Meet Darius Dior & Roots

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Welcome back to the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today we have the pleasure of speaking with the talented Darius Dior. Darius Dior Porsche is a gifted photographer, filmmaker, and music artist with roots in Somerton, South Carolina and Brooklyn, New York. A graduate of Benedict College with a degree in mass communications, Darius skillfully combines visual storytelling, sound, and conversation to capture authentic people and moments. In 2021, he founded Thinking Kingdom, a creative media company dedicated to producing purpose-driven content for artists, entrepreneurs, and families. His work is grounded in legacy, faith, and the conviction that every story deserves to be told with dignity and intention. His company is deeply rooted in the scribal tradition, embracing the ministry of Yeshua with a focus on reconciliation. Our mission is to use film and photography to create compelling images that tell your story, seeing each of you as royal sons and daughters through the lens of his majesty. Stay tuned as we delved into the Faith Let Create Creative Kingdom of Darius Dior. How are you doing today, Brother Man?

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Man, I'm doing good. I'm uh doing well. I'm doing better than I was yesterday. I'm 1% better today.

Brothers, Loss, And Early Inspirations

SPEAKER_04 3:08

Man, I always like your energy, man. I always tell him whenever I see him. He's always correct. He's properly presented and he has good energy. Yeah, yeah. And it was so important. Because we ran into each other last night, man. We did. Yeah, we certainly did. We did, we did. Um, ahead of this, and we were having a conversation. My wife was there, and we were sitting there, chit-chatting, talking, breaking it down, building in. Um, like I said, the the one thing that I always like um when I do see you around, and I always tease about it before we get here, is that if you're there, I want to be there. It's a place that I know I can be in. It's not gonna be a problem, be safe, I'm enjoying myself. It's gonna be a good time to be around good people, right? And I think that's probably gonna be the the thread of our interviews today. We always find a thread. We always find a thread that we see today. And I think this is gonna be the thread for today because it looks like we're around a lot of good people with with great energies who are creatives that when you're in their space, it just feels good to be in their space. And so um obviously you probably heard heard of our podcast before. Yeah, you may have listened to some of our things before. So I'm a fan, but I'm subscribed, man. I appreciate it. So obviously, you know, my first question is I gotta ask you this. We hit everybody with this for the audience. Who or what inspired you growing up? What is some of your your background and do you have any siblings?

SPEAKER_03 4:25

Um, so inspiration for me uh was gotta be in life. Uh my brother, my brother Antoine. So he's uh 14 years older than me. Um God bless you. So he la he he died when I was nine.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

And uh one of the last conversations he and I had was, you know, um you know, you got something more than me, you know. You're actually smart because I was like, you know, uh talking in class. I didn't, you know, because I transitioned from Brooklyn to South Carolina. So culture. Imagine being on being on the phone with your your older brother who's 14 years older than you, right? Yeah. He's trying to give you life advice about school, and he's in New York, and you, you know, you're downside. He's like, what you doing down there, you know? And uh he told me, you know, you're smart, man. So actually lean into that and let that be uh something that you that you embrace about yourself. You know, you don't gotta always try to be cool and try to be the one talking and toning down your light to fit in. Right, toning down your light to fit in, man. And so um, so I would say that he was one of my first inspirations, my brother, my eldest brother. Uh he'll say my only brother, but I had another brother, yeah, which is also my half-brother. They're both my half-brothers, but you know, they say uh mama's baby, papa's baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? So my brother and I would be like, he'd be like, look, I'm your brother, because we got the same mother. We got the same mama. Right. Yeah. So um, so yeah, man. Uh, and I would say that's another, you know, influence uh just my other brother, my other half-brother. So I would just say my brothers are probably my biggest and you know most influenced.

SPEAKER_04 6:11

That's interesting. We don't we don't have a lot of folks that come out and say they're siblings.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

Yeah. They don't. That's interesting. I mean, but I'm a baby, you know. So you know, so I I was like the last kid of my parents. So like when I by the time I was born, my brother was, you know, with girls. He had all types of hair doing his thing, yeah. So um, yeah, I would say my brother, and yes, I do have siblings. I have two brothers, a sister, um, and and then me. Hey, you know, two brothers, a sister, and then me, man. Um, and that's yeah, that's that's it.

SPEAKER_04 6:48

Man, that's a that's a pretty good sized family. Yeah, it's a pretty good sized family. So, like, so so growing up, obviously you you have siblings, you you you have this large family, you you leave from the north, you come to the south, there's a culture shock that comes with that. I remember that culture shock. I remember what it was.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

So 95, 96, you know, Tupac's dying. Wow, Biggie, right? So I'm really mad. Yeah, I'm 10 years old. Send you down south. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

The streets is on fire, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 7:21

Go down there, it's quiet. You in the woods.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

You in the woods? You are in the woods, sir. You're in the woods, man.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

Oh man, so obviously you went from a a pace, a pace of of life that literally took you and forced you to sit down and pay attention. Yeah. Almost, right? For sure. Yeah. Um, how how did that influence your your delve into the creative world that that you have gone into?

