- Bio -

Kevin J. Beaty is a visual journalist who brings a broad range of experiences to his work. Coming from a commercial production background, Beaty uses his technical skill set to enhance the true stories he tells in a journalistic setting, creating beautiful and engaging works of nonfiction. The cinemagraphs he produces are an extension of this practice for him, a technically exciting medium that has endless potential to enhance his documentary work.

- Q & A with Kevin -

How did you become interested in producing GIF loops?

I've always been straddling the fence between shooting video and stills, constantly conflicted between which to do in any given moment. Cinemagraphs have become a happy medium for me because they capture the movement that I love from a video shot, but still have that timeless quality of a photograph.

How do you hope your cinemagraph work might be used in the future?

As a film school grad, I've watched so many feature documentaries that I've become kind of disillusioned with that form as the end-all-be-all of nonfiction storytelling. I'm interested in challenging that medium, especially by using creative web development to make interactive stories that could meld video, photos and GIFs with good design to make a deeper and more engaging experience. The end result would be some kind of magic, Harry Potter newspaper where you really feel like you're making eye contact with the people in the moving photographs.

What motivates your work overall?

I've always wanted to produce work that positively impacts society, and I think that documentary storytelling has huge potential to shift public opinion because a story is an opportunity for someone to understand something outside of his or her comfort zone. I'm particularly interested in stories orbiting environmental themes. Climate change, specifically, is really fascinating to me because the issue is so large that it encapsulates all of us. The humanity behind that really intrigues me.

What about the work you've submitted to Come Alive Images?

Beyond the social aspect of my work, I'm a tireless technician. The images I've made available for stock use are the result of a continually-refining process that I hope boggles the mind and leaves viewers entranced. The work largely follows themes from my personal projects - natural beauty, light, water and wind—but you'll also find moves toward abstraction in this collection that I think are the start of a deeper rabbit hole. I'm very excited to see where these end up!

We are, too!