We had the good fortune of connecting with Evan La Ruffa and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Evan, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Most times the option we initially think is the riskiest is actually the safest. We often associate safety with less action, but in fact I find that taking action produces more data, which is way more actionable than our internal dialogue, and so we get vital info on what to do next.

When we reframe risk as opportunity, we destabilize the entire dynamic that often keeps us from getting somewhere with our projects or businesses.

Next time you’re afraid to do something, do it.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
For all my life, really, I have made art. Illustrations as a kid, which gave way to a lot of writing, then the visual arts after college with illustration and line work, and then most recently, photography. I am attracted to ideas more than process, and love how new tools flatten the earth, and give more and more of us a chance to be creative.

My photography has run the gamut – from the dark room in high school where I seemed to love multiple exposures more than most, then live concerts, an emphasis on black and white architecture, and dabbling with SLR’s, until coming to my most recent body of work, which is a series entitled ‘Post All Bills.’ The series was born in New York City, where you can’t help but pass by various Post No Bills walls, of which everyone, quite predictably, posts bills. Ads for concerts, products, anything, really. As they are worn, tattered, torn at, and obliterated by humans, moisture, sun, and wind, they yield layers, segments, and compositions that please me to no end.

Finding them is the first part. Being lucky enough to coincide with them, temporally. After that it is up to me to turn them into more, to discover what else they have to offer, manipulating them in post-production, creating new moments that never existed.

This series has been shot entirely on iPhones. I am not a purist, a snob, or one of these people that thinks because they spent more money on their equipment that they are inherently better at what they do, or that photography isn’t actually more about awareness and light than tech snobbery.

My work is accessible, born from the street, made in cities, and the product of one question: what does it look like from over there? And how can I bring this to life in a new way, a way that makes someone feel good, lose time, and enjoy.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
A summer day in Chicago… start with coffee and pastries in Andersonville at Lost Larson, then head north to Rogers Park to enjoy some of the best beaches in the city. Go to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field before walking and shopping on Milwaukee Avenue in Bucktown, grab tacos at Antique Taco, shop for records at Dusty Groove, then go downtown for cocktails and dinner at Girl & The Goat.

Simple!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have to touch on Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator and philosopher who pioneered ideas around critical pedagogy, and at a fundamental level, insisted on our lives being our ideals in practice.

He believed that talking about what we believe isn’t enough, that we have to show up with integrity, that trust and communication is vial, and that to truly achieve gains in the realm of social issues, is to place the communities we serve at the head of the table as the expert.

And that through meaningful dialogue with them, we uncover the best feedback on needs, as well as the best ideas as to solving these issues.

Website: EvanLaRuffa.com IPaintMyMind.org

Instagram: @EvanLaRuffa

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/evan-la-ruffa-84556635

Twitter: @EvanLaRuffa

Image Credits
Evan La Ruffa

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