A business major at the University of Oklahoma, Ford Yates isn’t on what many would consider the typical path to becoming an outdoor photographer. he is a talented 21-year-old self-taught photographer from Dallas, Texas, USA. Ford shoots a lot of portrait, landscape, lifestyle and travel photography. “When I wasn’t looking, the love of photography found me through the borrowed lens of my mom’s 1990’s DSLR; it somehow lifted an ordinary weekend hunting trip into a visual adventure,” he says.
His rise comes amidst a generation of new Instagram stars and storytellers—Yates has 52,000 followers—and an enormous amount of content that can be hard to filter through. Some of the new cyber stars are more puzzling than others, but Yates’ following isn’t up for debate.
Here, the college junior shares a few of his thoughts and favorite images from the rivers, tents, and hunting blinds of the south.
I find a strong connection to themes of unrefined outdoor lifestyle, while being from a city of nearly three million.
