Photo by Jeff Sparks 

Point of view

Sun Valley scenery inspires
dream career for local photographer

By Edward Hemmings

Local photographer Kevin Syms, well known for his striking images of resort locations around the world, began his career as a hobbyist shooting landscapes and skiers in Sun Valley.

“I moved here with my family when I was about 10 years old,” Syms explains from his deluxe studio on Bell Drive in Ketchum. “I grew up here. I went to grade school and high school here.”

Inspired by the beauty of his surroundings, Syms was soon devoted to capturing the action and scenery on film.

“Photography was always a hobby of mine, something I really liked,” he said, but making a living from it did not occur to him as he headed off to get a higher education elsewhere.

“When I went off to college, my parents wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer or something like that. I took all those classes, but I didn’t like any of them,” he said.

What he really liked were his extracurricular photography classes. “I kept changing my major. I talked to my counselor and she said, ‘…if photography is what you love, why don’t you just become a photographer?’ I didn’t realize you could just do that.”

Syms took her advice, entering the pool of professional photographers with Sun Valley as his diving board.

“I was fortunate enough to buy my first studio back in the early ’90s,” he recalls. “It was up on Washington Street.”

There he was able to turn his hobby into something more substantial and, of course, more profitable. His life serves as a lesson to those who dream of doing the same. He encourages budding photographers to follow their hearts, to keep in touch with the things that inspire them, and to shoot something they’re passionate about.

Syms takes much of his inspiration from the seasons and the scenery in Sun Valley.

“The seasons are great,” he explains. “They keep you inspired to keep shooting constantly because the season is ever evolving. If you miss something, you know you’ll have to wait until next year. I know certain locations where the wildflowers are going to come out the second week in June, so I’ll arrange to go back to that location at the same time next year. I’ve been going to some locations for 10 years.”

Syms’ favorite places are no farther than you might drive to work or to camp out. “I’ve always liked to go up north,” Syms comments. “One of my favorite areas is up north by the Boulder Mountains. That’s just beautiful, and it’s really close by. We used to shoot a lot of stock photography in that area or down by Silver Creek.”

Syms also emphasizes the importance of understanding the business side of photography. “In order to succeed you really need to have the business sense and know how to take care of your customers and meet deadlines,” Syms explains. “The photography part is the fun part. The business part is something that’s required. They didn’t teach me that at school.”

Syms focused his lens on action photography before moving into the lucrative stock photography arena where he filled his files with spectacular local scenery and familiar local faces. Syms’ fields of wildflowers in the Boulders, fly-fishers casting to trout in Silver Creek, and Bald Mountain towering over lush local golf courses grace many magazine layouts, tourist brochures, advertisements, postcards and Web sites. Local galleries regularly show his work.

Not one to wallow in a sure thing, Syms continues to push his art to new levels, now devoting the majority of his passion to sophisticated architectural/commercial assignments worldwide. Having made a name with a clean, uncluttered photographic style, Syms plans to stay true to his roots in Sun Valley without giving up his right to travel to the most exotic places on Earth.

“I would like to continue to shoot resorts and hotels and to see the world and stay in some great places. I don’t like the traveling part, but I like it once I get there. I’ve traveled a lot in the past,” said Syms, but home is Sun Valley. “This is where I grew up. It’s a great place to grow up, and I can’t think of a better place to live – and I’ve been a lot of places! For me, this is a great place to bring up my child and live and get to do all the sports I love and yet still be able to get out and do my work.”

Many dream of making a living doing something they love. Kevin Syms is here to remind us that dreams are not that far out of reach. •