Toucanfilms

​"Your reputation is your wealth." -Drew Gardner. 

Toucanfilms otherwise known as Drew Gardner is a photographer from Charleston, South Carolina. Drew does all kinds of photography, but lately he has been doing film and lifestyle freelance photography. As a photographer, he would rather focus on telling a story through a photograph rather than doing what is expected. He mentioned that he likes to "express a person's personality" with a picture and if "a photo doesn't have a story, then it doesn't have an impact." 

Drew got into photography around the age of 10-11. He mentioned that his uncle had "a 35 mm film camera and during one thanksgiving my uncle gave me one of his cameras." From there, Drew taught himself how to use it and it wasn't until high school that he took an actual photography class. From the moment that he stepped into the dark room to develop pictures, he knew exactly what he wanted to do when he got older. 

Years passed, he graduated college, and he bought a digital camera. It was that moment where he felt like he had to decide what direction he wanted to take in life. Upon recalling a memory of his , he said that his friend Johnny Delaware (from The Artisanals) moved to Charleston and Johnny wanted to record an album.  Johnny asked, "Drew does your camera take videos?" Drew answered "yes" and he filmed a video for Johnny for about a month. He remembered that after the video came out, it got picked up by the city paper and that people were impressed by it. Johnny encouraged Drew to do it full-time and he has been doing it since then. 

As mentioned, Drew wants to convey a story through his photography. He wants people's personalities to shine through and to build relationships. It's not about the money and if it were up to him, he would still rely on a system of pure trade. He hopes to one day have a van and just travel across the U.S and take pictures and live the experience. 

A big thank you to Drew for lending his time to Desert of my Eye. I hope everyone can go follow him and check out his work!
Instagram: toucanfilms


Check out some pictures below!!