Today we’d like to introduce you to Dustin Thornton.
Hi Dustin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Well, it’s a long one, haha. So I will start from the beginning, I suppose.
This is kinda crazy, but I randomly fell into photography in my late twenties. I was actually hired for my first office job straight out of high school working for a defense contractor as a designer and then I pursued that as a contractor all throughout my twenties working for all kinds of cool engineering companies in defense and civilian spaces. I’ve worked on super secret stuff for the government I can’t talk about all the way to working for Volvo and construction equipment. I even worked on this project called the MRAP project during the beginning of the Iraq war to replace the humvees that were getting blown up by roadside bombs. The vehicle we designed never lost a soldier after that and the coolest part was they used it as a decepticon transformer in the first transformers movie. Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting to fall into photography at all, but I was always searching for that outlet my mind could creatively follow and would click into. I have done art in almost every medium since I was four years old, but in every form I ever explored and eventually developed into paying occupations, I was never satisfied. It was only when I discovered photography I was obsessed and overwhelmed with inspiration constantly to the point I couldn’t stop – that’s when I knew this was what I was meant to use my mind for.
I started in nightlife shooting my friend’s parties at bars around Dallas, where I was working one of my engineering contract jobs at the time. I continued it, obsessing over developing my own style which I eventually achieved and even built into a career working for hotels/venues, huge DJ’s and labels like the W Hotel Dallas, Steve Aoki, Claude Vonstroke, VICE, Dirtybird and Dim Mak Record Labels, Electrostub and others. Eventually, I got to a point where I realized that I was never gonna achieve the goals I wanted on that path working for others and that it limited how much I could make because you become isolated in working for specific people which limits growth and clients. You only have so much time to do what you can with your life. That is when I started NAKID and left everything else behind.
NAKID Magazine is a platform I created to give standout artists who are doing unique stuff in their genre of creativity, pushing limits of what’s accepted or possible as well as helping up-and-coming artists trying to break into the industry. It’s a place they can showcase their work and not feel judged by how popular or perfect/narrowly curated their work was. Being an artist myself and that I had to struggle to get the industry to believe in my style work was difficult and I know what that’s like, so I try to curate and support creative vision wherever it may come from. We were those kids once. There are so many deeply hard-working and inspiring creators out there never given a chance that never give up; that is who inspires me.
NAKID is now a creative brand unto itself that has ventured into all kinds of different areas like event production, print magazines and books, clothing, gallery shows, a creative agency and online marketing of artists and brands. It’s also had spinoff brands like NAKID HOUSE which was started here in Austin with my partner Alex who is the founder of PRIME, which is one of the sickest event production brands in Texas. We started it as a legit house party after the Illmore ceased during the 2016 SXSW and grew into what it is now, its own brand that is licensing out parties across the nation. One of those spinoffs from NAKID HOUSE is now this new party, BAD CLVB, that we are showcasing here in Austin for the first time but started in Miami in 2021 and has been killer so far!
NAKID is about to launch a new weekly podcast, an NFT platform and established presence during Fashion Week and Swim Week in 2022.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, nothing ever is. You doubt yourself, you have others doubt you and of course, there is always a learning curve. Best advice I can give is find a mentor that your trust. If you can’t do that, then make sure you learn and stay humble along the way. I see a lot of younger kids now because of the technology and ease of success through social media expecting instant success and that is just not real. A truly respected path is one of gracious learning and failure, consistent pursuit and never giving up.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a photographer when not working on NAKID, and most recently during the pandemic, I threw myself into my two new passions… NFT 3D design and filmmaking, which are not mutually exclusive, haha. My filmmaking is gritty, dramatic and raw. My 3D design is more clean and focused on scenes and conceptual ideas more than anything. I have a great mentor in filmmaking that I won’t mention, but he has been there for me in ups and downs and is just a great all around person. I met him randomly in Vegas, he is a big filmmaker in Hollywood, and we hit it off instantly and have been friends ever since. Filmmaking is really one of the things I want to focus on over the next few years, that and pushing my creative direction with NFTs when not conquering the creative world with NAKID, haha.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I would love for anyone that reads this to know that hard work is not overrated, it’s discipline and constant never giving up that wins the day. So stay focused, stay persistent and always keep a good attitude and never burn bridges. Things will not go your way 90% of the time, and you will be judged by how you deal with that and grow. Failure is an excuse to learn and remake yourself, it’s a gift if you use it correctly.
The last thing is I would love to see and meet anyone that wants to come to our BAD CLVB x NAKID HOUSE party at the PALAZIO GENTLEMEN’S CLUB during our unofficial SXSW showcase on March 18th! Come find me and introduce yourself well as party and have an amazing night with us, it’s gonna be the best one we’ve done yet and the secret headliners we have coming in are gonna be the talk of the town!
Contact Info:
- Email: dustin@nakidmagazine.com
- Website: https://nakid.online
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/nakid_magazine
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/nakidmag
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/nakid_magazine
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/nakid_magazine
- SoundCloud: https://soundclud.com/nakidmagazine
- Other: https://instagram.com/dustinhollywoodphoto
Image Credits
Via NAKID MAGAZINE (https://nakid.online)
