***All images in this post are copyright Angela Anderson.***

NEXT WEEK: Susan Stripling

{To nominate women you'd like to see in this series please list them in the comments-or if you have a question you'd like to see in the interviews--make sure to include your info in the comment fields so that I can get in touch with you- or write to me at: davina at davinafear dot com }

As always make sure to leave comments for the women who are featured. They like comments as much as I do I'm sure...let them know if you have questions or just to say thanks! for their insight and wisdom...

Make sure to check out the rest of the series by clicking here. Tell a friend!

Your husband is in the film industry.  How do you think that has affected your photography and business?

Gary, my husband, and I met back in 2004. He was working in a creative field with a fierce love for Art, I was still laboring around in the collegiate system, working on a graduate degree and a Fulbright that I was hoping would put me in Paris and Barcelona doing poetry translation. Gary was selling everything and moving to NYC to work in film. When we met both of our worlds just stopped. It was like meeting your future. It was through our support of one another that I picked back up a camera again (I had had a personal mentorship in the late 1990s for a few years in photography by the late James Baker Hall, who was an incredible artist). I was intimidated by the switch from film to digital but Gary gave me the courage. He was already working in digital with his work so it helped my transition.

I think with both of us being in extremely similar fields we inspire one another. We are affected by either other’s aesthetic and vision. I know that because of Gary’s work as a cinematographer I understand lighting so much better. I also truly appreciate the concept of a cinematic photograph. If you have great lighting (read: interesting), powerful emotion (speaking of a portrait), strong composition and a cinematic backdrop or placement the photo becomes this story. Or even better I like to think of it as a long-form  poem.

What are the three most important things you do as a business woman?

I will speak specifically to how my gender affects what is important.

1) Awareness of my connection with my clients. As a portrait and wedding photographer about 90% of my client-base (at least the one that typically hires me) is female. I know that females are deeply connected to their emotions. I love that women go through life naturally with so much feeling. Photography is important to them because they read the emotion in photographs so intently. And just like a favorite song, when it comes on you are transferred back to that time and place when you loved it so much. A great photograph does that for us, and the emotion that comes from that is amazing and makes me happy to be alive.

2) Remember that I am immediately considered as weak. We all know how it goes. You are nice, you are weak. You are strong-willed or just intent and you are a bitch. It is a hard path to walk between. And being an emotionally-connected person sometimes you just want to do everything just to please people, just to make them happy. You have to remind yourself that even though you have the power, as you are  the one in charge, that respect should come into play in business. You must respect yourself and your clients must respect you and your boundaries. Business has some hard truths that I have, over the years, struggled with. Just being an Artist is one thing, adding in business and then adding in the typical traits of being a female and you have a very convoluted existence. You must be very, very strong to survive.

3) Put out what I would want to come back to me. I love and respect my clients and I desire the same from them. An Artist-Patron relationship (which is how I view my business structure) can be so wonderfully intense. I become fully vested in them, their lives, their loves. It takes that much to do a work of Art for someone. I am creating something beyond stilted documentation, and beyond editorial, I am creating something that moves and beguiles both the client and myself: something that comes from the soul of both of us.

What do you do to keep your love fresh and fun with your husband?

My husband and I are super passionate. We are intense, driven, inspired and consistently challenging ourselves and each other. And we both exist in occupations that are high-stress, high-benefit and an absolute dream. So we are integrated. Our love, our passions for Art, our work, our lives are completely intertwined. Unfortunately we have never been able to work well on the same project together (get two alpha lions in a cage and see what happens) but we do sideline each other’s projects and work quite a bit. That excites us. And everywhere we go we get excited about the lighting that we see, the color of the lighting, the backdrops, the ideas that come forth. You know you have a great relationship when you get share the experience of goosebumps often.

What does your workflow look like?  Do you outsource or keep everything in house?

We keep a lot in-house. Megan is in the office as the studio director/client liaison. She sets everything up (schedules), handles payments, most of the communication, ships out gifts and products, leads our viewings and keeps the fort down even in a hurricane of busy-ness. Then AAP has 2 associates and 2 assistants. I am the main, Amy is the lead associate and Alex is our newer associate. Both of them are photographing weddings and portraits. We each do our own editing for our blog entries, slideshows and a little more but the newest associate is always the editor of any work past that. It helps them grow that much more as a photographer, to spend so much time understanding post -the technical triumphs and mistakes. And our album design is also done by someone in the studio. We do, however, outsource our hosting and printing to the fabulous Pictage (and have since 2005), we super-heart Pictage.  