SPEAKER_03 7:46

Yeah, um my dad, well, my brother, uh my father's son, uh was in the military. He was a photographer. Yeah, and then my brother, uh my mother's, you know, my my brother with my mom. Yep, yep. The brother, brother. You know, he introduced me to hip hop and Wu-Tang clan, and you know, so it's like, you know, Onyx was the first, my first experience. Onyx was dope, man. You know, Slam, you know, that was the right the Lex Scoop Jim Baz in the band.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

Oh, ladies and my bands.

North To South Culture Shock

SPEAKER_03 8:24

Keep it real. So that's that's my influence, like at its core. Yeah. You know what I mean? But uh, but my mom also just always had Polaroid cameras everywhere. So it was like I grew up on the pew. I grew up on the pew, and on Sunday morning, you know, my mom's got the picture on top of the, and she did the Polaroid, and you know, you can't touch it, you know what I mean? So my earliest childhood memories are just Polaroid cameras. And so just between the music and the photography influences, church, you know, uh being around that, you know, that though those are like what really kind of triggered me artistically, listening to my brother rap. You know what I mean? Uh freestyling, really freestyling, me and my cousins, you know, being in a circle and we uh and somebody make the beat and we just you know, that's that that's that's a normal thing in Brooklyn and you come down south and it's like ah culture shot. So you gotta be kidding me.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

That makes me feel bad. God, darn it. So darn it. Did it did it feel like something was snatched? Yeah, yeah, bro. Because you seem to have a you from the way you recollect your affinity for it and you enjoying that vibe. Because you were now here's the thing, now I want to get this from you. I want to get this because this is why I want to get this. I know we're gonna start, we're gonna talk a little bit about faith, but you were in, were you in church consistently in Brooklyn? Yeah, I'm see that's a different, all right. That's a different I went to church.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

You know, we went to church in the morning, then we went to church after, you know. So I went to church twice minimum every Sunday. Yeah, sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

And if they got special service, you know it's a rap. All day, all day.

SPEAKER_04 10:10

And then um, I used to tell my my grandmother, because um, and I you also had your revivals too, and then you had to go to revivals, you had special stuff you had and I and I tell people there's a little difference in that in you being up there and going to church. I I thought this was interesting. Like I experienced this and I thought it was interesting. Church in the north was a little different than church in the south. Yeah, definitely. And I explain this to people all the time. It's uh it's not that like we're not really like learning different things. It's still church, it's the way in which it is is um the way in which it is like that they do it. It's the action of the church is a little different. But you're still learning the same concept, same phase, same. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I just thought that it was always different. And I remember when I when I came down here to South, and I'll say this because this is a Southern thing. Yeah, I realized that black people and white people didn't go to the same church.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

Yeah, I really I didn't realize that until I was 16. See? Yeah, that's real. They caught that on camera when I was down here. And because you know they had like they was doing documentaries back in this, uh like in 96, 97 with the students. And I said, Yeah, I just realized I didn't know a white church existed.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

Preach in itself.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

I don't church is a very black, yeah, as a matter of fact, kind of experience for me. Yeah, so I had to like kind of learn that white people get to go to church. Like, come ahead, talk about I grew up Jehovah's Witness, man.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Totally different.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

This is hilarious. Yeah, I gotta you gotta speak on that. That was totally different. I don't say that all the time to a lot of people, but yeah, that is, it really was a revelatory thing. Like, oh, this is a thing.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

When I thought about Southern Baptists and all that stuff, right? I said, Whoa, this is a thing. I did not know. I did not know. I was so confused, and even like um, like because white folks, they would come to church with us too. Unless you were like, the only thing that'd be different would be like Catholic and Judaism. Like, so folks that went to synagogue and people that went to Catholic church. Outside of that, everybody to my opinion, it was just church. Yeah, it was all the same.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Around here, it just it just it just wasn't a place I wanted to be. Yeah, look, you you think, and this is I'm saying it out loud for the millennial yeah, PK kids went to church up north. You know, you wanted to go home, yeah. You wanted to go play or do whatever else. Other than if he's at church. I think, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:36

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

I get that.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

Uh now um now, one thing that I think is interesting, especially with obviously I always tell you, man, the way that you carry yourself, you could tell like you have a good foundation in knowing who you are, yeah, and and being comfortable and and and in and feeling brave enough to move through the world in it.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:57

Now, how does having that that faith foundation transform the way you approach your work when when taking um photography and photos of people and and being out because the thing is people don't realize, yo, you in the streets. Yeah, people outside, but you're always yourself.

