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

Mitchel, appreciate you joining us today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

What do I wish I knew when I first picked up a camera in 2006 that I know now? Without question I wish I knew that working in a niche or differentiating yourself somehow from your competitors can set you up for tremendous success. The tighter the niche is the less competition you’ll face. When you work in a niche you find that your city or town is no longer your market – the world is your market. When you work in a niche you have so much more negotiating strength. I was a wedding photographer for 7 years. Had I known then what I know now I would have approached things differently and created a niche or differentiated myself from the thousands of other wedding photographers. Niche and differentiation doesn’t just apply to photography, it applies to almost all the visual arts and can even cross over to non-creative disciplines.

Mitchel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I craft stories through toy photography, capturing the illusion of motion and emotion where none exists. I am committed to providing an unparalleled experience for my clients while creating images that build brand awareness in a fun, engaging manner. My clients include The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Studios, Warner Bros, Nick Jr, BBC, Hasbro, Mattel, and countless others. I was featured in the documentary series, “Marvel’s 616” which streamed on Disney+. I exhibit my work in galleries and museums nationally and internationally.

Throughout my career, well before I was a toy photographer, creativity was always a constant thread. With a degree in illustration, I worked in product design and development in the consumer products industry, spending six years at Disney, followed by collaborations with Sony Pictures, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros, and Cirque Du Soleil. In 2006 I lost someone very close to me, which made me reevaluate my life and career. It was then that I decided to pursue a career in photography.

Beginning in 2008 I began to learn the craft of wedding photography and ended up shooting hundreds of weddings over the next 7 years. I photographed my last wedding in November 2015. My daughter was entering high school, and I felt the sting of missing weekends with her and my wife due to the fact that most weddings happen on the weekends. Knowing she’d be off to college soon, I decided that I needed to find another genre of photography to focus on.
At almost that exact time my nephew introduced me to toy photography, which changed the course of my life.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I will first say that what helped me build my audience on social media, specifically Instagram, may not work today. In fact, what worked 3 months ago may not work today. This is due to the everchanging algorithm, and Meta’s constant push towards sponsored posts and ads. Having said that, I still believe an effective way to grow one’s page is to be featured by other pages that have large, different audiences than your own. As a toy photographer, I would have a hard time growing my followers if only other toy photography pages featured me. Most toy photographers already know each other so there is very limited potential for growth there. But if a large pop culture page that has nothing to do with toy photography featured me, or the main Instagram page itself featured me, that could lead to thousands, if not tens of thousands new followers. And then there is the elusive (for me at least) viral post seen here. I’ve only had one of what I would truly consider a viral post. It was inspired by an amazing scene from Stranger Things, season 4 where Max levitated in front of her friends in a cemetery. I playfully re-enacted the scene using characters from Toy Story and it ended up getting 2.2 million views and almost 200K likes. And with that one post I gained over 10k new followers.

Beyond social media, I think most people forget to also focus on getting featured in traditional media, which now often includes digital. By that I mean magazines, television (news and documentaries), and newspapers. That’s right, I said newspapers, that media relic from the past. All of these also maintain digital platforms as well now, where their articles and features also live. I’ve gotten both new followers and jobs from these types of features. Being featured in traditional media has also led to my occupying the number one position for the Google search term “toy photographer.” I’m not an SEO expert or trying to game the system. That’s just a result of simply being credited in features with links to my website, something Google places high importance on.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The goals for my toy photography are 3 pronged:

Goal 1 is to live the most creative life I can. I’ve found toy photography to be the perfect medium for my own creativity. Really, the only limitations I have with toy photography are my own. Because if I can imagine it, I can create it.

Goal 2 is to shine the brightest light possible on toy photography and the global toy photography community. I do this by participating in as many interviews, features, talks, and exhibitions that I can. Over the years, I and other toy photographers have taken a little known art form and brought it into the mainstream. Everything about toy photography is positive and can be enjoyed by young and old alike. You just need a toy, a camera (a cell phone camera will do!) and your imagination.

Goal 3 is to rekindle peoples’ love for toys and play. I think adults enjoy looking at toy photography even more than kids, largely because most adults have forgotten how to play. Nostalgia plays a huge role in my toy photography. Toy photography has the ability to transport adults back to when they were kids themselves, and reminds them of the stories, cartoons, movies and toys they used to love. That is powerful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mitchelwutoyphotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mitchelwuphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mitchelwuphotography/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchel-wu-2363104/
• Twitter: https://x.com/MitchelWuPhoto
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MitchelWuToyPhotography
• Other: Check out the blog post on my solo exhibition currently running at Science Museum Oklahoma: https://www.mitchelwutoyphotography.com/post/toy-photography-exhibition-at-science-museum-oklahoma