My name is Deja Proctor. I am a aspiring photographer based in Raleigh, NC. I was born and raised in Raleigh by my parents, Kenneth (Kenny) Proctor and Stephanie Smith. I grew up as the only child. I knew at a young age that I wanted to do something creative. I was always interested in painting, drawing, and fashion. My grandfather is an artist and my father loved taking pictures, so I guess it runs in the family. When my mom purchased my dads first camera as a Christmas gift, he was so excited and had to test it out. I was his test dummy. In the Spring when the flowers have bloomed, my dad would take me to WRAL garden where he would take pictures of me. Every weekend, every vacation, and every holiday you could count on him to have that camera in his hand.
When I got my first phone in the 5th grade, I started taking pictures on my pink Sanyo, what I call the knock off "Blackberry” at the time. I always had my phone in my hand taking pictures of friends and family capturing selfies, daily activities, family functions and off guards. I would go back and show pictures that I have taken of them and the reactions I would get were hilarious! I’d get asked, “Where did you get that from!?” and “When did you take that?” or “Uh uh delete that!”. My mom always says, “You have to be careful around Deja. She’s always snapping pictures”. It wasn’t until the 10th grade when I realized I wanted to take photography seriously during a project I was given to work on at the time. Every since then I have been reaching out to people asking if they would model for me, creating websites, business cards and whatever I could think of to get my brand out there.