Kirby Griffin

Kirby Griffin is a cinematographer and street photographer from the West Baltimore area of Maryland. As a child of the arts, Kirby pursued filmmaking in his early twenties after initially chasing a dream of being a performance artist – spoken word/acting – searching for the perfect outlet to express himself as a storyteller. In the wake of the DSLR era, he set his sights on cinematography in 2011- with the help of a friend and fellow artist Jerald Kerr, also known as ‘Jay Mastermind’. Both motivated outside of the academic structure, they began teaching themselves the art and craft of filmmaking by diving headfirst, purchasing their own equipment and then filming, directing, and editing as much as possible. They came away with Countless hours of study by way of literature, youtube tutorials, lectures, networking, and a tremendous amount of trial and error, which proved essential.

In 2014, Kirby would stumble across a production company by the name of SixPointPictures, headed by JaMar Jones, where he began to delve deeper into the industry. Here, he found a home amongst a handful of other fellow artist, who were all also self-taught, and from the same environment. It was also there that he started to perfect his craft, and acquire the necessary techniques to compliment his skills. he shot all forms of media from documentaries, music videos, weddings, commercials, live shows, short films, and eventually landed his first feature film as director of photography in 2016. Kirby has worked for networks such as BET, Revolt Tv, and HBO. He went on to work with the same artist he studied rigorously, including Bradford Young, Shawn Peters, Malik Sayeed, Arthur Jafa, and Terence Nance, all by way of the amazing Elissa Blount Moorhead of TNEG.

Despite knowing that Los Angeles is still considered home base of cinema, Kirby made a conscious decision to stay in Baltimore and tell the stories of people who would otherwise have their image exploited, or not recognized at all. Due to the nature of the business though, he frequents Los Angeles quite often for work, and also tries to bring resources back home in an attempt to level the playing field. Kirby is still a vital part of SixPointPictures as they continue growing and work to demystify filmmaking for those throughout Baltimore City who are not able to afford schooling.