We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alexandria Norado. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alexandria below.
Alexandria, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on to date was definitely for my “Deity” series back in 2019. I was really into reading webtoons and any sort of escapism I could find at that moment, and I stumbled upon a slow rising story called “Lore Olympus”. I basically fell in love with the story and almost immediately felt so many ideas popping into my head on shoots that I could create that were loosely inspired by the story and further research into Greek/Roman mythology. One of the most memorable parts of the process was meeting with local artists to collaborate on not only the styling, but the makeup, models, poems, and most importantly, the custom created wardrobe.
While I didn’t end up hosting the gallery I wanted to with all the pieces, it really gave me a year-long project that I could consistently be excited about and opened doors for new opportunities with local venues.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a local photographer here in Dallas/Fort Worth area that focuses mainly on portraiture. I’ve been photographing since 2012, but originally started with film and an Minolta X-700 until graduating to strictly digital (with film only really for candid one-off projects). After spending SO long in the community trying to figure out where I fit in, and traveling around a bit meeting other photo communities, I truly found my place in recreating dreamy settings with fantasy based concepts.
If I could sum up my conceptual art-style in how I’d like for it to be perceived, I would compare to a raining during the day lo-fi chillhop playlist.
Aside from my larger projects, I focus on partnership work with local and international brands, but I do still do local sessions from time to time. I’d really like to continue working with brands that have an ethereal look — or a story to them, so that we could put something wonderful together. Outside of photography for the past 6 years, I’ve been working in the Entertainment Industry with a mix of anime/kpop related marketing, interviewing, and concert photography (if you like KPOP, check out the interviews I’ve done up until the recent times here: http://allienoradophotography.com/conducted-interviews).
Have you ever had to pivot?
There was a time (and really it always comes and goes) where I was completely and utterly de-motivated. I was continuing to shoot, but it felt empty and I wasn’t happy with the content I was creating. Even then, I worked my best to still please my clients and fulfill the needs of the shoot, but I wasn’t finding myself excited to go to the sessions, post the images, or really even prepare moodboards/research. Realistically I was burnt out, which is something I still struggle with identifying for myself, and I was just pumping out content for the sake of staying relevant.
Unfortunately there isn’t a real cure to that creative mental block, but I can tell you what did help me: doing nothing.
Taking time to myself to enjoy the things that used to inspire me, K-dramas, anime, fashion, small mundane trips to a nearby lake. All of those things didn’t necessarily contribute to an epiphany, but they helped me find me again and in that, I was able to start finding some excitement in planning my shoots again. I also needed to take a step back from packing my only weekend breaks from my FT career with shoots for the entire day — which ultimately caused the initial burnout. At the end of the day, I was really the one who needed to take a step back and evaluate if I was digging myself into a larger hole by forcing out ideas that weren’t really all there.
So take breaks! Long breaks! You can even take a year off! The trends will come and go, you’re not missing out on anything. Drop the FOMO and try your hardest to just be yourself and the rest will come.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
I wish that I knew how eager my community was to help me when I was just starting. I was working so many oddjobs at the time where I became more serious about getting better with photography that I wasn’t aware not everything was competitive. There are people in every community that would rather compete with you than work with you, sure, but there are also so many resources in collaborations and friendship. The best and most lasting skills I’ve gained in my photography journey were by watching and learning my friends and people I just met through instagram and traveled to work with.
If your community isn’t as physically present during these times, or you haven’t found a place where you feel like you fit with them, try discord! There are other communities, of course; Flickr, YouTube, various creative apps, but regardless of where you go, try meeting others to broaden your skills.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://allienoradophotography.com/latest
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allienoradophotog/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandria-norado-150b1781/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/visualilinx/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC02tbgBCZZjohMmP_uHzHqA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=M6bDzkViKpiuWfc0Y4Tf5A