We recently connected with Ruthie Henderson and have shared our conversation below.
Ruthie , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I grew up in a small town in Wyoming where artistic ventures were not at the forefront of the community. There were not a lot of photographers or opportunities to learn artistic skills. I always had an interest in taking pictures, but very quickly realized that I would have to teach myself the techniques I needed to know. I started learning photoshop in middle school through online tutorials. My first camera was a junky point-and-shoot camera passed down to me by my sister. Several strips of duct tape were used to hold it together but it was enough for me to start shooting. In high school, I worked food service jobs to save up for a real DSLR camera. I saved every dollar to finally buy myself that $800 camera that I loved so much!
Every step of my artistic journey was paramount to getting me where I am today. At the time I always felt that my small town was holding me back but now I see it gave me the freedom and space to develop my own style. Teaching myself made me fall in love with learning, which is a skill I still use to improve my craft. Every failure, struggle, and fight taught me a new lesson that I’m so grateful for.
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?
Hello! I am Ruthie, also known as Ruthie’s Magical Camera and I make enchanting portraits made of wonder and daydreams! My photography is a representation of my imagination and personal fantasy. Life should be bold and colorful, which is why I use color at the core of my work. We have too little time on earth to live with subtlety and monotony, so my work displays a kaleidoscope of saturated hues dancing in a world of daydreams.
One of my favorite mediums to explore my imagination is self-portraiture. I am the subject I know best, so acting as the sitter and the photographer makes the whole process deeply personal. Growing up in a small town, I’ve always believed the extraordinary was only found in far-off places and only the lucky ever get to travel to – but after all the time shooting alone, I realized it resides within me. Getting to know myself and finding the magic inside has been my most remarkable adventure.
Finding my own magic has set me on a path of guiding others to find theirs and it’s always been my main goal when photographing someone. If I can capture the thing that makes someone special and unique and contain it in a photograph, then I have done my job well. When my clients see their portraits for the first time, they see all of their quirks and oddities as the very things that make them exceptional. It’s a very rewarding process to walk them through.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Once I felt really confident in my ability I had two options. I could use everything I Iearned to keep me ahead of the competition relying on nobody but myself or I could surround myself with a community of talented artists giving and receiving much-needed support. The latter was a much more appealing option to me.
My mission is to inspire other artists by sharing my creative process on social media. There is a journey behind every photo. Sometimes it is a simple process from idea to execution and sometimes it’s a struggle that seems destined to fail. Artists seem to resonate with my stories as their work follows similar journeys. I talk about all the difficult things about a creative career like the constant insecurities, struggle to find new ideas and lack of motivation. When people realize they aren’t the only ones dealing with these problems, their artistic development feels less lonely and impossible. I want to be the support that I needed when I was a young, lost photographer.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the ability to communicate in a medium comfortable to me. I’ve never felt the most adept at writing or saying the things that I am feeling. Visual art became the perfect outlet for me to express myself and feel better understood. I can’t convey my imagination in a written form but I can create a photograph that encompasses everything I see in my mind’s eye. Viewers can then interpret who I am and the place I was at personally during the creative process.
Contact Info:
- Website: ruthiesmagicalcamera.com
- Instagram: @ruthiesmagicalcamera
- Other: Tiktok: @ruthiesmagicalcamera