Rising Light: Davion Washington - A Movie Poster Artist in the Making | Profoto (US)

Rising Light: Davion Washington - A Movie Poster Artist in the Making

01 May, 2017

Written by: Susan Ely

Rising Light is an article series highlighting promising photography students from all over the world. This month we introduce Davion Washington, who is wrapping up his Associate Degree in Commercial Photography at the College of Southern Nevada.

Davion Washington has had a touch-and-go relationship with photography since he was a kid taking snapshots of family and friends, but it wasn't until about 4 or 5 years ago that he began thinking about photography as a profession and lifestyle. And it all goes back to movie posters.

Davion has been a longtime fan of Hollywood movies, but it was the movie posters that got his attention most. What amazed him was how the artist (or photographer) who created the poster image was able to tell an entire story in a single image. As an emerging digital artist, this is the sort of challenge that got his juices flowing. 

Washington is currently wrapping up his Associate Degree in Commercial Photography at the College of Southern Nevada. During his tenure at CSN he has managed to greatly refine his lighting skills, which along with his skills in Photoshop is going to be his meal ticket moving forward.

Prior to entering the photography program at Southern Nevada, Davion’s lighting experience was limited to speed lights and whatever light was available. Not so today.

Davion Washington has greatly improved upon his lighting skills and his understanding of the types of lighting effects he can squeeze out of various light modifiers. As for power packs, Davion can’t say enough about the Profoto D4 Studio Generators and Profoto D4 Heads.  He loves them for their power, precision, flexibility, and ease-of-use.

For shaping light Davion is real big on Profoto Strip RFi Softboxes with Profoto RFi Softgrids (“I absolutely love them!”). He’s also bullish on Profoto Softbox RFi Octas, and his first love – Profoto Softlight Reflectors (“They’re very cinematic.”)

In terms of camera gear, Davion has managed to keep things simple. “I shoot with a Nikon D7200 with an 18-200mm zoom that does everything I need it to do – I love that lens!

When asked who he turns to for inspiration, he first responds by saying he has ‘lots of influences’, but quickly brings up three names; photographer Benjamin Von Wong, photographer and Photoshop artist Aaron Nace, and most notably, photographer and Photoshop artist extraordinaire Renee Robyn. All three are cinematic in their approaches to photography and their influence on Washington’s work is readily apparent.

When asked about his time at the College of Southern Nevada he immediately lights up while responding “Amazing…I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world."

As for the future, the influence of movies and cinematic lighting continue to be a driving force behind the photo-illustrations Davion Washington continues to produce and he’s quite clear on the direction of his career. “I want my work to grace every popular movie poster – I want people to line up to hire me. Regular photographers? They show their work in photo galleries. My work and my gallery? I want MY gallery to be in a movie theater… that’s my dream.”

And he means it!

Davion Washingtons favorite lighting tools include the following:

  • Profoto D4 Power Generators
  • Profoto D4 Heads
  • Profoto Strip RFi Softboxes
  • Profoto RFi Softgrids
  • Profoto Softbox RFi Octas
  • Profoto Softlight Reflectors

 

To see more of Davion Washington’s work visit his website or Instagram page. 

 

 

 

Written by: Susan Ely