It’s not unusual for people to spend most of their life searching for their calling, but local portrait photographer Andrew Swindle believes he has found what he was born to do.

Swindle, who is in the midst of his freshman year at Auburn University, will be featured as January’s artist of the month at the Selma Art Guild, said people have always been his favorite subject.

“I just love doing portraits, and I want to be featured as a portrait photographer,” Swindle said. “My goal is to draw people to these photos.”

Jo Pate, a member of the Art Guild, said Swindle’s skill set is made even more impressive by the fact he isn’t even 20-years-old.

“To me, it is amazing that he is 19 and he can have the artist’s eye to create these works that are almost paintings,” Pate said. “There is so much captured in these photos. We have featured photographers in the past, but there aren’t too many in Selma who focus on photography. His photography is up there with the older, more established photographers in town.”

Swindle said he has a high school friend who has worked with him to ensure each portrait shoot is different than any other he has shot previously.

“I have a friend of mine who I will talk with before a session and look at ideas to find some different stuff to do,” Swindle said. “You’ve got to do something different each time to keep yourself excited and to make the photos interesting.”

Swindle said one of the keys to making a strong portrait is to make sure the subject is comfortable.

“[Swindle’s friend] has helped so much on sessions when I have a mind lapse and can’t think of any more poses,” Swindle said. “And just having her there helps make the situation so much more comfortable.”

Swindle, who is currently taking pre-business classes at Auburn, said he is unsure if he will try to make photography his main job after college, but if he did, he knows which type of photography he would do.

“If I did end up working in photography after I graduate, I would try to work in portraits and senior portraits because, for me, that is the most fun,” Swindle said.

Along with several of his portraits, the show will feature some of Swindle’s still life photos, which focus on interesting items he finds while out on portrait shoots.

“I am kind of draw to old and broken things, like old cars or Coke bottles,” Swindle said. ”I will make these images when I’m working on a portraits, but in my free time I will shoot still lifes.”

A reception will be held Sunday, Jan. 12 from 2-4 P.m. at the Selma Art Guild, located at 508 Selma Ave.

The gallery will be open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays for two weeks following the show.

Pate said the reception and viewings are a great opportunity for the public to learn about Swindle’s skills set and thought process when creating his photos.

“This allows people who have never encountered art, to see it and learn about the process of how it is made,” Swindle said.