Scott Strazzante is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist sharing his years of experience on Revel. We had a chance to ask Scott a few questions about his prolific career and Revel experience.
Revel Team: Tell us a bit about yourself and your background as a photographer.
Scott: I was born and raised in the South side of Chicago. My father owned a truck tire dealership, so, I went to Ripon College in Wisconsin to pursue a business major in order to take over my dad’s business. In college, I stumbled upon a gallery show of photojournalism and despite little experience with a camera, I decided to pursue photography as a career. A year after graduation, I got a part-time job at a small newspaper and eventually worked my way, 15 years later, to a staff position at the Chicago Tribune where I was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting. In 2014, I took a job at the San Francisco Chronicle and have been in the Bay Area ever since. I have two adult children, a daughter, Betsy, in the movie biz in LA, and a son, Cameron in the Army in Kentucky.
Revel Team: How did you first get into web3 and NFTs?
Scott: I first became aware of NFTs in early 2021, but didn’t jump in until August of that year. I did fairly well at the start with a collection called Shooting from the Hip, a series of black and white iPhone street photography images.
Revel Team: How do NFTs resonate with your journalist colleagues?
Scott: In 2021, I tried to onboard many of my photo friends, but only a handful joined in and most of those have left the space. An issue with many professional photojournalists is they don’t own the copyright, so, they have only a small amount of images to mint. I, on the other hand , have created a large body of personal work and have dipped into that for most of my minting.
Revel Team: Let’s touch on social media. How did that affect how you connect with fans?
Scott: I adore social media and the vast amount of fellow creatives that I have met through it. At the newspapers that I have worked at, I have very little control over what images are published, so, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have become another outlet for my favorite images. In the early days of the internet, I, also, authored several photo blogs and photo columns which helped me gain an audience outside of my newspaper’s readers.
Revel Team: With your prolific journey, what advice would you give to someone starting out?
Scott: Be your own assignment editor. Always have a handful of personal projects to work on even if it is as simple as making iPhone images of interesting things you see on a dog walk or at lunch. We all see the world in unique ways, so, trust that what you see and photograph is valid and valuable. Also, seek out as much photography or art that you can and use that as inspiration.
Revel Team: How do you decide what to post on Revel?
Scott: Most of what I post is personal project work from my archive. It is a combination of street photography and abstract ocean images using intentional camera movement at slow shutter speeds. I, also, strive for each of my packs to have a theme and have the three images play off of each other. I like to have fun with my photography and my favorite packs are those that have a bit of humor in them
Revel Team: Following the theme of a bit of humor, I saw you were at the Super Bowl and have to ask, did you meet Taylor?
Scott: Haha. I did photograph Taylor Swift in her luxury suite from field level but, I, mostly, concentrated on the San Francisco 49ers. After the game, my job was to photograph Niners’ dejection, so, I didn’t get a chance to photograph the Travis/Taylor hugs and kisses.
Revel Team: What/ If anything did you collect as a child?
Scott: I was a big collector as a kid. Baseball cards and beer cans were my favorites, but I, also, had stamp and match book collections and covered my bedroom walls with Sports Illustrated magazine photos.
Revel Team: Anyone you’d like to collab with on Revel?
Scott: I definitely would be up for collaborations with almost everyone, but definitely would love to collab with Amber Vittoria, Leslie Spurlock, Stephanie and Lawrence Fuller.
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