We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Umi Akiyoshi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Umi below.
Umi, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Leaving my stable job and becoming a freelancer is the biggest risk I’ve taken so far. To be fully transparent, the COVID shutdown took my steady job away from me, but my conviction to pursue a freelance career because of it was a massive risk. The uncertainty you live with day to day, having little control over how much money you will make by the end of the year, the occasional existential crisis, if you’ll ever be “done” or satisfied, if it’s worth the anxiety….all of it is the risk I take being a full time freelancer. And yet, I love my life. My schedule is a roller coaster all the time but it forces me to be present. I don’t have job stability and yet, I trust that my clients will call me when they need me. I don’t work everyday but I never feel jaded and I feel so grateful and alive when I do get to work. You know when they say leap and the net will appear? I did that (while the world was shut down) and I hope that I continue to do so. If you ever feel stagnant in your life, career, relationships, etc. I hope you find the courage to leap. The courage is the hardest part, the fall is not. TRUST.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Hi! I’d love to introduce myself. My name is Umi Akiyoshi and I’m a dancer who stumbled upon photography and have been merging my two worlds ever since, for about a decade now. I started out with a camera and a lot of inspiration around me – friends and artists inside of the studio and out and I see images through the lens of a dancer – with a keen sense of when the top of the jump will be, to making sure I don’t share a image of a sickled foot. What drew me to dance in the first place is its ability to evoke a feeling, to communicate things that are not said, and when I can capture that essence, bottle it up just for a second and translate that into an image, that’s when I feel most connected to my work. That’s when I feel most proud of what I’ve created in collaboration with the artists, because it always takes two to tango – photography, it’s like a dance.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I love being invited into someone’s world. The most obvious example is when I get to shoot rehearsals or performances – being a fly on the wall during creative processes and shooting a show backstage is exciting because you’re getting to peel back layers of an artist at work or to see a story unfolding – but it also applies to when I get to shoot one-on-one. When someone asks me to take photos for them, it’s my goal to try to capture a part of who they are and distill it into an image. The most successful images in my opinion are when there’s something pure and honest about what you see. In order to capture that though, the photographer needs to be invited into to their subjects world, in a safe space where both artists can build trust, to ultimately create something real that resonates with them. That process in and of itself is so rewarding. I get to walk away from set, feeling like I know the person a little better than when they walked in. I think that’s why taking photos for some people can feel so daunting – because you have to be vulnerable in front of someone else. But isn’t that the beauty of life? Connecting with people and allowing yourself to be seen?
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
It’s not so much of a resource I wish I had, but I wish I had someone/had more conversations about pricing my work. I think most artists have eaten humble pie their entire lives. The narrative I’ve been told in the studio was that we are always replaceable and there will always be someone better, more talented, who put in more hours than you. So in the beginning when I had people asking me what my rate was I didn’t have a benchmark – I was just a kid who was told to just be grateful that someone asked. I struggled with imposter syndrome (and I still do!). But now I know that images as assets, assets are marketing tools, marketing tools make money, and that having good imaging can open doors to opportunities (modeling has helped me wrap my head around this loop more as well). Now I can separate my work from my self worth a little more and I’m less afraid to ask what I think I provide in terms of SERVICE – which is a big distinction I wish I had known earlier.
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