BIO

Braylen Dion is a 21 year old filmmaker and photographer whose work aims to renew the representation of Black people in media by personifying intimacy, and softness. Developing upon his interest in photography that began at 11 years old, Dion’s work has recently been featured in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, GQ, Business Week, BET, and BRICK Magazine. His commercial work includes collaborations with Sprite, Nike, Off-White, AFROPUNK, Atlantic Records, LVRN, and Sony Music among others. Braylen is currently based in New York, NY and Atlanta, Georgia.

@braylendion
braylendion.com

Where are you from? Where do you currently reside?

See where I'm from and current, it's just very complicated because I was born in Ohio and then when I was seven, me and my mom moved to Jersey, got married and lived in Jersey up until I was 16, then moved to Atlanta and lived there for five years. And now I am currently living in New York. I've been pretty much all over. Literally I'm pretty sure my next step after New York will be LA. If I'm not going back to Atlanta would probably be Los Angeles or something.

What brings you to NYC?

Well, mainly what brings me to New York is because every time I'm working with the company it's always based out of New York. I pretty much always wanted to move to New York for years and years. So it was kind of like, "Well, I already plan on moving here." But once I really started to get photography jobs, it was just like every company. I honestly don't think any company except for Coca-Cola, for Sprite, that was the only company that has been based out of Atlanta, everything else has been pretty much New York. Almost I think everything is New York. And so I was like, "Okay, I think that it's a sign." I was like, of course I was going to wait it off, but I was like, I said, I really wanted to at least move to New York before I turn 22 or by the time I turned 22. I'm 21 now, so I exceeded that.

Tell us a weird or fun  fact about yourself?

You could say an interesting fact would be that I ran track in high school. That was the only sport I will say that I said, "I want to run track." And I was interested in it. Other than that, any other sport? No, I'm not playing football. I'm not doing anything else. I will run track and that's it. Because I actually liked it.

What type of pictures where you taking?

It was Tumblr photos. That's the best I could describe it as. It was tumbler photos. I would like, I literally would take photos of my bracelet because it had a background where that's all I cared about was the background blurred. If the background was blurred, I knew the photo was looking good. But yeah, that pretty much was that. Then I started to do photo shoots when I was 15. And then yeah, just literally, and I was able to do photo shoots because I was blessed enough to, we had a big basement. So there was one section where it was somewhat the storage area, but it was still cleared out. But because it was like a story area because in that room there was another room and it had a bunch of storage, Christmas stuff that we put in there. But the whole thing was empty and then they said that I could turn that into my photography studio and I would just have a backdrop set up a continuous light. And I would invite my friends over to take photos of them.

How has your photography evolved over the years?

I want to say my photography evolved over the years by well, it definitely evolved because I noticed that a lot of my favorite photographers, when you go on a photographer's page, they have a certain aesthetic and it's just like you know it's them. So of course, I'm over here just taking photos of anything or just doing photo shoots with my friend, but I didn't have a distinct style. Because first of all, I was super young, not many young people who are 15, 16 are going to have a style. They're just not, most of the time they're not except for this one photographer I know. But it definitely evolved because I was looking at a couple of my favorite photographers who was like Micaiah Carter, Nadine Ijewere those are the top two right now for me because they're just next level.

Or like even Adriana Raquel or Kimball Addie. You go on their pages and they have a distinct style. You know that they took it. You can go on a different page it doesn't even have to say their name. You know that they took it. And it was in 2018 where I, it was in the summer and I was also experimenting with film because I finally got this camera I'm looking at right now. And it's a video camera, it's a Blackmagic Ursa mini. And I was like, I really wanted it, saved all that money I'd made during my little job, my first job. But regardless of that, I took all my photos down because I was like everything looked like it was a different photographer. That was the issue. I was like, nothing was consistent.

So I took everything down, I edited one photo of my friend, Maddie, and I pretty much stuck with that. I said, "Okay, let me apply this to everything else." So I added it to 70 more photos. So then as time went on, it was right when December hit, I had two different editing styles where you could tell it was me, it was warm and cold. I combined them to the other and that was what made my coloring process, what it is today. But I would say it also evolved over the time once I said I really wanted to create that vintage looking aesthetic, but I didn't want it to look old. I don't want it to look like, "This looks like it was set in the 50's or whatever. I still want it to look modern, but I really, I just liked how the... It's just like, you feel nostalgic. That's what I was trying to go for it. I wanted to feel like, "Okay, I feel like you would see this in your home maybe, or it feels like it could be home."

