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

Tajana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

At this point in my life, as being a woman in a smaller town in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in early 30s, I have finally managed to do something that every creative person dreams of – to live just from my creative work 😊 That was my goal for a long time, but of course that haven’t been always possible. I have started with exploring photography and videography very early, when I started high school, and it was a good way for me to make some big steps as being devoted to something other than school, to create my own space and time to invest in such a hobby, to make contacts and express my feeling and thoughts. Turned out that all those skills have been very helpful in my latter work. Few years later, I have started gathering clients and my photography work haven’t been just artistic, but more commercial. I have invested in gear, cameras and light, and later I have created a small studio space. That being said, after those various ups and downs, the last few years I have managed to live just of my work, both commercial and artistic – I mostly work as photographer/videographer and more often as creative director.

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.

Photographer, videographer, educator, editor, director, creative director,
psychologist, and a woman with enough last
names. And of course, with enough projects
to sometimes wonder when I actually sleep.
Sugar, spice & everything nice – with a pinch
of existential crisis.

I never received any formal eductaion as an artist, instead I am a proud owner of Psychology bachelor degree. Still, I believe that just me being a self though and freelance artist and creative, molded me into what I actually am today. I never wanted to make much compromise when it comes to my aesthetic and themes that I have been exploring, instead, even in most commercial projects I wanted to insert a piece of me.

I mostly do fashion, portrait, lifestyle and product photography, and I also work with musicians and other artists in developing music videos, short films, TV commercials etc.I believe that my biggest strength is that I am always up for a certain risk and I believe that customer almost never really knows what they want until they don’t see it.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Among all of the other projects I am constantly working on, I also host my podcast that explores all of the challenges that creatives have to endure. One of the many topics that I cover is exactly those specific things that are sometimes only natural to artists – very bad private – business balance, getting pulled in your work too much, not being able to maintain good routines etc. I believe those are some of the challenges that all of us experience, but it is harder for creatives to resolve. The best solution is to invite your non-creatives and show them sometimes how your process really goes. The worst thing to do is to try to put yourself in a box and expect to play by the rules. You are a creative, an artist, you are not meant to be understood, you are a vessel for inspiration, creativity and ideas.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I always like to share one specific story that happend during my early ages. It was the end of a high school, that very vulnerable period, and I have applied for summer photography school held in a town in region, very prestigious at the time. At that moment, I didn’t have any fancy camera and gear, just old digital point and shoot camera. However, I managed to get into the final selection of the participants. I event went to this town to do live interview etc. In the end, I didn’t manage to enter this summer school, but not due the lack of my skills or creativity but just because I didn’t have fancy gear. This was so devastating for me because somehow all of my ideals and aspirations broke, that I can’t have something that I feel that belongs to me just because of something so trivial, that I don’t even believe in – technology. I have always believed that the skill and creativity are more important. Anyhow, after that crash, I didn’t want to pursue with photography any more, I was devastated and angry. That is when I had the biggest support from my family and friends who encouraged me to continue. As a reward, literal, almost a year later, I have enterd a creative competition, and won my first DSLR professional camera. Amazing feeling.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @artistatcamera

Image Credits
by Tajana Dedic Starovic