Tyler Sharp
Tyler Sharp is a photographer, writer, and filmmaker based out of Dallas, Texas. He specializes in environmental portraiture, americana & western lifestyle, travel, and adventure documentary.
Photography by Matthew Brush @brush
TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF.
I’m 31 and I live in Dallas—I’ve lived in Texas most of my life, with a 7 year stint in Austin when I was younger. I went to school in Los Angeles at USC, where I studied photography, video, psychology, and Italian. Since then I’ve been fortunate to travel around the world, writing, taking photos, and telling stories.
SOUNDS AMAZING. HOW DID YOU GET INTO THAT?
I moved Tanzania when I graduated from college, where I was filming and photographing for safari & adventure companies. I made connections with a group of conservationists and outdoorsmen there—and those relationships have taken me back many times, to nearly 25 countries. I shoot stills, write stories to accompany those images, and often work as a director of photography to tell multimedia stories. I like to think I’m a pretty empathetic person, and can usually get to the heart of a situation pretty quickly. This helps me succeed in translation someone else’s vision or message into a story that somebody else can read, understand, and be inspired by.
DIGITAL OR FILM?
I shoot both. Commercially, everybody expects things immediately so I use digital. But I love film, and shoot it for personal projects.
DALLAS! WE’VE NEVER BEEN THERE BEFORE. WHAT’S IT LIKE?
Dallas is a great city, with a good combination of traditional Texas hospitality and metropolitan modernity. It got kind of a bad rap because of the ‘80s TV show—being associated with oil money, big hair and pretention (which still exists) but it has grown in a great direction in that shadow. It is an international business city, and all of that business and commerce provide a lot of opportunities for working creatives. There is a lot of work to be had here.
MAKES SENSE. TELL US YOUR FAVORITE SPOTS IN AND AROUND TOWN…
BAR? There’s a great bar called Lee Harvey’s in an area called the Cedars. It’s an old house they converted into a bar, kind of a cross between a lakehouse and a shitty dive, and I used to live down the street in a building that was formerly Jack Ruby’s Silver Star Saloon. It’s a playful jab at Dallas’ dark history, being where JFK was assassinated, and has a gravel yard, fire pits, tons of dogs, great juke box, and terribly uneven pool table. Not to mention $3 beers...
BBQ? I think the best BBQ in the state is here in Dallas at the Pecan Lodge. The smoked brisket is world class.
DAY TRIP OUTTA TOWN? My mother’s hometown is Nocona, TX, about an hour and a half north. It was the last stop on the Chisholm Trial before you crossed the Red River, and has tons of unique western heritage. Nocona was famous for cowboy boots and baseball gloves, and is the last place in America that still hand makes gloves. My grandparents still live there, so I like to go up there to get away, explore the country side, and take portraits of all the interesting artisans and old cowhands.
THE BEST MOVIE ABOUT TEXAS?
Lonesome Dove
FAVORITE BOOK?
The Lord of the Rings
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DO YOU HAVE ANY MANTRAS OR MOTTO THAT YOU LIVE BY?
Not necessarily a mantra - but I do follow a code of ethics I’ve adopted over the years. I’ve kind of combined traditional Texan virtues with principles I’ve pulled from the samurai, medieval knights, and the Jedi. Honor, discipline, loyalty, which all ties into my martial arts practice.
MARTIAL ARTS
I’ve seen some awful stuff—violent and terrible things—during my travels in Africa and Pakistan, and I’ve always felt the need to be prepared to handle something like that. I’ve trained in various styles of Kung Fu and have gotten pretty seriously into Wing Chun lately, which is the style Bruce Lee started off in.
The sooner you can narrow down your focus and aim at specific goals, the better. Don’t take 8 years to figure out what makes you happy, pay attention to what you love.
Tyler Sharp
ONE PIECE OF ADVICE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE?
The sooner you can narrow down your focus and aim at specific goals, the better. Don’t take 8 years to figure out what makes you happy, pay attention to what you love.
THE RINGS YOU’RE WEARING IN THE W&P PHOTO SHOOT ARE GREAT.
Thanks. My sister, Molly Sharp, is an insanely talented jewelry maker and metalsmith. She made all of them.
AND, WE GOTTA ASK ABOUT THE, UM, ANIMALS IN THE PHOTO SHOOT. DO MUCH HUNTING?
I actually hunted them all myself, on trips in Africa. The bigger antelope over my couch is a Hartebeest, and the smaller one is Duiker, which is a pygmy antelope. I’ve had the privilege of being in some pretty remote game reserves in Africa, and that's what you eat when you’re out there. There are no roads, no stores, just the wild, and you have to be resourceful. I also have a big zebra rug in my living room, and on one safari I shot a 14-foot crocodile.
WOW. WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THE ANIMAL CONSERVATIONISTS?
Some people get really upset about hunting in Africa, but what most people don't know is that 98% of the conservation worldwide is paid for by hunters. It is HIGHLY regulated, and they issue a specific number of tags based on the animal population census of each game reserve area. The money generated pays the salaries of anti-poaching patrols, as well as funds schools, medical, and wells for local villages. Plus that's what you eat when you're out there, you can't just go to Whole Foods in the bush, haha. It's the same as deer, elk, ducks & turkeys in the US.
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE WOOL & PRINCE GEAR WE SENT YOUR WAY?
I absolutely love the shirts—they're high quality, and have become part of my somewhat finite “uniform.” They fit great, and still allow me to move around when we were fly-fishing. I don’t usually wear a lot of patterns, so the solid grey and red wool shirt suited me perfectly. I actually wore the grey shirt on New Year’s Eve, and got a lot of compliments. It’s versatile—I’ve dressed it both up and down, and remained comfortable in both situations.
Tyler is 6 ft, 175 lbs, and wears a size S or M.
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