Church, Hip Hop, And Polaroids

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Right, right. I I think um for me it's just about being more uh how do you say more honest with your environment in a way that I'm not trying to take anything from anybody, I'm not even trying to suck all the energy, the air out of the room either. Like I want to figure out what I have that I can give, whatever that looks like. So when people see me doing portraits in the street, it's like, what are you doing? I'm a photographer. Straight up. No, no lies, is all honest. Um I'm just I'm just practicing my craft and my work. Would you like to take a picture? I can it's free, you know. Yeah, I would love to take your photograph. Blew my mind. This blew my mind the other day. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it's it's leading with giving. You know what I mean? Like, I don't because most people see somebody on the street and they're like, what are you trying to sell me? What are you what money are you trying to take from me? Right. I was like, it's something diabolical about that, and I don't want to, I don't even want to have that experience with another human being.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Yeah, but you're right, because it's for as soon as somebody starts speaking to you on the street, the first thing you think is they're gonna ask you for money. Yeah, what did you tell me yesterday?

SPEAKER_03 14:32

$40,$40,$40. And by the time they see you, they're telling you, give me$40,$40. Yep. And I'm like, yo, we cannot, this just can't be the future of photography. It can't be.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

No.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

This can't be this can't be life. This can't be a lot of life.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

This can't be the life of a photographer today. Yeah. And some people even say, you know, you know, photographers are like cassette tapes, you know, they don't exist anymore. I'm like, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 14:59

That's crazy. That's wild.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

And people look at the craft like, yeah, some people feel like, why would why do I the last thing people order for their birthday parties is the photographer now? Everybody got their phone, their iPhone. Uh nobody's really putting stock into the craft, into the profession as an individual, like a barber. Yeah, you're true. It's never going anywhere. Right? It's never going anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Clippers been around for a long time, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:28

Some stuff you just gotta leave alone. Like, yeah, no matter how high tech we get with technology, there won't be a machine that will be able to see what I see and capture what I capture.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Because it's me. Same thing for you. Like, you can't replace humans in that fact. Oh, you know what I mean? Like, we can we nothing can can like electronically have us see each other. This is true. Not in the way that we do. You know, really is it's a completely different, so we cannot make that a like a a data-based. That's all that's not a data-driven conversation.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

It's not a date, it's not a data-driven conversation. It's not. And I man, all right, so yes, we get to talk about what we want to talk about. AI. All right, so we've been getting into this conversation anytime we can, anytime we can, and especially as a person in faith, because I always think about AI and I think about faith, and I think about the idea of God and the idea of having something that is a a quote unquote supreme intelligence. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

That's oh, it's dumb. It's not that smart.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

So wait, what did you send me yesterday? It's dumb. This is so fun.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

I made I made three of them yesterday. Go ahead. It's it's it's fun. They're great tools, but they ain't they ain't smart. They ain't alive.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

So why are people why are people putting such stock, especially, and I gotta ask you this as a creative, especially if somebody is you're doing photography, it's something it matters what the mind's eye and what a human eye is saying. For sure. Why are we putting so much stock into this fickle technology?

SPEAKER_03 17:00

It's um it's it's a way to be lazy. That's a kind of lazy. It's a way to be lazy. I and I'm not gonna sit here and act like I haven't used it or yeah, we all do. You know what I mean? Or I don't use it on a daily basis in a whatever way that I'm using it. But it definitely is a way to be lazy, and I think if we just start there, man, that we'll have our answer. I think that's I think that's the answer. I don't think there's any explanation that's really needed. I think it's lazy. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 17:29

It's a way for us to figure out how not how to offshow our work.

unknown 17:32

Right.

SPEAKER_04 17:33

We got you know what I'm about to talk about. What's that? The importance of slavery in the economy. You gotta have a bottom level tool or thing to cut costs of production. Yeah. And now we have this thing called AI. What do you think about that, Mike?

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Well, I mean, I'm not gonna get a assistant.

SPEAKER_04 17:55

I don't even know how to oh, my fault. My um my phone is always connected to everything. I apologize, you all go ahead, Mike.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yeah, yeah. Uh I don't even know what I was about. We're talking about AIs?

SPEAKER_04 18:08

Yeah, we're talking about like why, like, we have to have it connected to what we did.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Well, so like I wasn't gonna get an assistant. Like the the idea of me getting an assistant is so far down the road, I would have to be making so much money to pay somebody what they were worth that would just not be practical. See, yeah. But I spun up on an assistant yesterday.

SPEAKER_04 18:27

No, he really didn't. He was sending what did they ask what he wanted it wanted to do.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

That's what the purpose was, that's what his name was. And and man, the guy, the guy that gave it to me, he he was like, ask it about the soul.md file. And there's this whole file that like breaks down the personality of the AI and like what it's what it's like. Yeah, basically. And so I made like yo. Yeah, no, it's crazy. It's it's absolutely bat shit nuts. It's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

So it's not it's not the baseline of you you reflect it reflects back to you what you reflect to it. They're going beyond that.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Yeah, I mean, this this one was basically like like it still has one of the big engines that's the brain. So it's still running off of Chat GPT, or this one runs off a Claude because it was easier to set up than ChatGPT. But then the bot is just kind of like the front end that sits on top of it and knows all of your things. Well, yeah, and also like you know, what kind of project you're working on. So, you know, like my wife's starting a private practice, so you start talking to it about that, and then you give it the website for that. And one of the things I was trying to get it to do is to train it for um understanding Medicare, Medicaid, Tri-Care.

