Some say photography is about light. I think it’s about breath. About what exhales from a moment just before it dissolves. I’ve been chasing that breath since Ohio, since the first camera I pointed at the world like a question.
The tools have changed—film emulsions, digital sensors, workflows, commissions—but the pulse has not. What matters is not the perfect image, not the polished surface, but the story humming behind it. The skin beneath the costume. The silence beneath the gesture. The unspoken perhaps in someone’s eyes.
I treat photographs as spells. Containers. Invitations. They hold memory but also trouble it. They reveal and conceal, sometimes in the same breath. They are less about capturing than about listening—coaxing out the truths that hide in plain sight.
My work is not spectacle. It is texture, intimacy, vulnerability, liminality. It is the story we tell together, not the image I take away.
<3 Liam
Liam Clickenger is part-time faculty at City College of San Francisco and Academy of Art University, where he teaches photography courses spanning the breadth of the discipline, with particular expertise in digital tethering, capture workflows, and post-production. In addition to ongoing documentary and personal projects, he is open to new collaborations, commissions, and consulting.
His work in education extends into instructional coaching and educational technology, where he supports faculty in adopting new tools and pedagogical approaches.
Beyond photography, Liam maintains a professional coaching practice focused on personal development and creative growth, with a special emphasis on working with LGBTQIA+ communities.
His work in education extends into instructional coaching and educational technology, where he supports faculty in adopting new tools and pedagogical approaches.
Beyond photography, Liam maintains a professional coaching practice focused on personal development and creative growth, with a special emphasis on working with LGBTQIA+ communities.
photo: ©Michael Hruska