We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rosie Valentine a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rosie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Rosie Valentine Photography is centered around client experience. I care deeply about the work that I do as a trauma-informed and LGBTQIA+ affirming photographer. My goal is to empower and support my incredible clients, co-creating a space in which they have the freedom and support to show up as their authentic selves and celebrate their truth.

My process is grounded in witnessing people’s unique selves and creating art together that illuminates, shares, and celebrates people’s truths. Photography is visual storytelling and I am not interested in telling a pre-scripted story. Rather, I strive to showcase my clients’ real and amazing stories- from their love, to their inner journeys, to their adventures and beyond.

In this way, my photography practice is inherently a collaborative process. Collaboration is present from assessing our fit, to working together through my scalable payment approach to determine our pricing and payment plan, to discussing clients’ hopes, desires, fears, areas of sensitivity, as well as ways to create space for affirmation, joy, and euphoria, with regard to the work we do together. We also talk together and plan for aesthetic considerations. We discuss boundaries, privilege, and how to mitigate the impact of power dynamics in our work together. I believe in spending time getting to know clients before we ever start taking photos, to build our communication and rapport. We make art together; we make memories together. I care about my clients as fellow humans and I respect them.

Most photographers have a specialty (for example, they focus on weddings specifically, or on creative portraits specifically); my business is different in that how I interact with my clients is my specialty. How I hold space for them and how we create together is what I specialize in.

I believe in the magic of the human experience; I believe that queerness/transness is sacred; I believe that gender is an expansive and mysterious universe; and I believe in dignity and in the creativity that springs from people coming together.

I photograph weddings, elopements, portraits, and business branding. I’ve shot album covers, hiked mountains, cheered my clients on as they opened their own small queer businesses. I’ve cried while photographing weddings, squeezing my eyes so I could see to keep photographing each amazing moment. I’ve gotten a snakebite on my booty while photographing a love session in a river. I’ve supported people in body gratitude sessions who are transitioning, and those who are in recovery from eating disorders. I’ve photographed people undergoing times of grief and navigating their way in those murky depths. And through it all, what grounds me is witnessing and connecting with people as we honor their truth.

This is the work I want to do with my life.

Rosie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Rosie Valentine Photography is an LGBTQIA+ affirming and trauma-informed business. My goal? Celebrating your truth.

One of my first memories is of holding a Polaroid photo and watching it develop. I was four, it was Christmas morning, and my dog’s image emerged from the milky background with painful slowness. That was my first taste of real magic.
When I got my first digital camera I promptly fell headfirst into a pond.
When I was 18, I went on a two-week “lesbian photography road trip”. Along the way there were alligators, manatees, sunrise skinny-dips, and the beginning of a deeply uncomfortable reckoning with adulthood.
In my early 20s, I worked seven days a week for a year saving up money for a professional-level camera. Even then, I didn’t believe I could “be a photographer,” although at that point I was already second shooting and learning about the industry.
My dreams started coming true as I grew the courage to believe they were possible.
When I was in my mid-twenties, I branched out on my own. I was finally able to see and embody my queerness across every aspect of my being. My artistic style emerged and my values crystallized. Everything came from there.
Community connection soon had my little business growing up into something that needed full-time nurturing and dedication.

It was so scary. Sometimes, it still is.
There is nothing I’d rather do with my life. This is it.

Photography has always held a gravity-force attraction for me. My ADHD hyperfocus brain has been fixated for years.
Photography, to me, is a window into a moment. And, a way to turn a moment into a window. It’s magic.

I used to swear I’d never be an artist. I’ve always been an artist.
And I’ve always been queer. I’ve always been nonbinary. When I was a kid, I didn’t know that who I was, was a possibility. There wasn’t space for me.
As an adult, I’ve learned who I am and I’ve learned that people will love me because of who I am. It’s my truth that’s loved now.

I’ve learned that that queerness is infinitely lovable. I love queer people so f*cking much.

Queerness is powerful. That’s why systems of oppression always try to quash it, or co-opt it. That’s futile, of course; queerness is a birthright, built right into who we are. Queerness is creativity, playfulness, love, joy, determination. Undeniable truth.

Gender is queer. I know for a fact that gender is far more that two binary boxes. Gender is expansive and invites imagination, exploration, and empowerment. Gender demands dignity.

Gender demands knowing the self and honoring that self.

We have lived in a world that punishes and rewards us into separation from our selves, molding us like popsicles in a freezer.
I crave the summer heat. Take me out and let me melt in sticky surrender. Bring me to the sun and the sprinkler. Let’s dance in the rainbow spray.

As we, together, go through a massive cultural shift into freedom, communication, and reckoning, we have to reckon with what we carry. How we are going to take care of ourselves and each other?