Does photography run in your family?

That's the thing. You can say that's also interesting. Okay, so this is the thing, I never knew my mom's dad, he passed away before I was born and it's just so ironic how I become a photographer and years later she's telling me, she was like, "Yeah, my dad was a photographer." And I never met that man, never met my grandfather pretty much at all. And then I didn't know, but of course, growing up in my nana's home, she has a bunch of photo books and what's it called? I want to say it was in 2016, I went down in her basement and I saw two photo books and I asked her, I was like, "Who took these?"

That was literally two photo books that my grandfather took along my family, professional portraits that he just had stored. So I am going back to her house and I am taking them because she doesn't care about them clearly because it's in her basement. So I'm going to take them. And I know I have a lot of photos on there that I took pictures of because I use it as inspiration, but I'm just like, wow. I see my aunts when they were my age in photos like that. He took and it's just like, it's crazy because it's like, if it was passed on to me just in spirit or whatever.

From the subjects, to the styling and location, all these elements compliment each other in the most organic way to make a powerful image. Do you have a hand in styling and choosing location for your shoots?

Okay, so one thing I will say, living in Atlanta and I was outside of the city, but just living in Georgia in general, it's so much scenery and it's just like, you don't know where they're going to stumble upon me. It's just like even going in the city. Going into the city is nice because you will find a lot stuff in the city and some stuff you won't even know it's in the city because it doesn't look like the city at all. Outside of it, it's so much scenery. It could just be a neighborhood it's just like, "Wow, Georgia is beautiful." You can go to the lake, you can go anywhere. I do a lot of location scouting in Georgia and I know how I really started off my location scouting is when I didn't have a car and I don't have a car now that I live in New York.

I will say a lot of my location scouting was because of Google maps and seeing the actual photos of what everything looked like. I don't really, I know I would let go on and go into different neighborhoods in Midtown, Atlanta, just see how they looked. I was like, "That would be nice to shoot there." I was like, let's do, I took pictures of my friend Nori and we did like the brand Tommy Hilfiger. I was like, I literally took the clothes that my nana had because they were my mom's and my sister's clothes from back in the 90's and I took their clothes and I was like, let's do something here. I was like, it looks like, and I made the Tommy girl. I was like, "Let's just do something like that."

Yeah, location is very important. And sometimes I don't know how I stumble upon locations. I know I even found this one location, which is actually a wedding venue, two locations, actually are wedding venues. And I don't even know how. I think it's just looking at for a bunch of research just like, what are the best places in Atlanta to shoot at? Or even just anywhere like just nice locations. But I do know something that has helped a lot for indoor, if it's not studio, is peerspace, especially in New York. New York and LA have the best location on pure space. Because unless you know someone, there's a lot of brownstones that looked very nice inside and just have that old just type of look that looks like your grandmother's house. It looks like that.

And you see a lot of that type of stuff on Peerspace if you don't have family out in New York. I didn't have family out in Atlanta, I just moved there. But I know when I come back home to either Ohio or Jersey, I can easily go to, I could probably do that. I know I took photos of my childhood friend in my nana's house because she still had the floor printed walls. She has one room that has blue carpet and pink furniture. It's just stuff that you don't see now. And it makes photos look so much more interesting than something that was very modern. And yeah, it just location is very important. It's so important and I'm just like, I love studio, but when you can actually work with stuff, it just makes the elements in the photo so much better.

“You might not be the best that you are right at that time, but that's okay because you're not supposed to be, you're supposed to be better as you go on.”

Alot of your images feel extremely nostalgic as if it were taken in a different era. Would you agree? And you find inspiration in different eras?  

I do. I will say, literally, okay, I normally style a lot of my shoots, especially because it's just if it's something I mainly do everything myself. And I'm learning to stop to not do that so much because I feel like I need to expand. It doesn't mean just be me because every time I end up working with people, I'm like, "Wow, this turned out more amazing than I thought." But yeah, I normally would style other stuff. I literally will look at pictures from old times, specifically like just black people back then. I just wanted to see how it was and like, okay, for example, this one stylist/model, his name is Tenon. He's the expert in getting stuff that look old or going to fifth stores and he's just a great stylist, if you want that type of time, that era. And he opened up my eyes like, okay, he's a great stylist. And he can pull off this 70's or 80's or 90's type of look, but still look somewhat modern. It doesn't look super old. I don't know how to describe it, but yeah, I just always wanted to go for that type of, I don't always want to go for that time period of course. Because I did say there was one time in point, I felt my photography, it looked like too much like 70's and 80's and 90's, because I was like, there's a point where it just becomes too much or repetitive. And I was like, "I need to expand. I need to experiment with lighting and all that type of stuff. Not just worrying about outside." I love doing outside portraits.

