“I’m sort of like a Swiss military knife,” Fred Stauffer instructed me in early February.
The 30-year-old Brazilian native, who boasts greater than 71,000 followers on his Instagram, is a self-described content material creator and inventive director who has leaned arduous into the chances social media platforms like Instagram have to supply by way of creation, notably short-form fast burst movies like the corporate’s Reels characteristic. He moved from South America to Europe some fifteen years in the past, initially aspiring to turn into an engineer. His dream would change when he and his household reached England, when he began learning media manufacturing on the age of 20. His aspirations would shift over time, from cinematographer to Steadicam operator to graphic designer earlier than finally settling at an influencer company. It was throughout that interval when short-form content material on the web began to achieve foothold, and he seen “enormous demand” for this new kind of supply. Extra importantly, it clicked for Stauffer he may truly do one thing significant with every part he beloved relating to capturing and processing imagery.
Quick ahead to right now, and Stauffer is happy with the very fact he works with so many manufacturers who “belief” him in serving to seize their identification earlier than sharing with the world. The Paris-based Stauffer has labored with luminaries comparable to Louis Vuitton, Hermes, and extra. (Prada is a favourite of his.) He’s very a lot in demand, to place it succinctly. “It’s arduous to clarify my loopy concepts,” he mentioned of his explaining his artistic course of with others. “The digicam’s gonna undergo your artwork, and we’re going to see any individual else after. Then you definately’re like, ‘What does that imply?’ then after I truly present it, after I movie it, it makes far more sense. It will get straightforward to validate and to create all of those ideas. That’s what I’ve been doing now for for the previous 12 months. I’ve been contacted by a whole lot of totally different manufacturers and totally different [production] homes which were desirous to create this content material [with me].”
When he isn’t working, Stauffer insisted he has a traditional life. He’s a music lover, at present studying tips on how to play the saxophone as a result of it will get his thoughts off of labor and since, frankly, it was one thing he “all the time needed to do,” he mentioned. Except for taking part in the sax, Stauffer enjoys browsing, skateboarding, and snowboarding.
As with profiles of influencers Laura Whaley, Damon Domonique, and Becca Moore which have appeared on this area over time, Stauffer’s story doesn’t have an apparent connection to accessibility or assistive know-how. The place the dots join lie in how disabled folks use the web too; we use platforms like Instagram and really nicely might comply with Stauffer—and/or any of the others I discussed—and be impressed by what he and the others do. In a broad scope, the principle concept right here is that nevertheless necessary accessibility and assistive applied sciences are, disabled individuals are simply that: they’re folks above all else. They’ve pursuits and hobbies, likes and dislikes—all of which have apparent applicability to what they select to work together with on the web. Which, it ought to go with out saying, might embrace Stauffer.
It’s additionally true that Stauffer’s reliance upon know-how to do issues completely illustrates the idea that accessibility isn’t a site solely for the disabled. Stauffer might discover know-how handy, definitely helpful, however it’s straightforward to conflate comfort with accessibility. He might not have a incapacity, however make no mistake, he couldn’t do what he does with out know-how. That’s accessibility proper there.
As talked about, Stauffer talked about an enormous a part of Instagram’s (and all social media) attract is the very fact it taught him “a brand new means making a enterprise” utilizing the supercomputer of a phone he carries in his pocket. He cited the outdated means of doing a photograph exhibition as however one instance of this. Previous to the arrival of social media, his attain, each by way of viewers and by way of what he may logistically accomplish, would have been constrained. Stauffer is simply human, in any case, and he solely has a finite quantity of sources to expend. With Instagram, nevertheless, his addressable viewers is nigh infinite, notably so with the immediacy of the medium. And with the digicam know-how on his telephone, he’s capable of edit and present images in ways in which have been heretofore unimaginable. On this context, what know-how has enabled Stauffer is accessibility in its purest type; know-how is kind of actually helping him in doing his life’s work and sharing it with untold numbers of individuals worldwide. In a nod to technological progress being a immutable drive, Stauffer instructed me the chances accessible right now in comparison with these from 5 years in the past—which can as nicely centuries in the past in tech time—have allowed him to do issues and have new experiences that couldn’t exist only a few quick years in the past. “Utilizing my telephone, and all of this [other tech], totally different digital apps [helps] create one thing and have a much bigger influence,” Stauffer mentioned.
Stauffer depends on his telephone to manage his cameras’ settings, which he defined he’s “very choosy” over. That is one other instance of how far know-how has come; particularly with modifying software program, you conventionally want an exterior show and knowledgeable laptop computer like a MacBook Professional to do a whole lot of the issues Stauffer can do basically one-handed on his telephone. Expertise strikes at a speedy charge, certainly.
Requested in regards to the future, Stauffer answered by telling me the short-term view is rife with competitors within the creator area. The competitors isn’t cutthroat, as he believes “there’s room for everyone” to seek out their area of interest as a result of it’s clearly unimaginable for a single individual to satisfy everybody’s calls for. Actually, Stauffer isn’t afraid of others ostensibly creeping onto his turf, telling me he has “my very own distinctive means and my very own quantity of vitality and love I put into my work… that it’s gonna be all the time distinctive to myself,” he mentioned. He’s even seen a few of his contemporaries use his work in their very own PowerPoint displays and the like. Long run, Stauffer is at present trying into discovering a studio area for himself and his work with the intention of “having a bit bit extra freedom after I create my issues.” He’s additionally attempting to work extra interpersonally, as he admittedly he “doesn’t prefer to obtain assist” from different folks; this, he mentioned, is a vital step as he continues to develop and develop his enterprise. Technologically talking, he seems to be ahead to all of the capabilities the inevitable developments will give his work. He hopes to have robotic cameras and the like at some point in his aforementioned studio area, serving to him make his work simpler and extra environment friendly to finish.
“There’s additionally going to be various things which can be going to have the ability to make my work higher or simpler,” Stauffer mentioned of know-how’s breakneck tempo of change.
But as a lot as Stauffer desires to maintain up, he additionally desires to dwell within the second.
“The evolution is all the time occurring—not solely in know-how, however in what we are able to we are able to do with this know-how,” he mentioned. “I really feel like the long run’s simply gotta be higher, as a result of I consider within the evolution not solely in [technological] evolution, however in human evolution. So, I’m excited for every part that’s occurring… though I’m actually having fun with now [in the present]. I’m attempting to dwell as a lot as I can proper now, however I need the long run. That’s how I see it.”
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