We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Gallegos recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

Honestly I can’t really say that I wish I had started sooner or later. I feel grateful for the experiences and opportunities that I’ve had along with the people that I’ve met through them. I started about 2014/2015 which I personally loved for myself because that time frame was one in which I was very much navigating so much curiosity, excitement, confusion, etc. as I was getting older and preparing to graduate high school so it really made me put many things into perspective and slowly start understanding myself in various ways as I was getting older. Had I started sooner or later, I definitely wouldn’t have those experiences and relationships in my life and that’s a bit difficult and strange to think about. It does make you seriously wonder how different life would be.

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?

Concert photography is what I think really pushed me into the realm of creating and photography specifically! While concert photography helped push me in the creative direction and is something that I really enjoy and am obsessed with shooting, I started out by shooting mostly more mundane and everyday things. It was something I think that really enabled and encouraged me to just shoot more and become more familiar with how I go about approaching people and creating in the first place.

I approach my work in ways that I know are authentic and try to also highlight the vulnerability in others which is why I think I gravitate towards concert photography so much! That’s one of the things I’m proudest of. I tend to seek out a lot of the more candid moments from people because it just feels more real and special.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think this goes back to what I was saying in my previous answer! I really do love being some sort of guide or part of the process in highlighting the vulnerability or presence of someone else. One of my favorite things to come across in photos, in general, is the feeling of seeing someone and catching even a glimpse of the person where it’s almost overwhelming but so intriguing and beautiful because you want to see more but all you have is that. Maybe it’s just me but it really does stick with you and can be very deeply inspiring.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

One important thing about this topic is to not feel the need to constantly be creating if it does more harm than good. I think with social media there’s this constant need to be putting more of yourself or your work out there at all times and in very demanding ways and it’s okay to recognize when you aren’t into that so I say listen to yourself and create the correct boundaries when it comes to that. As far as audience goes, I will say is that as long as you’re doing what you feel is authentic and honest to you and are passionate about it all, you will garner the correct audience. The people who get you or your work will eventually see it and will latch on and it’s really special!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ashleygallegosphoto.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agallegosphoto/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/agallegosphoto