Ben Von Wong on Creativity, Social Media, and Everything in Between
If there’s one thing we’re learning with the rise of social media, it’s that creativity exists in many forms. Whether it’s an unlikely collaboration, mobile art masterpieces, or mesmerizing public installations, the breadth of creativity is as wide and accessible as ever.
Leveraging a potentially massive social audience to share this creativity with is another beast entirely, so we caught up with photographer Ben Von Wong to glean some social wisdom, along with his thoughts on creativity and The Creativity Conference, Adobe MAX.
On Social Media & Creativity
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Aside from being an incredibly talented photographer, Von Wong also excels at storytelling. While his most ambitious projects certainly reflect this storytelling prowess, his behind-the-scenes stories via Snapchat and Instagram Stories provide a unique and approachable look into the photographer’s world. We recently got a taste of Von Wong’s social style when he took over Photoshop’s Instagram Stories at Adobe MAX.
According to Von Wong, “It is important to think of Instagram Stories and Snapchat as a new storytelling tool – not just a place to update individual snaps. It’s about taking people on an adventure using stills, motion, text and emoji!” In short, get creative with it.
On the topic of creativity, Von Wong quips, “To me, being creative is about constantly challenging yourself to do and create things you’ve never done before.” He certainly takes that to heart with his ambitious photo projects.
Whether shooting on an active volcano or under the sea, Von Wong takes his subjects to new heights (or depths). On his process of planning a shoot, Von Wong explains, “I tend to focus first and foremost on whether or not the content I create is something that people will actually want to look at. From there, it’s generally a question of problem solving and production to bring them to life!”
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On Adobe MAX
Von Wong was invited to Adobe MAX as a MAX Insider, and was given enviable access to all the creative goodness that MAX delivers. “This was my first Adobe MAX! I’ve been to many conferences in the past, but none that focused on creativity as the main subject. It was amazing to see such confluence of creativity all happening under one single roof,” Von Wong said of the conference.
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Von Wong’s three words to describe MAX? “Sharing. Creating. Synergy.”