Meet Rich McCor: Photographer & Paper Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rich McCor and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rich, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I get asked a lot, or told rather, “it must have been risky leaving a proper job to go and pursue your photography”. I never saw it like that though, for me it was a much bigger risk to not give my photography 100% of my effort to at least see how far I could go with it. If it turned out that it would crash and burn then I could live with that, so long as I’d given it a chance. I saw staying in a job that I was coasting in and that I didn’t love to be a far bigger risk than not pursuing something I loved.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My style is a mash-up of photography and paper-craft, and I hadn’t seen anyone else do what I do so I knew I had something unique but I also thought it might be quite niche, but fortunately it turns out there’s an audience for what I do and it’s allowed me to travel the world, work with incredible talents, see places I’d never think I’d get to and make a living by indulging in my hobby. The whole process taught me that it is possible to pursue a passion and it will open up opportunities that you would have no way of knowing how to make happen otherwise.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m not from Phoenix but I always recommend Beckett’s Table when I hear people are heading to Phoenix. Justin Beckett and his team produce incredible food but it’s also just a brilliant restaurant and atmosphere in itself.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I cannot overstate how important it is to drop a little encouragement to the people you see making an effort- whether it’s something as simple as writing a comment on Facebook about a friend’s craft project or taking the time to congratulate a colleague on a hobby they’re pursuing. Small, genuine and out of the blue compliments mean the world, and so my shoutout goes to someone I used to work with called Charlotte. I didn’t know Charlotte that well at work, but after I had shared some of my photos in a group email at work, Charlotte came over to my desk and simply said “I think you’ve got something there, you’re going to do something exciting I can tell”. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me and how much it helped me when I was doubting myself.

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