While some in the arts and entertainment community feel as though they were born into it or destined for creativity from their beginnings, many others find their way into the scene much later, and sometimes more than a little unexpectedly.
Take photographer, organizer, and indie scene documentarian Cody Giles, one of the recent movers and shakers of Norman’s arts and entertainment scene.
Through arts and culture journalism and his work with the Norman Arts Council, and as a member of the Norman Music Festival’s organizational board, Giles has been helping to spotlight and elevate the city’s creatives throughout the past near-decade.
It’s a long way from where he grew up in and around the small northeast Texas city of Greenville, where he’d already begun a very different kind of career.
Cody Giles: I was teaching high school in Greenville at the time, at a private school. But ultimately, I knew at some point I was going to have to move in order to be something more than what I was ever going to be in Greenville.
Brett Fieldcamp: For Giles, the way out was through his burgeoning love of photography, and the particular affinity that he began to develop for shooting concerts and live performances in a scene and a world that he’d never really explored until college.
Cody Giles: Growing up, I played football, was on the football team and was a country kid. And so really, I didn't really get involved with music or art until later in life, until college, until I started doing photography. And photography kind of pulled me into a music scene in Dallas at the time, in Deep Ellum. There was a huge, big metal scene back then in Deep Ellum, and that was really where I cut my teeth with photography.
Brett Fieldcamp: As an aspiring photographer, he found himself drawn to the energy and to the rich visual potential of the concert scene as a way to hone his eye and for the first time, to engage with his own creativity.
Cody Giles: Concert photography, for me, is so incredible because you'll never get the same shot twice. There's always movement, it's always different, there's always light, and man, a really well-lit show is chef's kiss. I mean, it's my favorite.
I think it's the excitement, it's the energy, it's the colors, it's the movement. I've always said that, for me, it's like hunting. Like you're hunting for that good shot and you've got to keep your eyes on the stage the entire time. And you're getting to be at a show, but not only at a show, you're getting to create something from it.
Brett Fieldcamp: Giles’ comfort and capability behind the camera eventually brought him to Norman to pursue opportunities with local magazines and papers, covering and photographing a much more robust and uniquely creative arts scene than he was used to.
Cody Giles: Norman was kind of, I mean, it sounds so dramatic, but like a rebirth of just getting to be who I am and who I wanted to be. Because I was at everything. I was at every single event, either shooting it or discovering it or going there, meeting people, hearing stories.
And it's not hard for me to meet people. I'm a fairly outgoing guy, pretty extroverted. So, I enjoy meeting lots of people and that's really been the theme of my creative journey, even from just being a kid. Like, it's just meeting people, creating relationships and doing that.
Brett Fieldcamp: That willingness to meet and connect with the scene led him to a programming position with the Norman Arts Council, to a joint art and photography showcase with painter Jaiye Farrell at Norman’s MAINSITE gallery, and eventually to the board of the Norman Music Festival.
Giles describes the experience of his first Norman Music Festival as a transformative moment in his life, showing him a scene and an arts-oriented community far beyond what he grew up around, and it’s clear that he carries that feeling now into his work on the festival’s board, where he gets to help organize and empower the same energy that drew him to concerts and photography all those years ago.
Cody Giles: Coming on and doing PR and doing photography and doing graphic design and doing the social media for it, and doing that like, I learned so much on what that looked like for the festival, learning the voice of the festival, and what the vibes were, and being able to come in and, like, I take it really personally. It’s something that I really want to protect.
And if it helps grow the music scene, it helps grow the art scene, and it helps protect a cultural space for, you know, expressiveness and people being able to be who they are. For me, that's what it's about.
Brett Fieldcamp: For a closer look at Giles’ photography and graphic design work, visit creativegiles.com, and for events and updates from Norman Arts Council and the Norman Music Festival, visit normanarts.org and normanmusicfestival.com.
As always, you can find transcripts of this show and others, at KGOU.org.
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