Kimberly Douglas, a 23-year-old artist from Southern California, is known for creating gorgeous sets and outfits and taking photos of herself using the self-timer on her camera. Douglas is not only an Instagram influencer, but also she is an aspiring model. Her journey began when she was just 18 years old. As a broke college student, Douglas could not afford to pay for a photographer. Instead, she decided to take it into her own hands to build her own portfolio.
Each of her photos are shot in the comfort of her own home, and many of the props used for her sets are either purchased for cheap off of Amazon or are items she already owns. What distinguishes Douglas from other Instagram influencers is that in addition to posting these stunning photos, she also posts photos of what goes on behind the scenes. Her goal is to show people that they do not need to spend tons of money on props or equipment in order to produce something amazing.
Her photoshoots are inspired by high-fashion campaigns, magazines, and celebrity photos. Douglas has explained that she often uses Pinterest to get her creative juices flowing. She is always thinking about what to do for her next photoshoot, and she also gets inspiration from watching movies and going out on drives.
Although Douglas currently works for Postmates and Door Dash to pay her bills, she wishes to eventually pursue a career in modeling and set design. Her fame took off when she posted a photo inspired by a campaign by Zendaya for Lancôme and Viktor & Rolf's Flowerbomb Enchanted Garden. Before she knew it, Douglas had nearly 100,000 followers. Now, each of her followers are always eagerly waiting for the next amazing photoshoot.
Douglas is fascinating in that she is a model, photographer, and creative set designer all-in-one. Because her sets and outfits are made from scratch, she leaves people in awe and gains a lot of attention on social media. Although her sets might not have required much money to build, they are very time-consuming. Douglas spends anywhere from eight hours to a full day building each of her sets.
I chose to blog about Douglas because of how close in age she is to me and because of her involvement in social media. A few months ago, I came across one of her pictures on Twitter and was in utter shock. Personally, I do not consider myself a creative person at all, so I couldn’t understand how somebody so young could have come up with this on their own. Before I knew it, she was all over Instagram and several of my friends were talking about her. According to Gardner, every creative has their own creative thinking process. Her creative process resets after each photoshoot because she is constantly thinking about what to build for her next set. She is constantly inspired by her surroundings, and she is even inspired by social media and celebrities. Her “before and after” photos are intriguing, and I can’t wait to see what else she has in store for her fans.
This is by far my favorite blog post so far. I love to see such a creative person who I would have never heard of otherwise. It takes incredible creativity to take something so ordinary and turn it into something so extraordinary. These photos look like they could be the cover of a magazine but looking at their set up, they are true beauty created from something we pass without noticing every day.
ReplyDeleteWhat amazes me is the fact that she takes these pictures herself. Not only is she building sets on a busy student's schedule, she is also taking (and I'm assuming editing) these pictures by herself. Many of these pictures have unconventional angles and different perspectives, so taking the pictures requires nearly as much work as building the sets.
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