CityPhile: Kris Krug

I first met Kris Krug when we both worked at a little web design start up where I was the sys admin and he was the marketing guy. Or something like that. These days it's still as hard to pin a label on Kris, but instead of my bad memory, it's because he's got his so many things going on. You could start with blogger, photographer, entrepreneur, author, networker, community agitator, man-about-town and you'd still only be halfway done. In a Vancouver game of 6 degrees of separation, it wouldn't take you long to run into Kris or something he's been involved in. So I sat down with him under the watchful eye of Gassy Jack and got caught up on online communities, fashion photography and what he thinks of our favorite city.

DB: So what are you up to these days? Give me the run-down.

KK: Well, I'm the President of Bryght, an open space web development company that specializes in online communities. We've got a lot of clients in the music industry, for example, looking to develop online strategies. We created dead.net for deadheads, so fans can share information and see who else was at a particular show.

I'm also the founder of Static Photography, where I do fashion and music photography for different designers and magazines. That's sort of my secondary thing, after my main job, but I do things like go on creative, fun shoots with other photographers and then I also do things like I just shot the Spring 2008 catalog for Arson.

Then I also help New Media BC plan events and I help organize Barcamp at Northern Voice and other fun things like running my Battlestar Galactica site, and there's a directory I created for Vancouver photographers. I also get people together for informal photowalks and was involved in getting vandigicam (a local photography meet up group) set up.

DB: That's insane! How do you manage work/life balance? Or work/work balance? Or...whatever.

KK: Work/life balance is definitely easier, because I'm doing things that I'm drawn to. I would already be doing them even if it wasn't my job. So that's not too hard, but work/work balance...with work/work balance it's hard for me to see where I can get the most return on my time. I try to focus on the people and by creating teams...that makes it a little easier.

DB:I think that's probably a natural draw for you. A common theme of all the things you're involved in seems to be your ability to organize people. When I first met you, you were working on Spark-Online, an online magazine dealing with technology and consciousness, now you're the president of a content management company, so it seems like you've always been a fan of the internet. What attracts you to technology and/or the web?

KK: I've always been a user of technology. What's great about technology is that it lowers barriers. You don't have to be a technologist, you can be an artist and still use technology to connect to your people. That democratizing force really appeals to me.

My dad was one of the first guys to buy an apple computer and he brought it home and got it all set up and then we just always had them around. You know, I've done bulletin boards, then forums, now we have blogs...I've done it all! But that doesn't scare me, it excites me. Whatever the next tool is is just going to lower the barriers even more.

DB: How have you seen online communities change over the years?

KK: There's been a huge shift in the people using the tools. You've got so-called "normal" people adopting technology tools and coming online in big numbers now, and not only that, but then they are turning around and talking about it with their friends. They're starting to question the tools too, asking all the right questions about privacy, etc, so there's been a huge increase in consciousness around this.

DB: You've pioneered a lot of events that bring online communities out into the real world, so to speak - into organized face-to-face events - like photowalks and conferences and such. What drives you to do this and to what do you attribute their success?

KK: I see technology as a conduit for bringing people together. People interacting is the point. Not to discount the hard-core geeks, but the whole idea is for people to experience each other, inspire each other and get to know each other...offline.

We're not stuck in technology, we have the ability to have face-to-face relationships magnified by the internet. So you've got all these groups and partnerships, etc, that may have started online, but now exist in a totally different way out there. Vandigicam, for instance, is a totally different thing than it was when it started, and that's great.

DB: All this seems like a far cry from fashion photography...how did you become involved in that industry?

KK: My background is in web design, so I've been using photos in my work for the last 10-12 years. At the company I was working at in California, I had a budget for photography and it's really, really expensive for stock photography, for what you get. Also, our company kept getting acquired and I couldn't afford to get a photographer in to do a photo shoot each time we got a new Vice President. So I bought a camera and started learning how to do it myself.

Then the fashion part of it, well, I've always been interested in style and design and art, but somehow I didn't realize that "fashion photographer" was a job you could actually have. But I was already taking lots of photos of back alleys and stuff, so I just put a model in the picture and it worked. It was this thing that other people were calling fashion photography.

DB: Do you find that there is any kind of a tie-in between your 2 jobs?

KK: A lot of people have been able to see my work quickly because I know the tools and I know how to build movements. That's what I do at my job. And then, I get invited to SXSW to speak, as the President of Bryght, and then I get to photograph Iggy Pop and stuff, so there's a big crossover there. My job puts me in interesting places with the right credentials and that's good for photography.

DB: What do you think separates good photography from bad? What would you like to see more of?

KK: Arghhhhhhhhh, I don't want to answer that! I don't want to be an art critic, I just like what I like. OK, here's what I like. I like real, original, spontaneous images...moments captured. I just think people should be getting out there and taking more pictures.

DB: OK, tell me about Vancouver. As a Californian, what makes you want to live here? What do you love?

KK: I moved here in 95 to go to school and then I moved back to California in 2000 because of the whole dot-com thing. But the valley is a very bleak place. Up here you have a lot of like-minded people. A lot of people who are smart enough to work in Silicon Valley, but who are not willing to relocate. There's a conscious trade-off to live here and people get more out of it. They have deeper values beyond a 12 hour workday. I feel a connection there.

DB: What do you do for fun?

KK: I ride my skateboard...at Stanley Park and at the skatepark. I like to go camping and surfing up at Tofino... and I like hanging out in Gastown.

Thanks Kris!