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

Alright, Charles thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I became a “professional” photographer by accident. I started a zine in 2019. I was shooting with a really old consumer DSLR. After almost a year I decided that I wanted to step things up a bit because I was really enjoying the process of taking photographs. I upgraded my DSLR to a prosumer model. After another 3 months I was offered a job covering events at a Detroit area motorcycle dealership. In hindsight, I was not ready, but the photos came out really well considering my lack of knowledge. I had zero idea what I was doing, it wasn’t until almost 2 years later that I would really become self aware and realize what I could do for clients.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Coming into this completely by accident, the one thing that I will say is that my passion for photography really keeps me moving along and striving to continually improve the quality of my work. I think that there are a few things about me that sets me apart from others in my field. I was raised in a blue color family. It was the type of family where the approach to art was that it was a great hobby, but not a real job. As a young man I drifted through jobs always trying to keep one foot as an artist. Whether it a visual arts or music I tried living in both worlds without much success or satisfaction in either. in 2021 after almost 17 years of working on the railroad as a locomotive mechanic, I was furloughed. I soon found another job in the rail industry repairing freight cars, and thankfully my boss at that job was a verbally abusive bully and I didn’t last 3 weeks. I was recruited by a bicycle manufacturing company in Detroit and photography was a part of that job. I was technically the customer service manager but that that came along with running their social media and creating content for that.
I was then recruited by a non profit called SAY Detroit to start a branch called Mi-Cycle and in the beginning photography wasn’t a part of that job. As well as being the Director of Mi-Cycle, I have wiggled my way into becoming the staff photographer of SAY Detroit and teaching photography at the SAY Play Center which is an after school program in the city of Detroit. I also do branding work for the social media person of SAY Detroit. I also photograph events and do freelance work. I also have a studio in Toledo Ohio where I concentrate on the more artistic side of photography, mostly doing creative portrature.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The entirety of the past 5 years has been nothing but pivoting. I am constantly learning new techniques. While money isn’t everything, the railroad was a good paying job and I have to do more with less. I am still bringing in 40 percent less income and prices are going up on everything.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Like I said previously, doing more with less, I have to watch every penny, but it’s worth it. I am really trying to expand my portrait work, but money is tight all over the place. If I wasn’t completely in love with everything about photography and working in the non profit world, I would have went back to the railroad when I was called back last year.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chucknagyphoto.lightfolio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chucknagyphoto/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chucknagyphotos

Image Credits

Chuck Nagy Photo