We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Audrey Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Audrey below.
Audrey, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
As a photographer my mission is to help people see that there is so much beauty and magic in the every day life, as it is. We live in a culture that puts a large value on how we are perceived by others from an outside view – how our homes look, how happy and interesting our lives appear on social media, what does the car we drive say about who we are, what perception does our outward appearance give, etc. We drive ourselves to misery trying to keep up this act and for what? It’s a trick, it doesn’t matter. When the time comes for our lives to end, hopefully at a very old age, the memories we’ll be thinking about and the photos we’ll want to look at are the ones we didn’t realize we’d miss . . . The mundane, the every day, the simple. The gathering around the dinner table, the bedtime stories, the vacations at the lake, the bare feet running through the yard, the nights by the fire with your partner, the red popsicle rings around your children’s mouths, the laughter, the messy hair, the favorite t-shirt, etc. These are the things that happen every day and hold so much power and beauty, and my mission is to remind people of that and guide them away from the hamster wheel of trying to be something they’re not.
Audrey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I fell in love with photography as a kid, around the age of 12 when we start to realize there is a whole other world out there and we are not the center of it. ;-p I’ve always been really nostalgic and really observant, and those two qualities combined created this ability to notice beauty in the world and an insatiable urge to save it forever. I spent all my birthday moneys on disposable cameras trying desperately to make what I saw around me match the photos I took, failing most the time but never giving up.
In high school I took photography class and learned the basics. After high school I went to college and made several failed attempts at pursuing a degree that would get me a “normal job.” Eventually I came to my senses and realized I wasn’t built for normal and dropped out to re-enroll in an art school, where I obtained my BFA in photography in 2009.
Having a degree in photography is cute and all, but it absolutely isn’t where I learned to be the artist I am today. That came later, through many years of struggle and failure and mundane tasks and just plugging along. I lacked confidence and drive after I graduated, so I stuck to waiting tables, unsure of what direction my life was going to go . . . But just because I had a lack of direction doesn’t mean the Universe didn’t have one for me, and in 2011 I unexpectedly became a single mom to a beautiful, tiny baby girl named Charlotte.
I have been my daughter’s main provider and caretaker for the past 12 years, working 2-4 jobs at a time to survive. I was even working up until 30 minutes before my water broke (unexpectedly, at the grocery store, ha). The first time I had to leave my daughter was when she was 2 weeks old to go apply for food assistance. When she was 3 weeks old I went back to work waiting tables. We lived in the spare room at a relative’s house and had almost nothing but each other. When my daughter was 2 I was able to get our very own place, a humble 2 bedroom townhome – I finally began to breathe and feel safe again.
This was also when I felt I had my feet steady enough to think about getting back into photography, and so Audrey Nicole Photography was born. I started off taking photos for friends and family, charging $50 a session with no boundaries, ha! Anything they asked I said yes, and I learned a LOT from that time (mostly what I DIDN’T want to do).
Photography worked great with being a single mom because I could plug it into the few days a month my daughter saw her dad. I’d drop her off, run to a session, stop at the store on the way home to get diapers and food, be home in time to upload the photos and put her to bed. Editing would happen between 10pm -1am. I continued to wait tables also, sometimes doing a session in the morning and running to work right after to pull a double shift. I think back on that time and am in awe of that version of me. I know I didn’t give myself enough credit then, but I’m an older and wiser Audrey now and I am so proud of that person. We didn’t just get by, I was also able to give my daughter the love and attention she needed and she has turned into an incredible person.
My business grew organically. Facebook was more popular at that time and that’s where I got a lot of traction. A friend would share their photos, their neighbor would see and book a session with me, and so on. My focus was families but I knew I wanted to get into the world of weddings, so around 2016 I posted in a local photo group that I was looking for experience and began to 2nd shoot. 2nd shooting was hands down one of the most influential experiences I had in helping me grow. Not only did I learn how others in the industry did things, but I also began to build connections within the photographer realm that are still today benefiting me. At this point I’d say about half my yearly income comes from another photographer – whether they hire me to take photos of them, hire me to do photos FOR them, or refer me to others, building that network been SO important and is something I always recommend to other photographers.
