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

Hi Sammy, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with inspirations and heroes. Are there any historical figures you look up to?

I have always looked up to Abraham Lincoln. There is no question that his influence and values is still felt in today’s society. I think that one of the things that gets overlooked by history is that he was about bringing people together and preserving what the founding fathers had fought for. He never compromised who he was nor did he back down from the challenges that he dealt with throughout his life. As a kid learning about his historical significance I became drawn in. I wanted to learn more and more about his impact on history. Once I hit middle school I started checking more and more books out on him because I was fascinated with the things that he was able to accomplish. As an adult I feel like have adopted a lot of his approach to life.

Sammy, 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?

I am a photographer that grew up in Peoria, Illinois. My story in getting to the industry is a little unique. I went straight to a 2 year community college out of high school. I had no real direction in life at the time. I remember my high school councilor trying to get me to lock down a career field my senior year. I had a lot of interest in different areas but never had a clear path on what it was I wanted to do. I took a bunch of basic course during my time at this community college. It just happened to take a humanities class one semester and we were studding all the different arts through out history. Durning this one particular day in class we started to study the subject of photography. As I was sitting in class skimming through the chapters I began to hyper-focus on the photos within the section. I was mesmerized by the photos and at that moment something in my head just clicked. I told myself “I can do this” It was like magic. One moment I am in class not having clue what I wanted to do with my life and split second later I realized that photography was my calling. 6 months later I found myself investing $600 into a photography starters set. For my very first photoshoot I asked my best friend, who was a musician and in a band at the time, to do a shoot with me. We went out to a local elementary school and did some shots along the brick building. I had no real idea on what I was doing at the time nor did I have a real sense on how to actually work my camera properly, but I came out of the shoot pretty satisfied with the work that I had done. I ended up posting those photos on Facebook and to my surprise a lot of people were loving the final product. I had a very natural framing process that people thought I had been doing photography for awhile. to me that was the ultimate compliment. At that moment I knew I was on the right path. Now here I am in Atlanta, GA following my dreams. I have been published in numerous magazines and had featured photos in exhibits all around the world. I am blessed that I was given this opportunity in life to continue down this path that I have been on, and I feel like I am still continuing to learn new things all the time as the community continues to grow.

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

From my perspective as an introverted creative; I feel like most non-creatives, mainly the extroverted non-creatives, don’t understand my needing of time. What I mean by that is that I have a very chaotic mind. I tend to jump from one idea to the next. Sometimes in order to bring those ideas out to their full potential I need a lot of time to myself. I am not just a photographer, but I am also a writer. I really need that alone time to flush out those ideas. I remember this one in particular time when I left a job without having another job lined up. I was just completely burnt out from that job. Right around this time my dad and myself were planning a month long trip where we were going to explore the western part of the country. Instead of finding a job right away, I waited until I got back from the trip before I started looking. An extroverted friend of mine at the time just could not understand why I would wait until I got back to look for another job. I had to keep explaining to him that the reason had more to do with my creative process. I saw the trip as a big creative opportunity for myself and a way to escape reality for a month. For whatever the reason he just could not understand my reasoning for it. So my needing of time has always seemed to be one of the biggest disconnects with me and non-creatives.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I have a couple of them. One of them being the expression on the clients face’s after they see the final product of their shoot. It is very rewarding when you are able to create art with other people, especially other artist, because it really does take at least two to people to make those photos work. the other is simply being able to get my work out there in magazines and galleries and having people come up to me and say “Hey, I saw your work here or there” It makes me feel like I really accomplished something in my life, despite at one point having no clue where I was going in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: photogrlaphybysammy.com
• Instagram: sammyjr_artist
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/photographybysammy
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/sammysaladino

Image Credits
Sammy Saladino