We recently connected with Empress Iyahdae Rose and have shared our conversation below.

Empress Iyahdae, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

My most meaningful projects are the ones where I strive to show people the beauty within themselves that they didn’t otherwise see before stepping in front of my camera. I get to share my perspective of why I think they are beautiful and what I see in them on a soul level. It’s the purpose of why I create as a photographer. One such project was called The Color Pink Project, a breast cancer project I did it 2019-2020. I wanted to show women during and post surgery my perspective of scars. That scars tell a story, your story. They speak of your strength and what you’ve endured and that’s a story worth sharing, especially if you survived. I don’t know what it’s like to walk that journey, so I wanted to learn all I could about their personal experiences to connect in a profound and genuine way. What’s so amazing about the project is, I didn’t wake up and choose to photograph women who’d experienced breast cancer. I was guided to it by a series of synchronized events that occurred over the first three days of October 2019. It was after speaking to one woman in particular that questioned her beauty while undergoing chemo that impacted me. I thought to myself, this woman doesn’t know how beautiful she is! Without a plan, business name or a place, I was inspired to photograph women to show them the beauty and admiration I held for their journey. It was the ‘start and create along the way’ that gave me more confidence to follow my heart. There are so many important details to only give so little without the full story because it’s nothing short of magical. The reward I received for giving my heart in a space to help other women see their worth is invaluable. On one of the darkest days of my life, the project and the 14 women I photographed saved me. While I was gifting them, they gifted me 10 fold. The project then took on a new meaning and purpose of its own. It’s as if the Universe knew my life was going to fall apart but sent me angels to distract me in a soul fulfilling project to sustain me. I’m forever grateful for following that spark, starting and building and allowing the unfolding to find the greater purpose after.

Empress Iyahdae, 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?

My attribute is Empress Iyahdae Rose (pronounced Áya-day) and I am a multidimensional, multidisciplinary artist from Atlanta, GA. I’ve traveled through many different mediums of art, including graphite pencil portraits from my teenage years, tattooing for the past 21 years, crystal jewelry making, ceramics, sculpture, and web/graphic design, but the most fulfilling has been photography.

I picked up my first camera in college after unsuccessful attempts enrolling in classes due to them filling up before my federal school aid would get released. So, at 19, I decided to research all I could about photography. My resources at the time were limited. I only had a Pentax K1000 and a 50mm lens but was grateful for what I had. Life went left and I found myself without a camera for years until 2014, shortly after my son was born. I photographed a little here and there, but it was my mother hiring me to be her Real Estate photographer that expanded my perspective and knowledge. Learning Real Estate photography sharpened my eye for shapes, space and geometry. Photography is art but it’s also math. I apply what I learned from RE photography to other genres that I also enjoy.

What I believe to be unique and magical about my style of photography is, I don’t know what I’m getting into or what I’m going to see. Most times I don’t control the lighting situations and take what it gives me to create an art piece. I allow things to reveal itself to me. Photography is a yield and surrender process, trusting that I’m going to get beautiful images every time because the intention is there to do so. It’s a dance, a flow if you will. It’s the surprise of not knowing what I have until post-processing and then all these amazing photos and details show up. I love the editing process just as much as I do photographing. As I’m editing, I don’t force a particular look for “brand aesthetic”, although, I do enjoy chiaroscuro style. I let the photograph reveal to me what it wants to say and I adjust colors, shadows, highlights until the story is revealed and I feel a sense of awe. From click to finish, it’s moments of bliss and instant gratification. My camera is my soulmate.

I enjoy the ability to create a story. Most people I photograph only have a general idea of what they want. Everyone wants to look their best. That is subjective to the person holding the camera. I see beauty and purpose in life and my perspective to it is how it all connects to the moment. What does this moment in time want to say? What story does it have to tell? How can this moment be inspirational to others? What’s the best way I can use my subjects to tell their story and a much larger one in connection to the All? These are questions on autopilot in my head.

As it requires yielding and trust on my part, it’s also asking for the trust of my clients in my artistry. Projects where I have the freedom to be myself and create bring me joy. I honor that trust held in me as the creator and it fuels that fire. Photography is the one art form I want to protect. I want to keep it nonconforming where I’m able to always go with the flow. It represents freedom to me. I believe what I’m to photograph will find its way to me. There’s no pressure, so there is no burnout. That space has been tested though, by people who had different intentions or needs that interrupt the flow of that magic. It’s a total spiritual experience in which you must give in to the flow or else you’ll miss the magic wanting to control the process. My photography is like wearing my heart on my sleeve. It’s a feeling, a connection. My passion for creating always shows through.