How did you create such a strong marketing/branding presence?

I get complimented a ton on my brand and marketing which always surprises me. I think mainly because it is just me,  things that I like. I decided awhile back that I did not want to look like all of the other photographers in my local area so I just started injecting myself, what I like to see. I also focus a lot on the artistry of the work, the uniqueness of what we do. When you can offer something different than everyone else in your area you grow an immediate market niche. Especially if you can express it correctly. If you know who you are then you can show other people. And if you understand your clients then you can incite them to love you for who you are. I also like to focus on our team: Megan, Amy and Alex (and our stylist Ana). I **love** these girls. They are absolutely incredible people. They are so passionate about what they do and they love this work so intensely that I knew I had to have our clients understand that and appreciate that. Most of my life I have been *different*. In Art it is a boon.

What do you do to help your clients be so comfortable with you during a photo shoot?

I remember how I feel in front of a camera and I imagine that the person/people I am working with feel the same. I then distract, entice, incite and exhaust. The latter being the best way to get a great, honest photograph. Through exhaustion we lose the desire to take the trouble to be aware of ourselves. When we are tired then there is very little separating us from our true nature.

What are your three favorite creative tools and how do they help you to be inspired?

1 - my husband inspires me constantly

2 - my past: the time I had with my late mentor, he was an influence that will forever shape everything I ever do. Without him I would never have the connection I have with images.

3 - other Art. Marc Chagall, I love you.

What are you most proud of creatively?

Reckless abandon. If I can feel so connected to a subject or person that I fully let go, let free my creativity, without reference to what is acceptable or what “everyone else is doing” then I have grown. To grow creatively is to grow spiritually.

Also I am proud that I have worked hard for my presence to not just be a business. There are so many photography businesses that feel like businesses or companies. They either lose their personal touch or worse, they forget they are Artists.

What do you recommend women do who are just getting started in the industry?

The market is flooded and will likely remain so. You must stand out and trust yourself. You *must* be inspired. If you cannot find drive and inspiration in the Art itself then you will likely burn out or become stilted and start just doing this “for the money”. Both of those are heart-breakers. You have to know who you are what is important to you in life. Blaze your own trail. Be passionate. Work hard. Respect  the process. Don’t expect to pick up a camera and all of a sudden “be a photographer”. It doesn’t work that way. You’ll know when you’ve made it. When the sweat from your brow feels more like tears of joy, you’ve found it. Look for a mentor, if you can. Work really hard for them and for yourself. Always respect those who brings you forward, client and mentor.

What do you do for fun…that has nothing to do with photography?

Dream. I am a big dreamer. Big and small.

And one thing I enjoy without measure is silence. Taking your time is vastly underrated. Sitting around with a bottle of wine and your own wonderful thoughts, getting your emotions out on your own schedule, that is the height of being human in my opinion, well that and love of course!

What are you most proud of as a business woman?

That someone as wacky as me can exist as a business woman. Aside from that business is just whatever. I am not an entrepreneur, I am an archaeologist of my own possibilities, an excavator, if you will, of unknown desires. I have a love for experimentation and running a business is fascinating to me like taking apart a clock and putting back together again is for an engineer.

You have a gorgeous studio, tell me about that process and what made you decide to get a retail space?  What did you do financially to make that leap?  Has is been worth it?  In what ways has it been worth all of the effort?

I love my studio, and if all plays right in the next month I will opening a second studio in the next city over as well (Lexington). I love having a place that separates work from home, a place that is built and constructed to make it easy for us to photograph (and use our lighting abilities not just “natural light”). I never thought a lot about whether it was/is the soundest decision financially because sometimes you do things that may not be the soundest decision because they change the way you work, the way you see things and that makes you a stronger, better person and business.

And it has been amazing. One of the best decisions I ever made.

What do you do that your clients rave about most?

The images. They can hardly believe them. 

What is the best thing you’ve done to make your business successful?

Surround myself with amazing, beautiful, intelligent, Artistic people. Clients and employees alike.  

What do you do to keep from feeling overwhelmed?

Meditation 

What three products or things help you stay organized?

1 - ShootQ

2 - Pictage

3 - My *lovely* studio director, Megan

Website

Blog

***All images in this post are copyright Angela Anderson.***