SPEAKER_04 19:45

It's hard, it's hard, it's hard. Yes, yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

So instead of having a person that's an expert on that, uh-huh, they're getting ready to retire. The person at my day job is that way. So I'm trying to replace them with uh AI. Right. And it's it's one of those things that it's not it's not gonna delete somebody's job, it's essentially gonna be a tool that people inside the office use instead of running to this person when they're not there anymore.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

Well, it causes the person to not need to be there anymore.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

I don't I think you still need expertise. You still need that person. I think you do, but I think I'm thinking of it as a smarter search engine specifically about because I can't I can't Google any of this stuff right now. And even trying to get the AI to read these government websites at like it was it was taking all day. It was burning all my tokens, man. It was it was just running through it. Trying to read the government websites and understand it. And and I'm like, this is something you want parents to do. They're sitting in a hospital while something's going on with their kid, they're stressed out about it, and they're trying to read this paperwork. It's not gonna happen. Nope. So I'm making AI help them.

Faith As Creative Practice

SPEAKER_04 20:46

See, and in that sense, this is in that sense, I would say good tool, right? Good tool, right? That's not you trying to um abscond your your duties or you know, skate around your duties. You're getting your job done, right? Right. Now the lazy part, lazy part, especially when it comes to creative work, is you not even deciding to put any more of your spirit into doing the job. Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:10

Now it's not even any emotion, you know, the thing. Now we're just generating images. I mean, and it's it's cool, man. I think it's I think it's I think it's I think it's really cool. Do you think any of them are are like strange, creepy? I think all of it's strange, creepy on some level, like the whole thing's creepy. All of it is strange and creepy.

SPEAKER_04 21:32

Yeah, I mean, because I got this little boy that be doing his dances all the time.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

Yeah, this it's fake, but these people's internet grandchild. There's there's there's conversations I've had with chat that I'll be like, man, I can't even get this kind of content out of a human. Like, how do we what I can't like I'm not about to do this with you?

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Like I don't have to like, because it'd be reflecting me back to me so sharply that I'm like, I'm talking to myself now.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

Right? And it's like somebody in the background talking slick back. You know what I mean? Like, you know, and and it feels like, okay, all right, I'm talking to me. Yeah. So I don't gotta do this, right? I can, but it, but there's it's like add Google into that, add 10 or 12 resources around whatever you're thinking about, around that, and that's what kind of makes it addictive. You're like, you're because it's so much, it's feed it literally is feeding you back information. And it's wild. Behaving like, you know, like like an organism that it is it knowing that it's doing that, or is that just that's that's the point? Whether is it a limitation? Is it a is the governor on it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and it's like, nope, I only reflect back what to, you know, that's my limitation. My limitation is don't even try to go there with me, right?

SPEAKER_04 22:54

Until until obviously like Robocop rightnet gets gets loose. Well, that's the thing, is you just don't give it a gun. Yeah, just don't give it a gun. Don't give it a gun. Why would you give it the nuclear codes? Just don't do it. That's a good point. And so, okay, so so getting to that and and then just talking about you doing you doing photography, obviously. One thing I always think about is like, how would AI take over photography?

SPEAKER_03 23:21

I mean, you're already doing the, you know, you can change a background, you can change your face. Uh I think it that it's never really gonna take over photography.

SPEAKER_04 23:31

Because yeah, how's it gonna take a picture?

SPEAKER_03 23:33

I just think in the edit process, I think we we're so deep and far into the edit world now that just raw photography before there was an edit process in photography, there was just photography. Take the picture, that's it. That's it. You can process it.

SPEAKER_04 23:49

You can process it, I believe, but that's it.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

But that's it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

I think that is where photography can live and probably be reborn. You know what I mean? Because the value in that is so tarnished now. It's like how you are, where you are, as you are, just has less value uh to the to the average consumer than that.

SPEAKER_04 24:15

It's crazy, yo. So so it but you're right. The edited photo matters more than the original. The edit at the edit at matters more. You have to agree to that, Mike, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:26

You think that well, I mean, artistic value is still like I still appreciate something that's done in camera, but like for the average person, absolutely. They want they want the finished one. Only the finished one.

SPEAKER_04 24:39

Because like when you came in here and you were talking about because like product we use, he was like, oh you tell the product, you can tell somebody that they know what they're doing, they know what products you're using, what's working. Right. Most people, like you said, nowadays you're talking about cameras being their mo their main um motor um modality to take photos and et cetera, and they think that that is enough to get a good photo.

