We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Blaire Collingwood a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Blaire, thanks for joining us today. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?
I would say working under a mentor was hands-down one of the best things I could have done for my business. I happened upon a Craigslist ad (this worked for me, but have your wits about you!) looking for a photographer’s assistant for a fashion photographer. My first day working under the photographer as a studio assistant, I had never even stepped into a photography studio before. The first task he gave me was put together the strobe lights, and unbeknownst to him I had never in my life heard a strobe light or softbox before!
But he was willing to teach me, and with a little guidance I quickly caught on and we began to build good rapport with each other. Very soon after, he managed to get me on one day a week for the company he worked for doing video campaigns and social media content. This position gave me tremendous experience working in the field, and opportunities to travel and go to conventions. More than that, we bother desired to build something more towards fashion and our creative projects, and I went from being his assistant to shooting alongside him in the studio building fashion editorials. Working with my mentor helped to guide me towards goals I hadn’t even solidified for myself yet, and now I am continuing to build bigger and better editorial projects and brand campaigns with the knowledge that he left with me.
All of this to say- be careful with Craigslist ads! But for creatives who are looking for any small step into the industry, this ended up working out really well to push my career forward.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Blaire Collingwood and I was born in northern Virginia into an Italian family of 6 kids. From a young age I was interested in the performing arts, playing characters and being on stage. By the age of 13 I was begging (and let me tell you, <i>begging</i>) my parents to take me to California for the summer to pursue acting. It was always my dream to be a part of creative storytelling, and this ultimately led to my love of photography and ending up behind the camera. The first time I picked up a camera was when my friend who I met through music and acting (shoutout Madison Rudolph) got gifted a beginner Nikon camera at the age of 15. When I tried it out for the first time, I never wanted to put it down. Instantly enthralled, I began asking her to borrow it all the time (to the point where it truly lived at my house). My younger sisters were performers as well, and I would put together outfits from the thrift store and take them out to the country roads of Virginia to do photoshoots. The first time I I got recognized for my photography was during my senior year of high school, when I won a contest to be a part of an art book given to all the students. At this point, I was beginning to stretch my wings taking portraits of friends as well as getting asked to do a few senior portrait sessions. I was ecstatic to receive my very first check doing the thing I loved most, these two opportunities giving me the boost of confidence I needed to continue my craft in higher studies. With my cousin working in the film industry 9 years ahead of me, I decided to apply to the Film and Video program at George Mason University and branch out to learn the skills of filmmaking.
While attending school, I delved into the art of cinema and worked on many student film projects, leading to me to attending a school social event where I heard that there was a grant going around for students to interview to be a part of a documentary project overseas, under the guidance of two professors. I applied, and with the utmost shock I got the opportunity!
Before I knew it, I was taking my camera skills to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. My small team and I worked tirelessly for three weeks shooting interviews, events, and the life of those living in Southeast Asia. Being a part of another culture in this intimate way grew my love for traveling and using the camera as a way to connect with others. It truly changed my life. It led me to get an internship where I travelled to Iceland to film my own documentary-styled video on students doing field research of the Reykjavik region, another life changing experience that connected me with students across the US who also had an affinity for travel and adventure.
Finishing college in the heart of the pandemic, me and my friends spent a year in shutdown being on hold for our careers to kickstart. Things slowly starting back up again in 2021, and with few opportunities for me and my partner (who I met in film school), we decided to move across the country to Los Angeles, California, where I finally made my 13 year old dreams come true.
As soon as I moved out here, I got a job serving in a hotel, and began shooting as much as I could with anyone I met on instagram or through my workplace. I instantly fell back in love with photography, and got advice to work with modeling agencies as they are always looking for people to shoot their new faces. This was one of the best pieces of advice I got as it got me connected models who were passionate and ready to work and grow in the industry. I happened to watch many of the new faces I shot get amazing opportunities following the work we created. With all of this still pro bono, I was itching to figure out how to get paid doing photography and/or video. With my partner taking steps into the music industry, we ended up experimenting with a few music video projects, but it was hard to find musicians who were willing to put a good budget forward to make it worth our time.
About a year into being in L.A., I saw a Craigslist ad looking for a photographer’s assistant who had experience with video and working with strobe lights. While I had never been in a studio nor worked with strobe lights, I knew video lighting and I knew I could learn quickly (I’m definitely a hands on learner). This small shoot ended up turning into a massive opportunity working with an experienced photographer and videographer, and together he got me into the company he worked for assisting his video campaigns and creating social media content. We grew a lot together, working on our creative projects on the side, and this lasted for about a year until we decided we were moving in different directions. It was through working with Barclay that I decided my love for photography surpassed my love for being a filmmaker, and I made the decision to start devoting my time towards building editorial campaigns and brand photoshoots.
