We were lucky to catch up with Belden Carlson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Belden, appreciate you joining us today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

I first moved to NYC in 2019, nine months before the pandemic hit the city. A recent university graduate, I hit the ground running, radiating with enthusiasm and the energy to pursue working full time as a freelance photographer at a variety of photo and film studios in the city, essentially taking any creative clients that would have me. A consistent stream of studio work and personal clients had just started to materialize as the pandemic hit, and all my studios closed and newly-found clients emptied the city. We stayed. Now, over four years later, I understand the exhaustion that working through the hustle of NYC can build. In some ways, staying in the city through the entire pandemic inflamed that feeling. A year later, as this sentiment first began to materialize, I decided to leave New York for the winter. I moved to Mexico City. As a self-employed creative freelancer, leaving New York for a city that’s equally vibrant, bustling and creative has also allowed for such beautiful growth in my business, and drastically influenced my approach to my practice. I now try to spend winters focusing on filling and rejuvenating my creative cup. My practice in CDMX focuses on playing with warm city light and color, Mexican fashion, emotion, space and movement. I try to work with clients and on projects that deeply excite me. When I return to NYC for the warmer spring through autumn months, I have the focus and energy to continue pursuing my faster-paced commercial practice. Living between two cities has encouraged me to build client lists across a variety of spaces, places and languages, and it ensures I’m always equally energized when approaching and working with both.
Although I can’t credit covid for me first falling in love with Mexico City and deciding to make this change, the pandemic did prompt my initial interest in finding a new space and place to call home on top of New York City and I certainly haven’t looked back since.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Yes! Hi! I’m a photographer, originally from the Bay Area, California, now based between New York City and Mexico City. I’ve been working behind the camera for a decade in a variety of spaces, places and clients. At present, my practice lives in the editorial, fashion, commercial, and portrait photography spaces. Regardless of what I’m shooting or who I’m working with, I’m always drawn to color, warm light, and the raw power and beauty of human emotion and connection. I always want my subjects, photo team and clients to feel happy and comfortable with me, as I capture the inner light that exists within everyone I shoot with, and love collaborating with new creative teams, brands and individuals.

I have a background in sociology and photo-ethnography, and my socially-centered photo work investigates the themes of adolescent development, gender-identity and socio-cultural conceptions of connection. A strong believer in the healing power of creative practice, I also worked in art education for years, and have worked at a nonprofit to present adolescents in foster care with a creative tool belt to use photography in a therapeutic context.

My personal work explores the relationships between self identity and body, light, land, form and color, occasionally through multi-media practice. Growing up on the coast of northern California, I have a deep admiration for nature and exploring how people and bodies connect with both natural and social landscapes around them. I attended a series of artist residencies in Iceland, Ireland, and Finland, where I spent six months exploring these concepts.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Although my creative journey started in childhood, my professional creative journey truly began after secondary school. I attended a highly academic university, and only decided to pursue a double major in art until the end of my time there. Without any art school in my earlier career, I found myself constantly telling myself how important it was to have a variety of friends working in a diversity of fields and with a diversity of perspectives (so many of my friends work in finance, tech, politics, education, social work) to justify my lack of creative community. Almost none of my friends worked as full time (let alone freelance) creatives at the time. It wasn’t until I met my partner, who’s also a full time creative, that I truly and intimately saw the value in surrounding yourself socially with people in a similar line of creative work. I still see so much value in hearing non-creatives’ opinion in my work and career now, and obviously still have the same community in a variety of disciplines, but, I also now view my creative community as one of the most influential and important resources in my career. My partner understands the hustle of gaining and maintaining personal clients, the exhaustion of working on set for 12 hour commercial days, and the immense beauty, joy and pride of having a creative shoot go so so well. I now turn to him or other creative friends when I need help consulting on how to price a shoot to a new client, or want to ideate a new project I’m shooting. I know creative community sounds like an obvious resource to build early on in your creative journey, but for me it didn’t happen until a bit later, and I now know how truly invaluable it is.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The list is endless! Viewing and understanding parts of the world through light, being able to materialize a shoot or project I’ve been creatively ideating around for months, sharing the power of creative practice as a form of therapy with others, being able to capture and compose small slices of beauty to share with the world, and making people feel beautiful while I shoot with them are definitely a few of the best parts.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beldencarlson.com
• Instagram: bellejune
• Other: Email: beldencarlson@gmail.com

Image Credits
the artist, www.beldencarlson.com