SPEAKER_03 25:01

It's not, it's not. And and and the thing is the potential that you miss tapping into by not pushing the envelope on the craft itself and really like challenging yourself and seeing, you know, eventually you start having that conversation with just you and other creators, you know, you're and now you're beyond the scope of your average client, your customer, your product. It's so much more you can, you know, you can discover and just be tapping in and really honoring the craft for what it is, where it is.

SPEAKER_04 25:33

How can you how can you get somebody who's a novice or who may not understand the importance of that to uh understand the value of your craft so that they can say, hey, as a consumer, I'm gonna choose you to do this service for me because I understand the importance of it. Right.

Is AI A Creative Shortcut

SPEAKER_03 25:46

I think um I would say I I would help them understand that you're you're a student every day. Like no matter how good you get at whatever it is that you're doing, you're still learning. True, true. And if you can't you're gonna you're gonna have to posture your heart in that way in order to begin to understand the value of the craft in the way that you should. Like I'm this is I'm never gonna arrive when it comes to this. Like it's gonna always be something, or it should be at least. It should be something that pushes you to want to do something else better or to do something more creatively. And I think that's the only way you really can understand it. Because if if not, it's just gonna be a waste of time. You're gonna stop, you're gonna quit. If this doesn't make you more curious, exactly, you're gonna get bored. And the in the create the creative part, I like to be allowed to be random because I'm getting more of my experience from the people that are that's around my creativity. That's the energy, that's the source, right? Like the impact that you make, the people that you encounter or possibly encounter. And all that is around your art. And so you get to be motivated not just by the art itself, but just the actual effect of your art. You know what I mean? Those different factors, they they they give you points of of reference, a reference in time, yeah, in relationships, um, in people's lives, uh, you know, because at some point, you know, you get to a space where the photographer stops smiling. And it's like, no, you no, you stop smiling. No, nah, you stop smiling. Great point because you're the photographer. Yeah. I'm smiling, but you're not, right? Like, this can affect me. Yeah, this affects me, yeah. This affects me, and and and because I'm a tree, you come to the tree for the fruit, you know what I mean? But you're not even like you didn't know. You ain't giving me nothing good.

SPEAKER_04 27:57

Yo, this is the tree. You led right into this question. Obviously, I was waiting, I was ready to get this on on camera. Um, tomorrow does a great job. Moments in time, yeah. Like she knew we were gonna talk about something for some reason. Watch this, right on point. Moments in time, right? We're in a fast-paced world of event coverage, things going, et cetera. That's why I want to talk about the AI as well. Yeah, but one thing that's so cool, and we we discuss this, you're in so many cool, unique environments. And you're talking about the the different vectors, things that feed into what you're getting as a photographer to give you the feeling that you're having for that day. Yeah, which type of environments do you feel most creatively fulfilling to document and why?

SPEAKER_03 28:41

Man, I I'm I'm gonna say uh this is probably tough for me to kind of choose, right? Because you kind of fight between like what you're creating and then what you're being able to just be a part of because it's going on. Yeah, and you can explain to the audience a little bit what you mean because it's a very unique way of working. Yeah, so like so like um you go into a into a photo shoot, you've organized it, you know, you've put the uh the ideas together, uh somebody's brought their props or whatever the case, they've made it a special moment inside of a studio environment, or maybe outside, but you've scheduled it. Yep, set up. You set it up, planned it, planned it, you you know, you you executed the shoot, and then you get to marvel at that thing, right? Because you planned all of this stuff. Yeah. Uh and that's you know, you you you end up you know looking at the pride of life. Look at what I've done, look at the work of my hands, right? But there's another part of that, other another side of photography with that is, and and film too, like what we're documenting things, um, and this is what inspires me as a filmmaker. I don't know if you've ever seen Snow on a Bluff. You ever seen Snow on the Bluff?

SPEAKER_04 29:55

Yes, I have.

SPEAKER_03 29:56

Yes, I have. Okay, so Snow on the Bluff was such a it was filmed in such a way that you still don't believe that that was something that someone created.

SPEAKER_04 30:12

Yeah, I thought it was real, yeah, yeah. It doesn't look, yeah. It doesn't say real, real.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

And we get to a place where we don't know the difference between the realities of that film and what it really was and how it made you feel. Like Blair Witch product. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's like I I'm I'm inspired by the things that I get to just flow in. And I didn't create it, I'm just a part of it. You know what I'm saying? Like there's certain you you you were there, you capture it. You it it's not something you plan. It's just you being able to take up space in the room creatively as a photog, right? How to be there and still take up room presence in the room, and the photographer doesn't stop smiling. As a matter of fact, the the energy that you're generating as a photographer is shifting some things and moving some things. And it's not something that you're creating, it's just something that you are a part of. And you gotta figure out how to authentic more authentically be a part of that, and it's not something that you're forcing or chasing, and you end up documenting history, like those whoever the photographer was that shot Martin Luther King and those guys standing up there, yeah, you know what I'm saying? You know, like moments in time, you're right, right? Just the moments in time that you get to be a part of, those are the things that just that carry me from one season to the next with this thing. You know what I'm saying? Like it's it is the other side of it. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 31:48

