This week On The Avenue, I’ll be introducing you to another member of the Westwood team, Adam Livingston. If you’ve been following the blog, you’ve likely read his name at least a time or two. Not only is he our extremely talented in-house photographer, but he is also our warehouse manager and does a lot of work with the folks at Woodard Bros.

I would describe Adam as a free spirit with an unbreakable work ethic. It often feels like those two things don’t go hand in hand, but somehow, he makes it work. His interesting point of view on life shows in his photography and in the way he solves problems, big or small, making him a unique, vital part of our team.

I sat down with him this week to talk about his journey here On The Avenue.

How did you meet Tom? 

“I met Tom when I started working at iostudio, so about 7 or 8 years ago. He was already working there when I first started as an intern. Tom was one of the first people there to really lean on me and give me things to do. The very first thing he asked me to do, I was sitting at my desk and he came up and set like 4 CDs in front of me and was like

‘Hey Adam, there’s a bunch of files on all of these. Can you put them all together in one PDF for me?’

I said ‘Sure man, not a problem,’

And he said ‘Great, thanks,’

And he walked away, and I immediately turned around to my coworker, who was sitting behind me, and said,

‘What exactly is a PDF?’

 I literally had no idea what a PDF was. I had never even owned a computer at the time, but Tom asked me to do it and so I figured it out. Luckily making a PDF is pretty easy.”

How long have you lived in Nashville?

“I have lived here all of my life. We moved here when I was 2 from Tupelo, Mississippi. Growing up we lived in Nashville proper, and then when I started school we moved out to Franklin and I went to Williamson county schools.”

 What is it about photography that you like?

“I got interested in photography when I was a kid. I loved looking at magazines like Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, and National Geographic. Outside Magazine was another one I was a big fan of. I just loved looking at the pictures because I didn’t really like reading, so I would get the magazines and look at the pictures and not really read the articles.

I just love the idea of capturing a precise moment in time and preserving it. I think that’s probably what appealed to me the most about photography. Just capturing a fleeting moment is really neat. Sports Illustrated was probably was the biggest inspiration because sports are moving so fast, and like pictures of basketball players being frozen in midair was just so magical to me. So that’s why I originally wanted to start taking photos. I wanted to be a photojournalist.

My first year of college I majored in photography, but this was all pre-digital, so I was still shooting slide film, black and white film, all of that kind of stuff. I changed major though and kind of got away from photography for a long time. I mean it was pretty expensive to get film developed and all of that, and I started playing a lot of music, and a college student can really only afford one expensive hobby at a time. So, when I started working at IO studio, they had a bunch of camera gear sitting around and they were nice enough to let me just kind of play with stuff and take it with me whenever I wanted to. One of the first projects that Tom and I worked on together was a video shoot for Barrett Firearms, and I went along as a production assistant. He had asked me to bring a camera and shoot some behind the scenes stuff, so I shot photos of all of the video scenarios. So when I edited the photos and gave them back, Barrett actually ended up using a lot of them on their website and marketing materials. That’s kind of when Tom was like ‘Wow you have a good eye’. That kind of lead to other things and I was shooting more and more and it just kept snowballing. So yeah, Tom definitely helped me get back to shooting with a camera. I owe a lot of my professional life to Tom. He’s done a lot for me.”

Give me one fun fact. 

“I would like to think that I’m a really good dancer. And like I’m not afraid to dance. Like most people get kind of shy about dancing and don’t want to look silly, but I’ve never had that problem. I love to dance and like I said, I like to think I’m pretty good at it. I’ll get down

I. Will. Tear. It. Up.”

What is something that you would rate 10/10?

“Oh man there’s a lot of things… Outkast ATLiens is a 10/10. I can keep going… Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magic is a solid 10/10… Um Pearl Jam 10 is a 10/10… Let’s see about movies… Ishtar. Its like an 11/11. It’s the funniest movie of all time. You can quote me on that.”

What was you high school superlative?

“I was nominated for most school spirit, but I didn’t win. It’s kind of funny actually. It was only because I was the spirit king guy at the pep rallies. There was a tradition for 2 seniors during the pep rallies to come out with a big trash can that was painted, and you would go around and lift the lid of the can where it said ‘Cheer’ on it. I don’t know why I got chosen my senior year. The guys that were doing it were my buddies and they were like ‘You seem like you would be good at it’ so that’s how that honor got bestowed on me. SO I was the spirit king guy that year. Never went to any football games, never went to any sporting event. I really couldn’t care less, but I was spirit king so I got nominated for most school spirit. I will say though that me and my buddy Ryan were great spirit kings.

I personally think that I should have been nominated for best looking, but didn’t make the cut.”

P.S. We can vouch for his dance moves.

Thanks for checking in with us her On The Avenue, see you next week!

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