We were lucky to catch up with Ren Pidgeon recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ren, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

My career story is filled with risk and somehow making it to reward. I grew up in a small country town in Australia; I always wanted to be a famous Australian rules footballer… It could not be further from where I ended up – Living in Los Angeles as a fashion photographer.

As much as I liked the idea of being a sports star, I didn’t quite have the talent or fit into that world. As I got to around the age 21, it was clear I was not meant for that life. I always had a love for fashion and, without knowing it, fashion photography. I always collected the lookbooks and catalogues at the front of every store.

I decided to study photography for three years and focus on commercial work; however, after school, I still needed to figure out how to get from a small town into a daunting world of photography.
I fell into a job retouching for a small portrait studio, which I thought would be my foot in the door, but it was an absolute creative hell for someone who felt I should be behind the lens, not helping other photographers work to look better.

After around 6 years in front of a computer, I realised something had to change when, over a Christmas break, the dread of returning to my job almost made me sick. The first day back, I handed in my resignation with absolutely no plan for what to do next.
I still remember the first day of my “freelance career” sitting at my computer, looking at my empty calendar and thinking I have four weeks to get some work and afford rent.

I set myself a goal of emailing ten brands, photographers or studios per day – Asking if I could work for free and if they liked me – consider hiring me for the next one. I would never suggest to young photographers to work for free. However, there was no Instagram back then, so no way to show your work without being in the room with a folio. It did end up paying off. I finally felt like I was making connections.. I’ve always been a big believer in fake it till you make it.. I pretended I had YEARS of experience – I got my first small shoot for a local brand and spent money myself to make it happen – I booked and paid for a studio out of my own pocket. And luckily, the shoot went well, and they were willing to hire me for the next one. From there, step by step, I kept growing and gaining business through word of mouth.

One year into my career, making only just enough to support myself, I felt like I needed a way to grow – I took a big risk and signed a lease on a large commercial studio. I really could not afford it, but again, I thought, maybe, like when I quit my job in retouching, the absolute need to pay the bills would give me no choice but to work harder and succeed.
Not long after I opened that studio, bigger jobs started to come in – perhaps having the space meant companies took me more seriously. And I signed with a very large photography agent, and I could finally say I’ve made it as a photographer.

One thing I’ve always been good at is not being satisfied that I’m nearly as good as I could be. For every shoot I did, I would print the best image, then sit it next to my favourite artists’ work and ask myself why theirs is so much better – I don’t compare my work to others any more. However, after every shoot, I still ask myself if there was anything I could have done better if I could do it again. That helped me evolve as an artist and not plateau.

I’m so happy I took these significant risks; honestly, they could have been terrible choices that sent me back to living with my parents and starting a new path again – but things worked out, and it’s all led me to here, which I think is amazing.
By the way that studio has become the top studio for hire in Melbourne Australia and still makes me a nice passive income 10 years later.

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?

I’m a fashion and commercial photographer based in Los Angeles but work globally. My work is voyeuristic and editorial – I love telling stories with my work and take a lot of inspiration from the cinema. I find it essential to tell a story with whatever campaign I’m shooting, even if I have to make a story up in my head so it makes sense as to why we’re all here photographing something silly.
I’ve photographed billboards for Adidas and other commercial companies and had work featured in magazines such as Vogue, Marie Claire and Grazia.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I think they were a waste of people’s money. I hope you didn’t waste money on them.. Or maybe they’re genius and I’m the idiot. But I love photography and I love to hold a photograph.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I still by no means have a large Instagram following compared to many, I’m just over 20k. However, in the early days of Instagram I decided to ask brands with large followings to send me some clothing to photograph. I told them just ship me a few pieces, i’ll find a model and plan a shoot around your brand and send you some images in return to be tagged on their page. I had the studio, so all it was going to cost me was some time – It paid off and I gained what I thought was enough followers to be taken seriously and stopped chasing followers.
Now I don’t spend nearly enough time promoting and posting – Like all good things, I think Instagram it’s not as good as it once was, I don’t like all the rules we have to follow just to reach our own followers that I worked really hard to get. I’ve never made a reel, I still don’t know how.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.renpidgeon.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/renpidgeon