But do you ever subconsciously binding those books your granddad took of your family? You're just recreating that now through your art?

That's what I think so too because I still look back at those photos. I really got to take those photo books. My nana, I told her that I was going to take them. She was like, "No." I was like, "Yes I am." I said, "It's in your basement." I said, "You literally don't care about them." She was like, "Okay. As long as you don't take the photos that my mom and my mom's sister, graduation photos." They would have those really professional. She had some blown up in these big, what's it called? Frames. She was like, "Just don't take the ones that my daughters." I was like, "I'm not taking those."

I said, "I'll take those when time goes on, but I will take the ones that my grandfather took so I can look back on." But yeah, a lot of his, and it's really crazy because a lot of his photos were literally portrait work. My family in front of these nice backdrops, styled nicely. It's just like, I feel like I do subconsciously pull from that because sometimes I just have an idea. I'm like, "It just came to my mind, but also probably came from looking at all that stuff that he also made."

Any movies or film directors you draw inspiration from?

That's a great question. Well, one thing I will say, I do draw a lot. First, in the end, I really don't want to be a photographer. I want to be a director. And for me, it's just like for someone who doesn't watch a lot of movies, I don't know. I know I'm going to be a director. I've literally, I've been doing, I did videos before I did photography. It just goes to show, but yes, I will say the main two movies or some well. But the main two films that I really pull inspiration from is Moonlight by Barry Jenkins. And then Beyonce's lemonade film.

I'll say Beyonce's lemonade film, really helped me with styling and also it really helped me figuring out my color grading. In that whole film, it's very, I don't know how to describe it. It's just very warm. Looking at that film helped me know what I wanted my colors to be.

Any movies or film directors you draw inspiration from? (continued)

It just did. But I will also say, also Jenn Nkiru, she's a director based in London. I think she's based in London. I know she's British, but yeah, she's amazing. I know, I always would rewatch her film, Rebirth Is Necessary. That film, you need to watch that. I don't know if you've ever heard of it.You need to watch Rebirth Is Necessary. That film is literally like, I didn't even understand what it was about the first three times I watched it until the fourth time, I was like, "Okay, wait, this is literally one of the best films I've ever seen." It's only 14 minutes and or something like that. But she's worked with Beyonce a lot, but she's worked with her on black is king, her Ivy park campaigns, she is. That's one thing I will say, Jenn Nkiru and Barry Jenkins, they have one of the two, their aesthetics, you just know it's them. And that's what I really want. I like Barry Jenkins, and he tells the story without saying too much. I'll say that. And that's what I pull out of inspiration from too.

I like to not say too much, especially if I am doing some type of video, but, and Jenn Nkiru, I don't even know how to describe her style. You just know it's her. I don't know how to describe it, but yes, I pull out inspiration from movie. Well, not a lot of inspirational movies. I pull out an inspiration from listening to music and a lot of times I'll listen to a song and if I have a visual in mind, of course. But since videos are so much more harder to make, more time consuming, I just make it into a photo shoot. It's a lot easier that way. And not even that, I also don't have contact to these artists who are making these music, but yes. And I always have a lot of it. I always have a vision of a music video before the shoot. Sometimes I'll have pictures of just in my mind of what the shoot I want, but most of the time it stems from me listening to music from literally any artists.

Can we expect any more short film stories anytime soon?

One thing I did say, I said, when I was really taking photography seriously, just building on my portfolio, I would always make a video included with the photo shoot. Just a video of them doing whatever, posing, just act just in motion. And I would add incorporate music on top of it and just cut it up, do some effects to the video and all that. I would literally do that all the time. And I just said a month ago, I was like, "I really feel like I should start doing that again, because that was just like, I'm just like, "I want to go back to how I used to work." Now, I'm just like, "Let's just do photo shoots." That's it.

Nothing else. I was like, when I incorporated video, it just made it so much more better. And the last time I did that was with, it was last year I want to say it was August. It doesn't really matter, but it was last year in the summer. And I did a video, I did a photo shoot of this couple. The guy worked at my job and I saw his girlfriend. I was like, wait, I need to take photos of y'all. I said, and then we went up to lake Lanier. Don't know why I went to lake Lanier. Don't go to lake linear. I won't say that if you ever visit, you might go to lake Lanier, but I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but yeah, don't go there.