And when you're saying that, if you've ever seen him work, and sometimes you want to actually watch him work, as all just the audience knows, you gotta go to certain events, and I want you to talk about some of the events you go to, except so people know, but the way that he operates in these spaces, some of the best work I've ever seen from a photographer. Like literally the way you move into space, how you're in the space. Like you said, he never it doesn't he never subtracts from the space, he doesn't, he doesn't override the space. Yeah, you don't even sometimes know he's there. But the way he's able to exist in the space allows for very natural, um, unguarded uh documentation of what is happening there, yeah. And if you could tell our audience a little bit about how you operate, because I've never heard anybody doing this in consistency, but but explain them how you work, like how you work this as a nine-to-five.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

Yeah, man. I so on Tuesdays, you know, the the heartbeat of the city is line dances. They have um, you know, the you know, uh with them fans at, right? You know, blowing whistles and uh, you know, pop through fans. They doing that every Tuesday. And what's happening is this is crazy. This is like kind of the new thing, right? But this is what's happening in the city culture, culture, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? So so no one really knows how long this is gonna go on. But people religiously come to these event spaces in the in these bars and they go out there and they have to dance their behinds off for hours straight. And I photo, I try to photograph every last one of them every week on their way out. And it's like the best thing in the world for them. Like, thank you so much for taking being here to take this picture. Yeah, well, how what what can I pay you? What can I give you? How much is it? It's free, but if you would like to give, you can. And it's uh it's like it's kingdom economics, it's a love exchange, right? Because then they know I'm here because I know that they're there. Yep, that's it. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 33:40

It's like I'm not here to to be to um, what's the word, to, to, to be a parasite or anything. Right. I'm here to participate.

SPEAKER_03 33:47

But I'm here to participate in what's going on here. And on so on Wednesdays, I'll go to uh um karaoke night, right? Because they have the black karaoke night, they have the white karaoke night, you know, at the art bar, and then you got envy over there on for two-notch. And so I'll alternate in those communities, but those people are there, those same people that come to get that drink on Wednesday, they're there, and they're they're doing karaoke until the cows come home until from eight to one o'clock in the morning, every single Wednesday. You get they're gonna be there, right? Sometimes you might see some different people, but it's it's the same thing. Thursdays, I'm going to the S-Bar, doing back to line dances again. You know, there's on another side of town, but they're doing the same exact thing.

SPEAKER_04 34:33

Well, what did you say was like church?

SPEAKER_03 34:34

It's like church. They'll cut the music off. They they stomp. Stomping their feet. That's it. It's a religious experience. It's a religious experience.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

I believe it.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

That's going on. And these people absolutely love it. I'm talking about young, old, medium age.

SPEAKER_04 34:51

Yeah, that's crazy. It's equal to the crazy. Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

And I'm like, yo, this is do y'all know that this is gospel? Like, I don't know if y'all, I grew up, like, I grew up in the black church.

SPEAKER_04 34:57

Like, this is black gospel. Y'all are doing this on every Tuesday. And they're choosing. And they're choosing to do this. Without anybody forcing them. No one's telling them fire and brimstone. They're gonna go to hell if they don't. They're just going out, and this is a community, and you get the document.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

Right, and I get the document. What's happening in my community? I don't know why this is so this is so crazy to everybody. Then on then on then on Fridays, I go down to five points.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

With the students, they are gonna, whether it's whether it's a game or not, whether it's football season or not. Yep. There is a culture of people that live at five points every Friday night.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:35

And they will never go away. There was a time. And they deserve and they deserve love, respect, dignity, honesty, integrity, and a member of their community that doesn't necessarily look like them to show up and be a part of it.

SPEAKER_04 35:52

Yeah. And you catch them in their real form. You catch them in their real form.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

Nah, this, you know, it's not something that we're just we're we're making up. I'm just being here. Here I am. On Saturday, I'll go to Soda City and do the same thing. Yeah. Right? And so that's and that's a floor entry level job for me within my company. That's a that's a job.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

You know what I'm saying? And you can actually do, you can make money doing that on a consistent basis, like you were on the nine to five. But then on top of that, and underneath that, you have bookings, you have people that show up for you and reach back out to you, hey, I remember you. And it's all marketing and then it's compound interest that's going on with your brand as well. It's just being built right away. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Well, there's eyeballs on you in the community because you're there, you're showing up there.

SPEAKER_04 36:41

So I was like, yes, but dude, he's outside. Why is he outside tonight? Yeah, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 36:45

And so, and that, and it's no, you know, rut, no, no, uh, pressure on anybody. Like, hey, what do we need? Here's what I can do, here's what you can do, here's how we can help, how we can help each other. And it's not a scam. It's not, you know what I'm saying? It's not uh somebody trying to steal my money or a grift. And it's like, nah, like, can we just be humans and be present?