That’s why Rosie Valentine Photography is LGBTQIA+ affirming and trauma informed.
I care. I believe in us. And I hope.

Hope feels daunting in the face of rising facism, climate collapse, rampant transphobia, racism, sexism, fatphobia, ableism, etc etc etc in a relentless stream of pain.
But! Hope is our birthright, just like queerness, and this work is where my hope comes from. Because when I see us, I see you, I see miracles. We are in for a tumultuous time and life is so very worth living. Relationship plays a huge role in that.

My clients and I build relationship. We get to know each other before we take photos; it’s part of the process. We workshop our communication, including around consent, boundaries, and privilege.
I learn how my clients want to be witnessed and what they fear and desire from working with me. I hold space for what they bring to the table and we hold it together. We collaborate and co-create. The stories we tell together celebrate my clients’ truth. I believe in that truth. It’s powerful.

My photography work is expansive and flexible; lots of weddings and elopements, magical portraits, business branding. Most people who come to me want to work with me because of my values, approach, and the aesthetic of my photos. Fair warning: If you come for those things you will also need to be open to my dino noises, all-round goofyness, and ADHD-creative-brain.

My pricing is scalable because financial accessibility matters to me. I hate capitalism. I just want to do this work and make a living. I try to honor my own and my client’s financial capacities so none of us have to overextend. We communicate about it. Talking about money can be hard, so we talk about how to talk about it. I share all the details on my website under “Scalable Pricing.”

I hope I’m still doing this work in ten years, twenty years. I hope this is my career for my life. I can’t tell you how fulfilling this work is to me.

To all of my fellow queer people who may be reading this: I love you and I believe in you.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Rosie Valentine Photography is based in the the translation of values into experience.

What good is branding around values if you don’t back that up with concrete steps?

A huge portion of my life is spent working. That is where a majority of my energy is going. I want to invest the effort of care, kindness, and responsibility into what I do because I want my business to be in alignment with my integrity. Perfection isn’t real nor something to which I aspire, rather, it is the practice of integrity that inspires me.
It gives me hope; that I can show up for my clients, myself, my loved ones, my community, and that I can keep learning.

When I was figuring out my business model, I knew I would have to think outside the box. I’ve never been good at fitting into boxes. I was a weird (read: neurodivergent/disabled/queer) kid and teen, and now I’m a weird adult. Okay; it’s a strength. I knew that I wanted my business to be emotionally and financially accessible for the people with whom I mutually connect with, work-wise. Making my business LGBTQIA+ affirming was really, really important to me. So, I set out figuring out concrete steps I could take to turn these hopes and ideas into something that I could actually provide to people.

I’m always learning, *and* at this point I have a pretty solid understanding of specific steps I can take to embody my values. I’ve been doing this in the capacity of a business owner for several years now, and through that consistency, have built trust. People know what to expect from me.

My market is my community. When I “build my reputation within my market”, for me that means forming real and meaningful connections with other people and being someone they can rely on. Someone they can feel solid about referring their friends and business associates to.

The best boss I ever had would do kind and generous things for people without telling anyone. He did it because he cared. It wasn’t to build up his social standing. He is, to this day, one of the kindest and most compassionate people I have ever met. Working for him was healing and life-changing for me. And, along with all of his kindness and generosity, he held his boundaries and was firm but fair. I learned so much just by being around him and working for him. I think about him often as I run my own business. I know that he built his reputation on how he treated people. I learned from him too that you can’t make everybody happy. He showed me how to stand in my integrity and trust myself, and build from there.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

People find me primarily through word of mouth. My effort and care goes into the experience people have with me and the art we create together. I’d say that my most effective strategy for growing my clientele is connecting with them as fellow humans and doing my best to treat them with respect and consideration. And having fun together!

There is a culture in the business world of exploiting vulnerability. (For example, making people think they have a problem and then selling them the solution that they “need,” often utilizing shame to drive consumption.) In counter to that, I try to honor people’s vulnerability if they choose to share that with me. I believe that uplifting people, empowering them by holding space together for them to be themselves and be seen and celebrated, is a great way to connect with others. People have desires. We can respect and support their desires rather than preying on their insecurities.

When my clients have a great experience with me and we build trust together, that is what other people hear about.
I also have experienced that really putting my genuine self out there helps people who resonate with me, find me.
Ultimately, being willing to be vulnerable by sharing my authentic self, combined with connecting with my clients from a place of care and kindness, is what builds trust in my community. And that trust is why people tell their friends about me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rosievalentine.photography/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosievalentinephotography/

Image Credits
Rosie Valentine Photography L.L.C.