We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Abby Schwantz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Abby, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.
I’m a boudoir, lifestyle and wedding photographer so my clientele can range dramatically in terms of the people I meet, work with and serve through my job. However, as is so often the case in our world, those who aren’t “picture perfect” can have limited opportunities compared to those who society deems are. There can be so many trivial reasons why someone may receive a “no” from a photographer after inquiring – sexual orientation, body type, ethnicity, living with a disability, or beyond – and that can be DEVASTATING. In my business, I strive to make sure I work with everyone. If you’re a kind, respectful individual who needs photos, I’m here to make you feel at home in your experience and deliver on that. Especially in my boudoir work, I find it is so important to meet women of all ages, body types, ethnicities, etc, where they are and remind them that they are a community and person worth being photographed, because they’ve so often been shamed into thinking they are undeserving of it. One of my past boudoir clients, a heavy set girl who has always struggled with her weight and self esteem, told me that after her boudoir session, at 26, it was the first time in her life she felt like she wasn’t hiding from the mirrors in her house. Another boudoir client, one who previously had suffered from an eating disorder, silently cried while she touched photos of her own naked body and told me that she liked how her belly looked for the first time. When you open the doors for these people to feel loved and celebrated, not only are they incredibly loyal clients, but they have a life changing experience, simply because you held the door open for them, and no one else ever had.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My story starts the same way as so many do – 2 friends asked me to take naked polaroids of them for their boyfriend’s Christmas presents. After I took their photos, they insisted I’d done such a good job, both with the photos and making them feel comfortable in such a unique position, that they insisted I make it into a business. Thinking about it, I had really enjoyed it; I’d been into photography since high school and didn’t have much of a reason to shoot in college so had gotten out of the habit. Not to mention, empowering women through art and their own bodies sounded like a very fun creative project for my feminist heart. I started putting feelers out into my community, getting a much better response than I anticipated, booking shoots right away and shooting boudoir out of my apartment for the love of it. I created “Polaroid Pin Ups” (because my sessions come with Fujifilm Polaroids), but people in my life started inquiring for projects beyond boudoir, and wanted to know if I would be shooting things like seniors, families, weddings. Honestly, I was curious to see what I could do – I knew photography was something I enjoyed but it’s incredibly difficult for me to take the leap; I’m a worrier. I shouldn’t have worried. I expanded my business to “AJS Photography,” eventually leaving my full time job, then my part time job, to pursue photography full time. This January 2024 marks my first year full time, which is still an insane thing to say.
My main services right now are wedding, boudoir, branding and lifestyle photography. I love to travel and hope to include more traveling in my work in the next few years as well – I’ve been to 16 countries and am always ready to add some more to that list! The things I love about photography have never changed – changing people’s perspective on how important and fun photos can be, making people feel at home in themselves and with me, and encapsulating moments that are fleeting.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
I started photography as a side hustle while I was still working a full time corporate job. When I initially started my photography, I was mainly doing boudoir, and had a smaller market of people to work with for clients. I really enjoyed the creativity of it though, so I offered to do a lot of shoots for free, which served a few purposes. It gave me the ability to practice using my equipment, posing models, and learn editing software without a lot of client expectation, as well as teaching me how to professionally interact with the women coming in front of my camera. They walked away having just had a great photoshoot experience and free photos and I walked away with a little more expertise, a few more photos in my portfolio and a person who would happily build up my business through word of mouth advertising.
Like I mentioned in a previous answer, some folks in my community started inquiring past boudoir and so I opened myself up to taking on new types of projects – weddings, seniors, newborns, whatever would pay. I wanted to see if I could make the photography thing work, and it was a lot of work. I was working full time at the corporate job, and posting a LOT on social media, trying to advertise for anyone in my life who may be interested in working with me for lifestyle photography projects. I leaned into what worked with boudoir – I did some free or very cheap sessions for friends and family and posted them like crazy until I got some inquiries. I also joined community groups on social media for photographers so I could meet other professionals in my area and offer to work with and for them at their events! I was able to meet and work with a dozen incredibly talented photographers all over the Midwest that taught me a lot about the industry, my equipment and business in general.
My photography was a side hustle until it was beginning to interfere with my full time job, which is usually a tell-tale sign that the business is growing to the point of action. I knew I needed to make a decision to either pull back or pour more time into it – so I quit my full time job in lieu of working part time and doing photography part time. At this point, my photography business had expanded beyond boudoir into wedding and lifestyle as well, so I had plenty of projects to balance through the year. As I started charging and my business started growing, I bought new equipment and rented a studio. Those original clients who I had given free shoots to are to date some of my most loyal followers and biggest supporters in my business because they had been able to watch me grow since the beginning. They’re the people who book year after year and make sure my business always has some sort of steady income. (Everyone wants to feel like they were the one who discovered something before it was popular). They return to pay full price for sessions in my new studio and support my growing business, because they felt so honored they had been part of it since the origin because they believe in the experience I’m selling beyond just the photos I deliver.
So when my calendar was too full to continue scheduling shifts at my part time job, I knew it was time to move on from that position too and take the leap into doing this full time, where I’ve been for the past year!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I think non-creatives struggle to understand that creating for a living is beautiful and exhausting. I feel privileged to have this as my job every day and I never want that to be lost on my clients and community. I know how blessed I am to have this job, to work with the incredible people I work with, to make my own schedule, work remotely and run my life in the way I want to. It’s a freedom a lot of people don’t get to experience. It’s also hard to create on demand. It’s hard to stay in a state of constant inspiration, to stay in awe at the world around me while also running my business single handedly. It’s hard to know how to correctly balance life and work in a way that lets me create freely, openly, happily while meeting deadlines, serving clients, responding to emails, posting on social media, updating my website, staying relevant with SEO, keeping track of bookkeeping, and balancing a healthy home and social life. That’s obviously the game everyone is playing and trying to succeed at – for creatives, I think we just have the unique challenge of accepting others outside expectations that we can do all of that while being creative without a break or additional resources/influences. While taking the leap into becoming a full time creative who has her own business has been the best and biggest learning experience of my life, it’s definitely been the most challenging season in terms of figuring out how to continually stay inspired to create work I like and not get burnt out. A goal of mine in 2024 is to take more scheduled breaks and time away from the business side of things and photos created for work to make time for creativity and free play to hopefully avoid burn out and stay excited.
Contact Info:
- Website: abbyschwantzcreative.com
- Instagram: @ajsphotosandmore
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ajsphotosandmore
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abby-schwantz/
Image Credits
All image credit goes to AJS Photography!