My brand is called Iyahdae Art. I needed a business name centered around photography, but also where I am able to move freely between different art forms as I’m called to them. You can see artwork there and purchase prints for support.

I’m proud of how far I’ve grown as an artist but still have much more room to grow. That process is ever evolving as I strive to enlightenment in my personal life. My art is a reflection of myself in that continual growth process. I’m thankful for my resilience through hard life challenges to still experience its joy in the details. Iyahdae Art is an embodiment of this journey and the interplay of showing people their beauty and my perspective of life.

A moment passed is a moment you can never get back. I’m honored to capture them and seal them visually in the fabric of time.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Ha! Moving to Ecuador from Atlanta in 2024! In 2023, I really struggled as a creator. Mentally I was in a dark space again that was affecting my ability to not only create, but financially, it wasn’t allowing me to explore my creativity without the thought that everything had to make money. It was mental slavery. Tattooing had ran its course with me. I was ready to go full time into photography but I struggled to compensate for the income in the amount of time I had to do so. In efforts to keep photography a liberating experience, versus a job, I kept being called back to tattooing. (Lovely choices to have, right?). However, tattooing was tied to an old life I was freeing myself from. Even attempts at shifting it to spiritual based work didn’t happen as I needed it to find joy in it again. Mental health, stress, depression, all the things was taking over. I found myself faced with struggles that crippled my artistry and ability to create freely. I had great opportunities, including art exhibits at Hidden Gallery, Atlanta Public Library, and Atlanta City Hall are few, but we can’t eat what they don’t buy. I needed a radical change. Through all of my challenges, I needed a fresh start.

I had known (or it was revealed) that I was going to live out of the country by a set time years ago. I didn’t know where until February 2024, when I visited Ecuador for scouting and instantly connected to the peace in the land and knew it was the place. I didn’t know what exactly I’d do. I had so many dreams and ideas but according to certain photography projects, I trusted jumping off the cliff and figuring it out on the way. I BELIEVED I had wings, I always say. The greatest things come out of the unexpected, trusting and believing in yourself. This was blind trust at its best, following signs and synchronicities. All I knew was I was suffocating and needed air to breathe. Survival mode was going to take me out of this world and I wasn’t ready. So after my trip, I came back home, sold my belongings, which were also huge valuable lessons in detachment, sold my house and headed back out to Ecuador in April before the US eclipse. That was the timing I was told. Everything was so in alignment that I had no hiccups or struggles at all. I felt relief. It was a smooth transitioning process letting me know my steps were guided.

Once I got here, there was the initial shock of wtf did I just do?? You sold your whole life and moved to a full Spanish speaking country and don’t know a lick of Spanish with a 10 year old? There was no going back. I left the art scene, my communities I had built the last three years for a dream? I had doubts if I did the right thing but I believed my story and I believed in myself. Months passed where I was able to rest and heal my nervous system. I needed time to see myself, reinvent and explore. To be honest, I still don’t know where this is going lol, but I think that’s the exciting part…to walk in faith. I can do that without the pressure of losing my home, the one ticket I had to make an exit.

It taught me that if the heart calls, you must follow. Even if you don’t know wtf or where the hell it’s taking you. It’s like the eagle with its wings outspread, soaring the heights of the sky. It doesn’t fear the wind, it flows with it. It knows it’s not going to fall. Life says, be like the eagle.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is living in my freedom to create. As an artist, I feel things very deeply. So the option to be fully aware and alive in those feelings and living on my own terms is an enriching experience. I get to wake up everyday and find something that inspires me to be a better artist and an over all good person. Living as a full time artist means relying on faith and believing in yourself. It’s not the safety net of a 9-5 however. Planning is almost futile. You are solely relying on creativity and messages to live your life and be successful. I understand, what I put into it is what I get out of it. Plus, I get to stay up in the wee hours, when the world around me is asleep and be at one with the ethers in my robe.

Contact Info:

• Website: iyahdaeart@gmail.com
• Instagram: @iyahdaephotography @iyahdae
• Linkedin: Empress Iyahdae Rose
• Youtube: @empressiyahdae

Image Credits

Empress Iyahdae Rose
Carlos Dunson (profile photo)
Rashad White (Art exhibit photo)