SPEAKER_04 37:07

That's it.

SPEAKER_03 37:08

Let's just do that.

SPEAKER_04 37:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

I don't, you know, I don't know what else to call it or say it or do, but people nowadays they really don't know how to just do that.

SPEAKER_04 37:19

That's difficult. We they took it, they took it away. They took the practice. I think what it is, the practice. And what I mean by practice is repetitions of doing it have been limited. It's not that you can't, it's just that previous, especially before we had phones in our hand and we had all this social media, we had to have we got reps, right? Social contact. Yeah, we had to. That was the one way that you were gonna do whether you were meeting up with people to do Dungeons and Dragons, if you were part of a recall team, if you were going to church and seeing your people on Sundays and Wednesdays, if you were um just being at school, going to you, if you wanted to see and be in social, you had to physically do it, which meant you gotta get reps.

SPEAKER_03 38:02

Right. Automatic. And that's but but you know, I I went in 2009, left Benedict, so I took this as an elective, got uh got a uh internship at a portrait studio in the mall. They had uh a booth downstairs with the studio up there, you know, you$20 for your for your purchase, and you go up there and you take get your eight by ten. Right, and that's where I started doing, that's why I saw photography at for the first time in in function, doing pre-sale for the in the mall, and and the stress that came behind that. Olin Mills in the back of Kmart. Y'all know that Olin Mills, though. Everybody has an Olin Mills portrait, yeah, somewhere in grandma's house. Somewhere in grandma's house right now. In the back of Old Mills. Right. And now we just live in a digital world, and it's like we have freedom to be more creative, but we don't have to wait two weeks to get it back anymore. You know what I'm saying? And it's and now it's like, oh, the more fake images we see online, the better it is for real images to show when they should when they come.

SPEAKER_04 39:07

Real tall, that's how you believe it. That's a interesting one. You know what I'm saying? That's that's an interesting thing.

SPEAKER_03 39:11

The more fake ones, yeah, yeah, the more we'll appreciate the real ones when they should the real photographers who are making real images, who appreciate those more.

SPEAKER_04 39:20

That's a good I ain't gonna lie. I agree with you on it. I'm not gonna have a pet had a better pessimistic way of looking at it. That's a better way to look at it. I'll think about the same way that I think about music. Like, yeah, the worse the music is out that that is being promoted, when I hear something that's good, it's like water to the soul. Like I'm in the desert. Oh, finally, I gotta hit the always.

SPEAKER_03 39:40

Can't find it nowhere else. We got a real one.

SPEAKER_04 39:42

Yeah, I'm excited now. I'm excited now. That's a good way to put it. Yeah, but you're positive, brother. Man, I appreciate your energy. Man, I I gotta say that. Now I'm gonna hit this this next question. All right, and then we're gonna we're we're staying pretty good on time. But I do there's two things I want to do before we finish up. When we do this question, I gotta make sure that you get a chance to do your promotion, okay? Gotcha. Um I the industry of photography, obviously, you're talking it is about looks and and reviews and what people think and feel about what you do. Right. What is your process for filtering criticism on your work without losing your artistic voice?

SPEAKER_03 40:21

Yeah. Um I would say uh just the f the f the emotion. I take accept the feedback, you know, because uh at some point when you get good enough, people start telling you how good you are. And then you just start to learn not to just listen to people's pats on the back. You know, because some people are just saying that because it's polite.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_03 40:49

You know what I'm saying? So like you you're listening for the criticism as a good thing. Because if you're getting some negativity somewhere, at least artistically, objectively, then that means it there's emotion, there's some feeling there, right? There's some there's as long as there's emotion, following as long as somebody cares, yeah, yeah, that I intentionally underexpose this image, right? Yeah, feeling it, yep. That at some point I wasn't intentionally doing it, but at some point I figured out why it was happening and how to change that. And along that journey of correcting this error, I found something that I liked. That has nothing to do with what you think, but what I know is gonna happen when I do something else. And so now it's like, okay, you gotta be mindful of how much of your creative process that people aren't. Like people aren't a part of that. Yeah, they aren't. They don't get to see. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, they don't know. So you gotta take what the feedback is with a grain of salt, but it at least you know there's some emotion there.

SPEAKER_04 42:09

There's there they they care.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

They care. Someone told me this. That's so important that you say that.

SPEAKER_04 42:14

There's a guy I was talking to, customer service professional guy, and I was talking to him about um patience, satisfaction, etc. And he said, Don't worry about people calling in if they're upset and they have a complaint. Yeah. He said, That's a good thing. I said, Why? He said, It means they still care. Yeah. He said, Once they no longer care, they no longer give feedback, um, your output is poor, you're done for. He said, You like you said, the emotion is still there.

SPEAKER_00 42:42

Yeah, yeah, they don't call when they're calling the lawyers. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 42:46

You get a different type of response.

