We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aubrey Wise a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Aubrey, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think success comes from working hard, keeping faith, and staying true. It’s important to define what success means to you individually. Especially in a creative industry, where commerce and art have to learn to exist together. It can get confusing to navigate outside opinions/thoughts on success and your own. From the beginning for me, it was always about being able to be around music as my job. I’ve always loved documenting moments and getting to do that around music, is a dream come true for me. I have had many moments of doubt and confusion, but staying true to that definition of success keeps me grounded and excited about what I’m doing. Throughout my career so far, I’ve worked with big names and small names, but if I’m around music, people I love, and people who believe in what we are doing, I think that is success. Remaining focused on that, and eliminating the distraction of how others may define success, is what it takes to stay the path and find it.

Aubrey, 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?

My name is Aubrey Wise and I am a music photographer/videographer. I grew up in Colorado, but am a self-proclaimed Texan, after spending about 5 years in Fort Worth before moving to Nashville in 2021. I grew up dancing competitively while also spending a lot of my time chasing down rodeos with my dad and brother. My dad was a rodeo announcer and my brother and I both were active in junior rodeos all across Colorado. I grew up listening to Chris LeDoux, Robert Earl Keen, Ian Tyson, and Willie Nelson while out on the road to the next rodeo. At dance, I grew a deep love for music, expression, and community. I think all of these things have mixed to manifest today as me chasing down music and expression, while craving being on the move and traveling.

I have known for a long time that all I wanted to do was be around music as my job but didn’t know how I would make that happen or what that would look like. In 2018, my uncle gave me a camera and I started following concert photographers on social media. I started to wonder if I could make that avenue into something. At first, I practiced by taking photos of my friends and in dance class, and then a few years later I shot my first concert! In the beginning, I would reach out to anyone and everyone and ask if I could shoot for free, to build my portfolio and gain more experience. Throughout that time, I was lucky to make some connections, that turned into friendships and they’ve all become one large ripple effect for me today. Of course, I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am or experienced what I have, without the help of so many others.

Today, I am a full-time photographer/videographer. My main niche is tour photography and capturing live shows, but I am also starting to branch out and work on promo shoots, music videos, and creative direction. My job is to document special moments throughout an artist’s career and help guide them visually through different content shoots and ideas. I have a very deep love for music, artists, humans, and concerts. I think this is what drives my work and sets me apart. I’m most proud of my constant push to try to see the bigger picture in all of this. The music industry can be a really tough and complicated place, and I try my best to stay true to myself and the impact that music has on people, beyond what the industry places the most focus on. I hope to keep my heart soft and focused on my work, which is the work of cementing these moments and sharing them.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The base goal of all of this started out as wanting to build a life around things I believe in. I believe in humans and music. Throughout my creative journey so far, I’ve set goals that I’ve accomplished, that shift as life does, and goals that I’m still working to complete. I am so thankful that since I’ve really started to pursue this, I’ve been surrounded by music and by some of the most incredible humans, friends, and artists. I think goals are great and it’s an awesome feeling when you achieve them. But I’ve also learned that there has to be something else a bit deeper driving it all so that the happy feelings aren’t so fleeting and if certain goals aren’t attained, you still understand your worth, and the point. Overall, I hope to continually learn more about my craft, help support artists and humans that I believe in, and be able to support myself while doing it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resilience is a word that I have been thinking about a lot this year, and something I am proud to say that I have, or have grown into! Resilience can be illustrated in many different ways. This past year, I experienced a situation where I stood up for something that meant a lot to me and my business/artistry and unfortunately, the situation ended in loss. This loss was jarring and really difficult for me. But, the reality of life and this industry is that we’re constantly learning, growing, and changing – and that includes loss! As I navigated this change, I had many moments of feeling like I wanted to just give up and try something else. But as time went on, I was still doing it, because people were still asking me to and I kept saying yes. During this transitional period, I had a friend tell me that I was resilient. I didn’t see myself like that at the time. I only saw myself struggling. I came to realize that having resilience and strength does not mean not struggling through hardship. They mean looking the struggle in the eye and continuing to walk forward.

Throughout this year, I looked to so many of my musical heroes. I realized that hardly anyone makes it through without making mistakes, experiencing loss, and “failing”, but that often the ones who continued on to success experienced those things and just kept going. While I still have times that I get in my head and can get down on myself, I look back on the last year and am so proud of myself and the resilience I’ve built. I’ve learned so many things and believe that the struggles are just as important (if not more so) than the successes.

Contact Info:

• Website: aubreywisephoto.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aubreywisephoto/
• Twitter: twitter.com/_aubreywise_
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSnVWfn-vi2ysk5In7pmAAA

Image Credits
Becca LiPuma Aubrey Wise