We recently connected with Bridget Shaw and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Bridget thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned about photography super early in life. Growing up with artists in the family my creative pursuits were always encouraged. I got my first camera when I was a kid, maybe age 8 or 9, and that 35mm Canon EOS Rebel changed the trajectory of my life course forever. I learned how to photograph by just wanting to make photos. I asked all my friends (I still do) to model for me, only now they don’t hide their faces. Sophomore year of high school I finally started the proper education part of learning photography and by then I felt like I knew everything. I was very wrong about that, but I did know more than most of the other kids. I still don’t know everything, but I try to be a better photographer every time I pick up my camera. I spend a lot of time watching videos about photography, looking at art books, browsing online galleries and going to art museums when I can. Photography isn’t something that I think I could’ve sped up the process of learning, it’s a practice of patience like all art forms. You practice, fail, learn, get better, and then try again. Every photo I’ve ever taken has been a learning experience and I’m grateful for every good and bad picture I’ve made.

Bridget, 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?

Well, I’ll start off by saying hi, I’m Bridget Shaw and I’m a creative portrait and boudoir photographer as well as social media manager based in Springfield, Illinois. The things in life I see as beautiful and feel most drawn to photograph are other humans, or notions of human existence. I’ve taken my fair share of landscape and sunset shots, but they’ve never brought me joy like taking a good portrait does.

The goal with my photography is to bring beauty to people’s lives in surprising ways, but mostly from where they didn’t know it lay hidden. A lot of the time that beauty is inside of ourselves but we just need a little help to see it, that’s where I come in. This isn’t the path I chose but the one that chose me; ever since I started photographing other people they’ve told me how beautiful I made them feel, so I rolled with that. Over time I started to really appreciate my own eye for seeing the beauty in others, especially when I couldn’t see it in myself. That’s when it all clicked for me, I knew what must be done, but first, a story…

Two weeks after my 29th birthday I quit drinking alcohol, up until that point I had spent maybe 6 months of all of my 20’s not drunk. Let me paint you a picture of my life; I was at my most unhealthy physically and mentally, depressed as f*ck, working at a hotel Starbucks, only taking pictures when it was paid, dating a fellow drunk, hating myself everyday, skin broken out H to T in Psoriasis, and overall I was just a miserable person. A few months after I quit drinking and was newly single I decided to take sexy self portraits. I wanted to celebrate my body and how far I’d come so the way I knew how to do that was to document the occasion with my camera. I’d never taken any sort of boudoir type photos of myself, I wasn’t even sure how to or what that meant, but I stripped down to undies and a tank top and shot some photos of myself on my bed in the afternoon sunlight. To me the photos aren’t anything to write home about, but the confidence they gave me was. Before I knew it the intoxicating effect of self love took over and I started on a life-long journey to bring that same feeling of confidence and self-acceptance to other people.

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

Since I started taking portraits of unwilling subjects in childhood, aka my camera shy friends, I’ve always known there was more to it than them just not wanting to sit for a photo, there was something about them they didn’t like and the photo would show it. For some it was their teeth or smile, so I said don’t smile then. For others it was just their whole face, so I said put on a mask. The thing I didn’t know then was that by hiding those things we don’t like about ourselves it only drives the hate harder. When I posted my first ever sexy shoot online I was absolutely terrified of what people would think about me, and my body. It turns out that the only people who ever say anything to your face or in the comments usually are telling you the truth, and that truth was I am beautiful, strong, loved, confident, talented, kind, and so much more. Those things we see in the mirror that make us turn away from the camera are not the things that define us, nor do they make up our worth. The mirror lies to you, okay! For one, no one else sees us like that, literally, the image is flipped horizontally, making our perception of our bodies and faces incorrect. It’s like when you open the camera on your phone only to have it on selfie mode and the first thing you see is your double chin an inside your nostrils. It’s hard to have a good relationship with your image when that’s how you see yourself all the time. So I guess you could say my ultimate goal is to reorient the relationships we have with ourselves and our bodies through portrait photography.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I’ve gotten a lot of flack for being an artsy photographer, mostly by the old heads of the craft, you know the ones, dedicated to a brand for life, always has a softbox at the ready, retouches every image, blown out, missed focus… I’ve also gotten a lot of unasked for criticism (kinda like that) by the non-creative types too. I’ve been told I charge too much or my photos weren’t worth the price, I’ve been ghosted after giving people rates, or get emails that just say “do u do senoirs” the list goes on. My mom always told me that if people were talking shit (she said teasing) that just meant they were jealous, I’m not sure if it’s true for every situation but I have found that I don’t feel threatened by the people who do that, or by the work of the criticising photographers.

My journey as a creative has been to play by my own rules. Sure, there are actual rules when it comes to art and I’ve studied them over the years (still do!) and I obey and respect them, for the most part. That’s the thing I love about rules, breaking them. I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to *do art*, it’s subjective after all. The outcome will vary from person to person, some having an easier go at it than others, but that still doesn’t make the way they got there or their work bad or wrong. Anyone can take a bad photo. Anyone can also take a great photo. It just takes time, passion, practice, dedication, an eye for aesthetics and composition, a camera and a lot of patience.

There’s a misconception that photographers Just Press A Button and that misconception makes me want to vomit. I’ve heard that we just slap a filter on our photos and then charge you the equivalent to your month’s rent, it’s not true though. There is so much more to it than what you see from an outside perspective; the time and energy and money it takes to study and become good at something, the natural skills artists possess that make us artists, and the unique perspective that each photographer has as an individual- all play into the work we produce, the work that people hire and pay us to make. I would like to help enlighten people into seeing photography as the artform that it is and not as something you can just do with your phone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bridgetshaw.photography/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetshawphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bcsphotos
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClJ77tvUwsxRhiageomS_fw