We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alix Seracki a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alix, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?
From a young age we are told that secondary education, college, is the only option to be successful. For anyone, at 18 it’s hard to know what we want to do with the rest of our lives. At a very basic level, it’s a huge financial commitment and on a deeper level I think it makes those of us who didn’t know what we want to do, inadequate at a very foundational time in our lives. I was very lucky to have a supportive family and I remember my mom saying after my 6th college school tour “Are you sure you even want to go to college?” and all I could think was “what other option is there?” I ended up going to University of Kansas and getting expelled for a very low GPA due to required classes that were challenging for my more art-centered, right side brain. I wouldn’t change those years for anything, the connections and friendships I made were life changing. But I always wondered what my career would have been like if I was encouraged to find myself at a slower pace than what was encouraged in high school.
Alix, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
March 2023 I went full time with my freelance photography and it has been the scariest thing I’ve ever done so I’d say that would be something to be proud of! As an artist it’s hard to ever be fully satisfied or blatantly proud, though. I’ve been doing pretty much every shoot under the sun since going full time with it, corporate headshots, maternity portraits, e-com product photography, you name it. It’s all been a learning curve but I’m so happy with the little life I’ve been able to create in this huge city. Something I’d want people to know about my work going forward is I really want to invest more time and quality in my shoots. I’m getting to a point where I want to be hired for my creativity and really collaborate on the vision we both can make!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
There are so, so many rewarding aspects of being an artist. For me, one of the biggest is the sense of community. Especially in NYC, going to galleries, writing groups, movie premieres, painting nights, even happy hour with likeminded individuals, keeping the curiosity alive in other areas to inspire the process in my field is so wonderful. Another thing that is so rewarding that I will never lose the love for is the way I get to capture someone, make them feel good about themselves, or see themselves in a light they didn’t know they carried.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I have so many goals and missions in life… from wanting to go back to school to explore film and directing to eventually move to somewhere in Europe someday and document there… but I’d say two things I really want to focus are very different; one would be to photograph celebrities — mostly actors and actresses that inspire me (attn. Florence Pugh, Harry Styles). And another one is my more journalistic roots and going in to the real world, notably dangerous areas where things are happening and shed light on what’s going on on the ground. These are two vastly different sides of the spectrum and I sometimes worry my interests won’t turn into anything in this lifetime. It’s how I feel when I walk into a library; I get a little saddened because I know I’ll never be able to read every book while I’m alive. But I’m going to try.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alixrae.com
- Instagram: thealixrae
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alix-seracki
Image Credits
Alix Rae Photography