It's like almost haunted. People literally jumped into that lake and you might not make it out. People literally, it's weird. You should look it up. It's like, they built that lake on top of communities. And yeah, it's not anything you want to go. It's pretty, but you don't want to go. You don't want to actually go in the water, but I did go up there to take photos. We were just in the sand, the water is behind us. But yeah, I took photos in there and I was like, "Okay, I really still want to do a video." So I did a video to like this Daniel Caesar song, but before that, I would literally always do videos with my photo shoots and I really miss it. And I'm going to get back to that because I said, if I still want to be a director, I'm like, I still have to build on my portfolio.

And in film, it's just like no one's going to know that I want to be a director if I'm only doing photos. It's just not happening. I'm definitely, I'm actually, funny how you saying I'm planning something out. My friend asked me, she was looking for different people to film her, she's vegan, but she wanted to start her own cook show. Someone like just she wants to show people making her recipes. And she was like, "Do you know anyone?" I was like, "Well, I do it." I said, "I haven't done it in a long time." And I was like, "Let me just try it out." I was like, "I'm not going to charge you anything." I was like, "Let me just try it out because I haven't done it in so long." I was like, why not try to film her making food and do it in some type of way I've never done it before. So I was like, I'm like, I think I need to start taking those steps again.

Are you a self taught photographer? Any advice you would give to beginners? 

I would say. And it's hard starting out. I would say, to have fun with it because it's just like you can't worry about topping the next shoot or doing something better. If you don't have fun, it's going to just feel like work. It's just like you don't want photography to feel like work. Even though you can get into that field of it being work, but at the same time you should always have like, literally, I would just take photos of my friends. Just literally anywhere. I kid you not, I have so many photos of my friend, friends in school, in middle school, just photos of him at the cafeteria eating. If you're not having fun at first, it's just, it's not worth it.

Even during your shoots, don't try to hurry up and we got to you have fun. Don't be too hard on yourself and it's hard, but don't compare because I compare. I feel like photographers as quiet as a cat, people still compare each other. You compare yourself to everyone else, but don't let it take over you. Still work. You might not be the best that you are right at that time, but that's okay because you're not supposed to be, you're supposed to be better as you go on.

When it comes to photography what moves you to shoot?  

I want to say it's literally music. Yeah. Music moves me to shoot 98% of the time.

Am I sensing that you're going to start doing directing videos?

See, that's the thing I really want to do. Even though I really want to do films, I said, I really want to do music videos because the music videos I have in mind do not look anything like my photography. They don't at all. I think because a lot of times I pull inspiration from music videos from back in the 90's and in the early 2000s. Everything looks so superficial. And a lot of videos now, well, I will say music videos are back to being music videos now because there was a time period where it was just a little whack. But music videos now, like you've seen music videos like from Cardi B or even Meghan's new music video that just came out. They are phenomenal. You know some thought was put into there. And it doesn't look like just a shot off like a little camera. And there's nothing wrong starting off with that, but the music that I have in mind are like that, or just out of this world. I like stuff that looks interesting, but versus the film, it would look like my photography style.

Is there any particular element of shooting you’d like to tackle or explore?

If it relates, I want to say, because I still don't really do it as much, I would say studio because I don't really shoot studio. I still, I have a lighting book and it really tells you everything about lighting. It shows you where to position lights and everything and it's so helpful, but I really got to learn lighting. Because I just like for my first cover it was all shot in studio, but I literally only had two softbox, strobe lights lashing at him and I said, that's it. I said versus when I looked I'm like, for example, like Dante and Ahmad, they are light and experts. They are amazing. I want to know lighting like they know lighting. Yeah. And just studio in general. Because you can manipulate lighting so much in studio and it's just like you'll never get that same effect if you're just doing it all natural. It's not.

What would you like people to take away from your work?

I would say maybe to be proud of themselves when you leave there, looking at themselves because I mean all of my subjects, I mainly, I really only shoot black people. Well, I only take photos of people, but that is, yeah. I'm like, I want you to look at yourself or I want you to just be proud or feel happy. Or feel calm.

Any upcoming projects that you’re working on?

I thought my biggest celebrity that I shot was the biggest celebrity, but it wasn't. It was not.Actually, I don't know when that's coming out, but I was on set for a TV series. So I'll say that is probably, it probably is the biggest celebrity because he's kind of like a legend. Yeah, he is. He had hits. Everyone knows him.

Interview by 35s & 45s

07.6.21