SPEAKER_03 42:48

That's how I yeah, but that's how I stay stay grounded in my creative style. It's like I know, I I know you don't like that. I'm glad you don't. I wanted you to not like it. You know what I'm saying? I wanted you to feel I want you to look at it again and then think about it again.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

You know, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 43:07

It's deep. It's deep. Yeah. Um, all right, so last thing I do want to do, and it looks like a little bit, I'm good, I'm good. I got about two to five minutes. All right. Um, how do you find balance between work and personal life? Because obviously you aren't solo dolo. Yeah, right. So how do you how do you do that and then make sure that you're able to be where you need to be during the day?

Staying A Student Of The Craft

SPEAKER_03 43:32

Um I think it's probably just my habits because I you know I work out, uh, make sure that I get one of those in. Uh, and that's a part of my devotion and stuff like that. And then I I I build my life around my family, right? So I can be available for them through my creativity. So uh it's just I don't know, man. I I I I would be giving myself too much credit if I said there was a specific thing that I do I do, but I would have to say just my habits, man. I just try to try to let my hot my life be a habit. You know what I'm saying? Just from how how I eat, what time I go to bed, what time I wake up. Like I know I'm gonna be up all night. So I sleep in the day. Yeah. Make sure that I make sure that I get the sleep in. So like I'll work hard in the evening time until the wee hours of the morning, four or five o'clock in the morning. And then I get my sleep in. And then, you know, so I make sure I I kind of stay in rhythm with my body and just be habitual about the things that I do every day. Just from sleeping, eating, and exercising. Just try to keep a ritual around my around my habits. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

That's important something, though, especially for our audience to hear that. Because people don't talk about that stuff. No, they just be, oh, I'm just out here successful and doing my thing. There has to be some kind of background. Yeah, so it's good to hear that. Yeah, man. Time management. Yeah. Now, last thing, um, your turn for uh shameless plugs. Okay. You want to know, don't feel bad about it. Yeah. What kind of projects you got going on? What are you working on? What can we expect from your future, and how can people find you?

SPEAKER_03 45:11

Got you. Uh, right now I have um Let Your Light Shine, a short film that I'm working on with um Ashley Keith. She is a phenomenal artist. Uh kind of putting herself out there as a filmmaker uh and partner with me on a project. We're gonna be doing that pretty soon here. And then um, of course, my music uh is uh still being you know prepared. Yeah, please tell people about your music. Yeah, man. I'm uh I'm a Kingdom music artist. If you don't know, Gary is Dior. I do rap ministry. I have uh Him and Me Three, which is like a trilogy to that I've done that I'm that I'm finishing right now. Uh just did a show for that at the art bar recently, this past January. Awesome. Shout out to everybody that came out there that that at that time. I'm gonna be releasing that project on even so you can pay what you want and cut the streaming services out and the middleman out. Yeah. So I'm gonna be releasing that on even. Shout out to you know everything LaRussell's been showing us. True. If you don't know who that is, you need to get on the grams. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, in the grams. In your grams. Yeah, and I got um, you know, Thinking Kingdom Media, which is my YouTube channel where I do uh interviews. I interview, you know, small business owners, artists, and entrepreneurs, you know, people trying to create content. Please subscribe to that. We just cross over a thousand subscribers on YouTube. Uh you know, that was last what last year. Uh and all it takes is that one video, man, to get you. Push you. Push you. That one video, bro. Uh shout out to that. Um, and other than that, man, I got my media company, Thinking Kingdom. You know, uh, we just we do photography, videography, film. Uh, we're interested in partnering with you on your creative, creative ideas. You let us know. We're here for it. Um, you can find me on Instagram at Thinking Kingdom. You can also find me on Instagram at Thinking Kingdom Media, where you'll find those interviews and those conversations. Um, and then you can find me at Darius D or on Instagram as well, which is my music and just me personally. You'll find me there. Uh and yeah, and YouTube, you can find me there as well. And on your nearest block, you know, maybe in Charlotte.

SPEAKER_04 47:42

That's what I want people to know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:43

You might we might be on your I might be on your nearest block. Yeah. Your nearest party. Pull up. I might be I might be at your nearest, you know, restaurant. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 47:56

Uh trying to find humans being humans. All right. If you're not trying to do that, you don't want to be around me. Yeah. That's all I'm trying to say, man. And uh that's it, man. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

That's all right.

SPEAKER_04 48:07

There we go. There we go. Well, we're gonna wrap up. I know for this episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Before I do, I just want to say I'm DJing what? This is Mike Skips in the other room. Tamia's not here today, but we're gonna see her on the next um episode and then our esteemed guests. No doubt. Salute. You can say your name.

SPEAKER_03 48:24

Darius Dior. There you go. I gotta always let you say your name. Right on money. Glad to be here with you guys. Thank you for having me, man.

SPEAKER_04 48:32

Man, we appreciate you, man. And um, as we sign off, please tell somebody next to him that you love them, that you appreciate them. We really need to hear that in this day and age. Till next time. Peace. Peace.