Meet Kyle Perrin | Photographer | Audio Supervisor

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

Hi Kyle, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
Einstein said “a clever person solves a problem, a wise person avoids it.” I feel like that directly represents how I try to operate as a professional. A lot of the time I’m able to use my experience to add value to projects I’m involved with by knowing how to avoid pitfalls and setbacks, and help things cross the finish line smoothly and to a higher degree of quality as a result.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have had the fortune of being able to do a number of different things throughout my career, and still work in a few different roles today. The bulk of my work lately has been behind a camera, and it has been really fulfilling to use something so many of us have in our pockets to tell stories and create meaningful memories.

I started as a photographer in wildlife, and over the years shifted into working with people in many different capacities. My emotional state behind a camera evolved around observing and documenting (because that’s basically your only option with wildlife), so when I began photographing people I exhibited the same mindset for my work. I do a lot of documentary, photo-journalism, and behind the scenes photography, and all of those categories lend themselves well to someone who’s comfortable being a fly on the wall – regardless of how close or far I’m able to position myself.

The most challenging thing, to me, is creating interesting and meaningful images without influencing your subject matter in a way that contributes to a specific outcome. I think it’s a skill to be able to document something in a meaningful way and know it was truly without interaction. That’s why I respect talented street photographers as well as successful documentarians. So many people in those fields have immense talent for portraying the world around them from incredible perspectives without altering their environment or relationships to do so.

I simply want to show people things from a perspective they wouldn’t naturally be able to observe it from themselves. Giving someone a new way to look or think or feel about something is truly a gift, and not one I think we should take lightly. The phrase “perspective is reality” is thrown around a lot, and I think we have many realities that can be presented through meaningful documentary work that would otherwise remain unobserved.

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.
Gosh, I’m probably the last person that would give a good answer to this. I stay home with my wife and kids most of the time if I’m not in the field photographing something or with a production. I tend to lead with questions a lot when people visit so I can hopefully have an excuse from having to come up with a plan.

I think downtown and Broadway are worth seeing if you’ve never been, simply for the experience of understanding there’s essentially a live circus every night in the middle of Nashville. The city, from what I’ve learned so far, is so much more than that, though. I enjoy the outdoors and would probably want to take someone to some of the great rivers and lakes in the area to experience nature and hikes that are extremely accessible and close. I love coffee, so I’d probably want to hit up DOSE or Crema to let people have some of what Nashville has to offer with that.

Otherwise, if someone came to town to visit, it’s likely they’re already a friend so they’d have no problem staying in and watching a documentary instead!

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?
My friend Brad Correa is a really talented producer in the TV and documentary world, and I’ve gotten to work alongside him for several projects. He always pushes everyone to do their best work, while maintaining a great perspective on resources and what’s possible within our given boundaries with which we have to work.

Website: https://kyleblainephoto.com

Instagram: kyleblaine

Other: www.audiopost.studio for my audio work in post.