Fast forward to today and this little ole $50-a- session business has turned into my full time job. Through the connections I made I got a salary position with another photo company as their Creative Director and continue to run my own business. My daughter is almost 12 and is happy and healthy and incredible, I bought us a house and 2 cats, I have a big garden where I like to walk barefoot every day, I have clients that are an absolute dream, I’m calm inside my heart and really, truly happy.
For years I thought being a single mom was holding my business back, forcing it to grow at a slower pace than everyone’s around me. What I know now is that experience was planting deep deep roots for not just my business, but for my soul. Being a single mom has taught me to be resilient, scrappy, and quick thinking. It has shown me that there is a LOT that doesn’t really matter and my energy can be better spent thinking about other things. It has taught me to have grit and to keep going, even if it’s at a turtle’s pace because I will still get somewhere and will probably pick up a lot of cool shit along the way. It is a thankless and invisible job, to parent alone, and it has taught me to be even more empathetic of others and to take the time to really SEE them. There are so many people out here fumbling along who just want to be seen, and I have the means to do so with my camera. My biggest goal when it comes to my photography is to show people that who they are and the simple world around them is incredibly beautiful. The “as-is,” the “right now,” the “every day” IS the magic, and I have the proof.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
The number one place I get new clients and where I receive the most revenue from is other photographers. Over the years I have built really valuable connections and friendships with others in my photo community and it has paid off in SO many ways. Financially, yes – At least 50% of my yearly income comes from other photographers through them become my client, hiring me to work for them, or referring me to other clients. But aside from the financial piece, I have developed incredible and supportive friendships with people who can relate to many of my struggles. The photography world can be very lonely and has an “Every man for himself” vibe to it and it just doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve come to a place where the only person I’m in competition with is myself and I genuinely want to see the photographers around me be insanely successful. Supporting one another, letting go of this scarcity way of thinking, and just being a nice person has brought me tenfold.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
My business went from side hustle to full time job and then intentionally back to side hustle, which has been an eye opening journey and one that doesn’t get talked about often in the creative industry. I think there are a lot of people who had a similar goal as mine – Grow your business to where you’re booked in full months in advance, are regularly making 6 figures, have tens of thousands of followers on social media and are admired by all your peers, etc. This is the dream I chased for YEARS, and while I was nowhere close to it I took the leap to being full time in 2019. That dream continued to be my goal, even when Covid was ruining everything, and I chased it until I couldn’t run anymore.
It wasn’t until a year ago that I got really honest with myself and realized that that was actually NOT what I wanted anymore. What I simply wanted was stability, ease, fulfillment and happiness, and I wasn’t getting those things as freelance photographer. I was burned out, tired, losing hope, and stressed and had a moment of clarity where I said to myself, “I actually don’t have to do it like this anymore.” I was already doing some work for another photo company and when I had this aha moment I went to them to see if there was opportunity there for me to step into a larger role. There was, and I am now a salary employee as their Creative Director – a REAL dream come true. My role there also allows me to still run my “side hustle” photography business, but because I’m not fighting for a living each day I can be really selective about the work that I do. As a result the burnout is healing, I’m feeling creative and excited again, and I have hope that things are going to be all ok.
The lesson in all of this is that it’s ok for your goals to change, and they most likely will. Don’t get so hyper focused on something that you’re unable to see the reality of your situation. And if your goals change before you reach them it is NOT a failure!! Recognizing this and setting your ego aside so that you can reevaluate and pursue happiness again is the BEST thing you can do for yourself.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.audreynicolephotography.com
- Instagram: @audreynicolephotography
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/audreynicolephotography
Image Credits
Photo credit goes to me, Audrey Nicole Photography :-)