We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chisum & Melissa Pierce a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chisum & Melissa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The works that we both do is related to sustainability, social justice/fare wages, and helping others through our artistic practices. We have been able to use our art and projects to illuminate problems in the fashion industry and give people an alternative to fast fashion and companies that rely on forced unethical practices. Through high end photography and videography Chisum has been able to work with multiple nonprofits and created relationships that have been helpful in propelling our ideas and the brand. Melissa’s independent clothing line allows people to feel beautiful while knowing their clothing was created in an ethical artistic zero waste manner from plants. Melissa also is a co-founder of The Central Texas Fashion Coalition, and Melissa and Chisum co-produce events for this nonprofit, as well as, fashion shows for Soul Studio her clothing line. Melissa and Chisum also co-own Texas Film Studio located north of Austin in Taylor Texas. Texas Film Studio is a soundstage that they manage and rent to productions ranging from small indy films to large Hollywood TV shows and ads such as Walker Texas Ranger, Bordon Milk, Transformers 4, Lucasfilm (Star Wars video games) and more. Melissa and Chisum also use the studio for their own art projects, events, and the ad work that they create together for Soul Studio.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Chisum Pierce, co-owner Texas Film Studio with his wife Melissa, is a Texas native and commercial photographer/videographer who captures vibrant photos of his subjects. He has a Masters of Fine Art Degree and studied at Parsons New School In Paris, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Colorado, Boulder and Texas Tech University. Chisum has taught photography at the collegiate level at Texas Tech University and The Art Institute of Austin, and worked with commercial clients such as: The New York Times, Forbes Magazine, J Walter Thompson, Diageo, Braxley Bands, Navy Haircare, Soul Studio, Disco Skincare, Mad Hippie Skincare, and William Grant and Sons to name a few. Chisum is part of the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts’ permanent collection in Kiyosato, Japan and was named one of the top photographers in the world under 35years old for his artistic work. He is using his unique skill set to develop Texas Film Studio’s educational and art programming. Chisum was born in Austin, Texas where he lives with his wife to this day, but is still involved in his hometown of Taylor, Texas where he donated land for Pierce Park, a Tony Hawk skatepark.

http://www.getchisumed.com/hire-1

http://www.getchisumed.com

https://www.txfilmstudio.com

Chisum has been making art since he was a child with his mother who is an artist and art teacher. She was awarded Texas Art Teacher of the year on several occasions. He also was the assistant of LeAnn Mueller a famous rock and roll photographer who passed away recently. He has been interested in art and the study of art his whole life.

~

Melissa Hargus Pierce is a creative entrepreneur and sustainable fashion advocate born and raised in Austin, Tx. She co-founded a slow fashion label and natural dye house in 2016 which has been nominated for Best Women’s Fashion locally and featured in publications like the Sustainable Fashion Forum, InStyle, and The Cut. In addition to her work as a designer and entrepreneur she co-founded a grassroots organization in 2023 called Central Texas Fashion Coalition-her group works to create opportunities for slow fashion professionals in the central Texas area and fosters community building connections in addition to educating the local community about sustainable initiatives.

Link to Soul Studio: www.wearesoulstudio.com / Links to CTFC: www.centraltexasfashioncoalition.com

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

We both think that one of the greatest things that we wished we’d explored sooner would be mentorship. After all the school and all the classes, workshops, and other pay to play “learning” that we have done in our careers, we both think that having mentorship and/or being an assistant are the things we wish we had focused on more earlier in our careers.

Chisum for instance has the terminal degree in his field of Master of Fine Art in Photography, Sculpture and Art Theory, but all of his technical ability as a photographer and videographer he credits to his time assisting LeAnn Mueller and another photographer in Atlanta named Chris Savas. He learned so much in school about “how to think” about art, but the practical parts of being a professional photographer how to run a shoot and how to run a business he believes he learned almost everything he knows by shadowing his mentors.

Melissa also believes community building is key to any successful creative/entrepreneurial journey. There’s been so many instances where when I first started I didn’t know the best route and a helping hand would have been everything. This is why she created Central Texas Fashion Coalition-to empower the local community to come together and lift each other up.

Have you ever had to pivot?

With ever changing technology in the photography industry Chisum has had to change the gears on his business and artistic practice multiple times to stay relevant. When Chisum started photography he was still using film, and he viewed himself as a purest and only wanted to shoot still images. However, to gain traction in the advertising world and due to the asks of the big brands that he shoots for he has had to learn: videography, video editing, social media, website creation, and many more skills. He als0 was a professor at The Art Institute of Austin and at Texas Tech University, and when he decided to become a full time freelance advertising photographer he had to really get focused and hone in on the niche genre he wanted to work in which is Lifestyle Photography for brands. He realized when teaching that he would have to give up teaching if he ever wanted to be an advertising photographer because the schedule of teaching did not fit with this ultimate career goal unfortunately. He loved teaching and did gain a few great assistants of his own from that experience, but it was not worth losing the jobs that allowed him to follow his passion to stay at a low salary teaching position.

~

In 2023 at the end of the year with the ever changing landscape of sustainable fashion (and in honor of upholding our values) Soul Studio- Melissa’s fashion branded decided to venture into 2024 with a new business model. With a declining need for more clothing “new clothing” on a planet that already has enough clothes for 7 generations we decided to stop producing a Ready to Wear line and focus on aligned wholesale partners, custom work and one of a kind couture pieces. This way we were able to continue creating our artwork-while feeling good about slowing down.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.getchisumed.com, www.wearesoulstudio.com, www.txfilmstudio.com, www.centraltexasfashioncoalitition.com
• Instagram: @getchisumed @wearesoulstudio @texasfilmstudio.com, @centraltexasfashioncoalition
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chisum-pierce-9152b646/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-pierce-232343199/
• Other: https://vimeo.com/user10021787

Image Credits
All photos by Chisum Pierce Photography LLC and I give permission to use. All photos are property of Soul Studio and Chisum and Melissa Pierce