We recently connected with Avery Swail and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Avery thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

Transparency in the creative industry is something I have always stood behind. It’s been a long road of isolation in the photography industry and its time to change the way. My purpose is to help women, and also men, in the industry by being transparent and vulnerable with my story and sharing what I know.

in 2018, I joined a company called Nordic retreats where myself and two other photographers lead 4 retreats a year for women who want to come build their portfolios, but most importantly, come and join a community. Where we can sit together for five days and speak about our deepest desires and fears. Share stories of our successes and failures and really connect on a deeper level. Community over competition has always been our motto.

On top of the retreats, I also mentor 1:1. I take on four people a month where we really spend the month getting to the root of their dreams, knowing that they are achievable.

I use my social media platform as a way to share, be vulnerable, to help others know that they are not alone in their struggles and that we have all been there.

Avery, 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?

ahhh, how I got into photography. Would have been in high school when I decided to send myself to a boarding school as my parents were going through a divorce and I thought to be elsewhere for it. I randomly decided on a sports boarding school. being very unsporty myself and during my time there I was faced with an ultimatum to either join a club or a sports team. Being me, sports was not on my radar unless it was skiing and since I was in the middle of Canada there were no hills in sight. So I joined the multimedia team and decided to start shooting all the sports teams. Never having really held a digital camera prior to, I became quite fascinated by it. I spent my time in the multimedia room, attending all the hockey games to only just zoom on in the opposing teams and capture a photo or two for our school media website the next day. After highschool, it was never really talked about as an option for a career. I felt quite lost after grade 12. A lot of my friends were going into university knowing exactly what they wanted in their careers. They wanted to be teachers, accountants, doctors… I was 17 when I graduated. I had not the slightest idea what I wanted to do with my life and I felt as if I was behind that I hadn’t figured it out.

So I went to University studying psychology, where I just was going to classes to pass the time. Nothing of the “ologys” struck my interest. After two years I decided to leave University and travel around. I went to South East Asia and Indonesia and ended up living in Australia after a while and during my travels I rewound my love for photography.

When I came back to Canada I found a course that offered photojournalism with a communications degree. In my photojournalism class I was told that I would never be a photographer, especially in the photojournalism field… and to this day I am one of the only ones from my graduating year that is a full-time photographer.

I think what sets me apart from others is my transparency. I understand that this business isn’t the same for everything and that it can be quite isolating. I do my best to invite others into my journey in hopes that it will inspire them to keep going.

The only thing standing in between you and your goals is the consistency and if I were to have given up ages ago when I felt that I couldn’t break through the industry. when I was met with all my self limiting beliefs, I wouldn’t be where I am now. So if I can help anyone in anyway, I want to encourage them to keep going, even when you are met with rejection after rejection, because you will one day be met with a yes and rejection is just redirection.

How did you build your audience on social media?

TRANSPARENCY.

I started opening up myself for Q&A’s on instagram and it’s not like the second I did that people came running to me. It took some time to build up but consistency and transparency and authenticity is what opened the doors for me. Showing up in my authentic self and talking about my wins and set backs had people relate to me and find trust in me that it became a consistent thing for people to come for me with questions. I can only answer in relation to my own experience and how I would approach a situation, but it allowed people to find community and trust within an app and to know that they are not alone in their industry struggles.

From there it led to mentoring, to hosting dinners in popular cities for when I travel. I was in Lisbon two weeks ago for 19 hours and hosted a beautiful dinner when I landed in 8 other creatives who lives in Lisbon. It was such a magical evening of deep conversations and even deeper laughter.

I still hear a lot of photographers and creatives say that there is no community in their area and I say to that, what a perfect opportunity to build one. To be the one to open the door to others because in 10 minutes my dinner in Lisbon was out of spots, and in 10 minutes people who thought there was no “community” in Lisbon were met with their community and I just hope that it can grow from there.

Things are better in community. We are made for community.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being of Service.

I believe our purpose in life is to find what we love, find our passion, and to find a way to give back with it. For me, photography is just an aspect of what I do. The real reward is mentoring and helping others step into their power and craft. When I stand alongside someone and they re-find that confidence within themselves… and find that they can also achieve their dreams, that no one is more special than them, that is the real reward.

That is the blessing.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @averyswail