We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Annique Hardin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Annique below.

Annique, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

Legacy is a word that, I feel, gets thrown around without understanding the true depth and reverence the word holds. Legacy is something that surpasses your own life, generation, social circle, race, etc etc. So, when considering the legacy I hope to build, it stirs up emotion and causes me to pause. Core values I base my whole life are Love, Faith, Relationship, and Truth. I try to integrate all of these things into every decision in my business or conversation with a client/future client. Because I keep these core values close to my heart, they naturally leak into all the areas of my life and business. The hope and dream for when my life is reviewed or someone looks back on what I created after I’m gone, is that others experienced those core values in every interaction with me, too. I want others to walk away from an experience with me or my business feeling encouraged, loved, valued, special, edified, and left better than when I found them.
After I’m gone, I hope people say that I was always authentic and consistent in who I was. I hope they started as strangers and left as a friend and felt a love for them that then gets passed along to treat another person the same way. I want to be known for sticking up for what I believe and always delivering truth in kindness. I hope I’m remembered for how much I loved my husband and children and how much I gave from a genuine place with my ego set aside. I hope people remember me by my Love.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Annique Hardin. I’m 30 years old living in Austin, Texas with my incredible husband, darling son, and our wonderful dog. I’ve been a traveling wedding and portrait photographer for over 10 years now, and I hope I always, in some capacity, have a camera in my hand and get to create for my entire life. Photos are invaluable in the respect that it pauses a moment in time that will quite literally never happen again. It’s the preservation of time, and time never stops. It’s pretty magical getting to stop time and document a moment for as long as the printed photo or image file lasts. Being in front of the camera is a vulnerable place. It’s kind of awkward, to be frank. It’s a little machine with glass that gets close or far from you and captures your essence in a 2D plane. And I think the fact I can capture someone’s essence in that format is what sets me apart. Being able to gain trust with my subject, bring out their traits, style and pose them in a way that when the client sees their final gallery, they genuinely feel like their unique qualities and personality are translated is a gift. To go from practically strangers to being able to tell their story in a way they feel is true to them is not a skill all photographers possess. I think many creatives can take a beautiful photo. But I believe it takes true guts and skill to actually tell someone’s story with just a still frame camera.
It’s essential to foster a space of safety with your subjects. A lot of people, including myself, have self-image issues, and so often people express their fears and insecurities when the camera comes out. I have a responsibility not only to take a beautiful photo, but a responsibility to allow that person to feel what they need to feel, show them what I see through my eyes, encourage them that they’re worthy of love and being seen exactly as they are, and safe in my presence! Safety allows clients to open up and show their authentic selves. When I show up authentically and create a safe space, others tend to follow suit. It’s a beautiful exchange of being vulnerable and receiving beautiful art at then end.

I’m most proud that I have successfully kept my business alive for over 10 years. I have grown and changed a lot in 10 years, and my business has come along with me. I got married, moved cities, survived at pandemic, started a family, experienced loss, and my business grew and was flexible alongside me. Being able to grow up as you own a business is a unique experience and one I am very proud of. Season change, and we change with them.
Just like my life grows and evolves, so do my clients. One of my favorite aspects of this job is getting to serve clients over years of their life. I have seen couples and families through so many phases of their life and getting to photograph their new milestones is so valuable! Sometimes I am the first person to ever take a professional photo of a couple, and then 5-7 years later, I have photographed their engagement photos, their wedding, and their growing family. It’s a generational business that I am committed to seeing my clients through each season of their life they want documented. I’m in it for the long haul!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Pivoting is inevitable in business! If you hold too tightly to your business, it will be rigid, and you’ll be on a quick track to failure. I’ve had to pivot a lot in my business over the last 10 years. One significant moment is when my son was born. Having to completely keep my business open-handed and be gracious with myself and my work was humbling. I was use to booking work all over the country and state and being able to pick up and go whenever I could for shoots. Once I found out I was pregnant, I saw an expiration date for that freedom. I had the choice to be rigid and see that shift in freedom as a negative, or I could pivot and accept the new season as it arrived. It wasn’t an easy pivot! I had to turn down lots of travel work because I had a baby. I had to dedicate more time to my family rather than keeping up with my social media. With that came the effects of bookings slowing down. It was scary for a little while, but pivoting in my services helped me stay afloat. I had to change my pricing to ensure that fewer shoots were still supporting my family financially, I had to maximize my time when I was editing to get the most work done in a short amount of time my son was asleep, and so many more pivots were made; professionally and personally. My son will be 2 next week, and my business is still here and afloat along with my family and marriage. Pivoting in my business and in my family was essential. VERY HARD! But essential.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I don’t have a wildly huge following on social media, but feedback I have received consistently is how much people enjoy my authenticity from social media. I curate my socials, but also I give a pretty clear peek behind the curtain. I’m honest in my struggles and personal life while still keeping things professional, and I’ll be the first to say I don’t know an answer to something if I don’t actually know. I think showing up vulnerably and unfiltered in a world that in some areas is plain fake OR feigns authenticity is powerful. People actually want the real stuff! And they can smell BS from a mile away. So showing up honestly and trusting that the RIGHT clients will see your authenticity and connect with it is essential. The right people will show up at the right time if you’re living in truth. Just a belief I have! And I have to remind myself of it from time to time, too.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.anniquemariephotography.com
• Instagram: @anniquemarie
• Facebook: Annique Marie Photography

Image Credits
Annique Marie Photography