Coming to the present moment, I am most proud of getting my first fashion editorial into a publication, as well as shooting my first wedding in Las Vegas last week. Moving forward, I want to continue to support brands marketing initiatives through creative storytelling. I am a creative director first and foremost, with a strong vision for crating eye catching visual content. In this day and age, social media is the top strategy for brands to connect with all audiences, especially the younger generations. I want to build a platform for businesses to sky rocket their reach through eye catching visual content, bridging the gap between brands who have been around for decades and curating their image to stay with the present times.
My love for photography will always stem back to my love for acting and being a performer, now creating characters with stylists, models and makeup artists. To this day I shoot a lot of nature scenes and green, calming imagery with a very natural tone. The girl from Virginia never left, she just had big dreams to get out into the world and make something of herself.
Have you ever had to pivot?
There was a big turning point in my career where I felt lost and unsure of where I was headed. Going to school to study filmmaking, I was sure that this was going to spearhead my way into working in the film industry. For a year working out here in Los Angeles, this was my ultimate goal, and with my partner’s love for cinema he was absolutely sure of the direction he wanted to go. At this time we were working on a lot of projects together. This wasn’t always easy for me, as I saw how passionate he was about the content we were creating, but I was self conscious that my video work simply didn’t compare to the level I was at in photography. I often found myself frustrated that the end result, feeling as if this is what I “should” be doing instead of focusing on where my love for visual storytelling truly began. Working under photography mentor Barclay Wright, I began to slowly put my focus back towards photography and one day it simply clicked. I am happy and excited to support and work on the film projects of my friends, but all of my strategies for my own business are more towards photography. My goal now has switched from being a filmmaker, to taking my skills of filmmaking and supporting brand business strategies with both photo and video. While I felt very lost for a minute there, I know now that learning both skills will ultimately help my career move forward as I have more experience to build my creative visions on.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
This story takes us to the biggest, baddest photoshoot I have done to date. It was the beginning of the year of 2025, and I was ready to create something better than I ever have before. In the year of 2024, I had gone through hardships that almost broke me down completely. Over the course of the year, I had experienced the passing of my mom as well as my partner’s mom due to illness and unforeseen circumstances. Despite these challenges, I was not ready to give up on my dreams, I had only been in L.A. for three years and was just starting to feel confident in my work and creative visions. Working with the previous photography mentor, I was beginning to see the value of creating editorial campaigns with a strong creative vision coupled with unique fashion styling and makeup artistry. I ended up posting a casting call on my story that was sent through a friend to a <i>very</i> talented fashion stylist (shoutout Carson Montague-Fuestch, you rock) She had a strong vision for a project she had been wanting to create about the strength of being a woman. Already in love with this idea, we pushed forward with the project and I was ready to build the team up to make this one better than ever. But slowly, I began to realize I was a little in over my head. The fashion stylist was working with the ultimate goal to make the series into Vogue, and without having any projects published previously I knew this was a big leap to strive for. Not to mention the photography mentor I had worked for was out of commission at the time, someone I relied on to use top equipment for shooting and lighting.
Still wanting to accomplish the shoot and prove to myself that I had what it takes, I pushed on and worked hard to bring talent on that would make this project high level, as well as ordering equipment I didn’t have that I knew would make the photos stellar. With all of this in mind, the day of the photoshoot came and because I had unknowingly planned it on a holiday, all of the assistants I had gathered for the shoot fell through. And STILL, I journeyed on and didn’t want to disappoint anyone who had put the time and energy into this project.
We ended up shooting all day and getting absolutely AMAZING content, that wasn’t published in Vogue but made it into several other publications including ROIDX Magazine. I was proud of the obstacles I had overcome to accomplish this goal, especially doing my very first studio shoot without the help of my mentor. It proved to me that not only do I have what it takes, but that sometimes the hardest hurdles to pass over come with the most rewarding accomplishments you will achieve.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.blairecollingwood.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vibrantviolet/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blairecollingwoodvideo/
Image Credits
Eliza Johnson, Sam Quam, Carson Montenegro-Fuetsch, Mackenzie Lauren Taylor, Sam Quam, Beccs Gonzalez, Stephanie Perk, Raegan Dyas