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Michael Kirchoff grew up with a deep love of photography since he was a child. During a high school photography class he decided to make it the focus of his life, though he really didn’t know it was something that he could actually make a living doing. He began working at various jobs in the industry, from rental houses, to assisting, to production, because it’s what he loved (and had bills to pay!).

After several years Kirchoff started shooting product and still life work because he was simply patient with what that entails, and was fascinated with lighting and the challenges that that presented.

About ten years ago, however, he had lost a few of my big clients during a downturn in the economy, and took it as a sign to start making photographs that “quite frankly, came from the heart and passion that had started me down the road to photography as a career. I’d always made images for myself throughout my life, but this time I made fine art photography the direction I wanted to go.”

He also figured it would give him an opportunity to continue doing commercial work while showing potential clients that I could put more art into the images that I made for them. At the moment, fine art photography is where he is, and commercial work comes in only occasionally. He likes the mix and strives to get to a place where the work is split 50/50.

Q&A with Michael Kirchoff

Q1: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

MK: Clean, simple, easy to navigate, where the images come first.

Q2: How often do you typically update your website?

MK: I do tweaks to the site a couple times a month normally. A few times a year there is a major change or overhaul made, depending on the amount of new work I’m looking to show. There are many artist statements on the site and I find myself writing and improving those quite frequently. liveBooks makes that super simple to do.

Q3: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

MK: Images on the homepage are usually signature photographs from the different bodies of work in the portfolio section. Also, a few that have sold well as a prints over the years. The slideshow feature for the homepage works well for this and is simple to sequence.

Q4: What is your favorite feature of liveBooks?

MK: Navigation tools that make sense. Larger images that jump off the page while still loading quickly. The ability to mix text with images. These are all very important to me.

Q5: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

MK: Have patience. When I started I became frustrated quickly because I wasn’t sure which tools were going to apply to what I was trying to do. liveBooks has many options, so take your time and try them out before making any final decisions. You can put a site together rather quickly, but one that you will be happy with has to be thought through. Thankfully, the people at tech support were able to answer the loads of questions I had.

liveBooks actually has more to their sites than I need at the moment. Though, as I branch out into new forms of expression, I know that they are already there to support and showcase what I want to do as a photographic artist. I have plans to put some of them to use soon, and I know they will be there to help.

See more of Micheal Kirchoff’s work here: www.michaelkirchoff.com