool I had two options before me, try to carve out a life of a starving artist or join the military.
So, I joined the Marine Corps. As much as I wanted it Combat Camera never opened up during the year I waited to ship out for boot camp, so instead I opted to join for Infantry. Weird thing for an artist to do, right? Well, Injuries in training prevented that so I ended in the Communications world as a Telephone and Computer guy. And at the time, being 18 and dumb I thought it was the worst thing ever. But as the years went by, I met a lot of amazing people, had time to explore breathtaking locations and never gave up on my photography. My Mojave collection was from my time there. Took me over ten years to go back and edit, but I am glad I did. For as much as I dislike the desert, there was a beauty to that place.
At the end of those 4 years it was near end of our surge into Afghanistan and the Marine Corps was wanting to slim down, so I got out and decided to go to the original college I wanted to attend before my service. Before I go into that part of my life, I do want to make it clear, I am proud of my service and I am happy it afforded me the opportunity to attend the school I wanted, BUT the military should not be the only path forward for affordable education and many good people died for that reason.
I had attended The Art Institute of Seattle. Had many good instructors who were amazing professionals in their fields. My first year there I was still a stubborn Marine, did NOT like being told I was wrong and was way over confident in myself, and because of that I could have and honestly should have failed. As the years went by and the instructors I thought were terrible and elitist actually were the best and most supportive professionals I have had the honor to work with and learn from.
Got my Bachelors in Photography and decided to go back for a secondary degree in Video Production. Was fun, learned a bit, but also realized that large scale productions where not my thing. A curse of being former military and ADHD as hell means I don’t like working in large groups, and when it comes to a commercial school teaching commercial level production, those groups get very large very fast. Sadly, before the end of my second quarter in that program our school was bought out by an entity that had zero knowledge on how our school worked and bled us dry to the point where the staff that made the school amazing had to move onto other places. I don’t blame my instructors or even my Dean, they were all amazing people who had so much to give, without them that school was destined to fail. But hey, who cares about quality when there is profit to be exploited, am I right?
And now, here we are. 6 years later. What have I done in these last 6 years? Well, I attempted to rejoin the military during the Pandemic, but due to injuries I had sustained from my active-duty years I was eventually medically retired. But, being drawn to our military I now fix computers for the Navy. Now, you may be wondering “Fixing computers? Isn’t your degree in Photography?” Yes. Yes it is. You remember earlier on when I said I was shoved into IT? Well, kind of the same situation, but now it just pays better. Even though I work a 9-5 fixing computers for the Navy, I still take the time to shoot and create art, just now have the funds to go further and buy better equipment. Someday I want to go back to school for my Masters and eventually I want to get out of IT and create my art full time, but until then, “Have you tried turning it off and back on?”
If you have read this far, thank you! As time goes on I’ll be getting better doing more entries, making it more about the equipment I have and use, places I go and projects I’ll be working on.
