{"id":1760,"date":"2022-07-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sofarsoundsblo.wpengine.com\/blog\/articles\/we-are-sofar-daryl-wilkerson-photos\/"},"modified":"2022-07-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T00:00:00","slug":"we-are-sofar-daryl-wilkerson-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/articles\/we-are-sofar-daryl-wilkerson-photos","title":{"rendered":"We Are Sofar: Daryl Wilkerson on Storytelling through Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A really good photo not only captures a moment, but makes us feel like we\u2019re <em>there<\/em>. It\u2019s not just a snapshot, but a story. That\u2019s the way Daryl Wilkerson approaches his work as a photographer, not just showing a scene, but letting the story tell itself.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI try to bring an aspect of candid storytelling to what I do, mainly because I feel it\u2019s the most authentic aspect of storytelling, being the fly on the wall, not being front and center,\u201d Daryl said. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/1665185758featuredimage.avif\"><span class=\"sc-kpOJdX jVJdyv\">Photo by Ryl World Photography<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Daryl\u2019s been a full-time photographer based in Chicago for the past three years, but his love for photography extends back to his high school days, learning about photojournalism. Throughout the years, Daryl maintained a full-time career in healthcare management, taking photos on the side. Then, he decided to make a change in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt that point in my career I had hit a ceiling,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I looked up at the upper levels of my company, nobody looked like me, so it was very clear that there was gonna be a level and I wasn\u2019t able to see myself going past that. I decided to take some time to decide what my next move would be. It was more geared toward doing something for myself that I enjoy doing everyday, where I could be the boss of my own ship and drive the direction as high as I wanted.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Signs pointed toward his photography passion, so Daryl went for it. Since then, he\u2019s been running Ryl World Photography, doing portrait work, weddings, and events. Above all, the goal is to tell the real story of his subject, whatever it may look like.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSessions are more about storytelling of the person in the moment\u2014if it\u2019s a smile it\u2019s a smile, if they\u2019re sad they\u2019re sad,\u201d Daryl said. \u201cIt\u2019s [my] job to tell somebody\u2019s story as they are, not as we think they should be. The work should always speak to who the person is at that point in time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/1665185758featuredimage-1.avif\"><span class=\"sc-kpOJdX jVJdyv\">Photo by Ryl World Photography<\/span><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to a Sofar show, Daryl uses the same tactic, letting the night speak for itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLuckily whenever I\u2019ve photographed [for Sofar] I\u2019ve been fortunate to have the right kind of energy\u2014it\u2019s usually a Friday night, everybody\u2019s in a good headspace, it\u2019s kind of a party atmosphere if you will\u2014people are cracking jokes, [and] the artists are connecting with them.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He continued, \u201cIt\u2019s just a lively exchange and I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to tell that story\u2013the laughter, the applause, the intimate moments\u2013because you can\u2019t hear the music, but hopefully the photos will be able to convey that a good time was had, [and] this is something you want to be a part of the next time it comes around.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/1665185758featuredimage-2.avif\"><span class=\"sc-kpOJdX jVJdyv\">Photo by Ryl World Photography<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Words by Sofar Editorial Team <\/p>\n<p><em>Photo credit: Daryl Wilkerson, self portrai by Ryl World Photography<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A really good photo not only captures a moment, but makes us feel like we\u2019re there. It\u2019s not just a snapshot, but a story. That\u2019s the way Daryl Wilkerson approaches his work as a photographer, not just showing a scene, but letting the story tell itself.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI try to bring an aspect of candid storytelling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}