We were lucky to catch up with DaWonn Andrews recently and have shared our conversation below.
DaWonn, appreciate you joining us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?
Myself and my 5 other siblings were raised by our beautiful mother who was a single parent. While being a single parent my mother battled with seizures and had the worse case of seizures that a person could ever have but that never stopped her, she was a super mother and she was determined. Although we knew our mother was stressed she was so strong that she never showed it and we never saw her bend or break, she was the strongest person we knew. At the age of 10 I began to take on responsibilities such as taking care of my sick mother, helping with my siblings, etc. My mother still being super mother even with her illness but as the eldest of six I had to step in and help because I knew my mom was really sick and I knew her body was tearing down but she still was determined to still take care of everything by herself. A few years later my youngest brother was hit by a texting driver and became paralyzed and was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and that resulted in him having a feeding tube, wearing diapers and picking him up to transport him to the bed, car or his wheelchair. My mom began to teach my sister and I that’s right under me in age on how to take care of my brother because we wanted to help because we knew that our mother was extremely sick and couldn’t do it all on her own although she did everything but we still stepped in. My mother only wanted us to be focused on school and finish school, we always knew our mother was strong but at the young ages we were we still wanted to take so much stress off our mother and she taught us everything we need to know about taking care of her, our other siblings and about life. It has always been just us and growing up we were less fortunate than others but we made the best out of it, I could remember we use to remodel our own home, we would be outside cutting trees down and putting mulch down in the yard, working on our own cars, etc. We was determined to make the best out of our situations and we did. In 2018 my beautiful mother passed away and it was the worst day of my life knowing that our mother wasn’t coming back, but we knew she wasn’t suffering anymore and we knew that regardless of her not being here we would be able to continue to get through life because we were raised to take on real life situations at a young age and know the importance of being strong and determined and pushing through any obstacles life bring. My mom was working, dealing with her illness, taking care of us and going to school all at once.I use everything that I was taught in my every day life and in my career as photography and that is no matter what the circumstances are and no matter how things may look continue to be determined and tackle those situations to achieve what you want to achieve.
DaWonn, 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?
I am DaWonn Andrews I am 26 years of age, and I was born in Beaumont, TX, but I moved to Houston when I was ten years old. I am the oldest of six, and I am currently a full-time college student at Houston Community College studying chemical engineering and I am doing photography full time. I have always had a passion for photography, I was always the person that everybody wanted their pictures taken by. I was already creative so I would make them do different poses and position them by different objects to create an amazing image with lots of creativity. I consider my photography as one of my clients would say ” a ministry photography” I love singing and at one of my photoshoot I had a client that was dealing with just like in general and I knew something was wrong because I could tell her in face that she was dealing with some things in life, I began to hold her hand and just start singing this particular song and when I tell you her face lit up and tears began to roll down her face and even people that she had at the shoot began to shed tears and began to talk to me and thank me. That was the beginning of me bringing the singing side to my photography.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
Yes photography turned into my full time career, at first it was just something that I loved to do and was a side hustle but I love it so much and I want to grow in it that I started it full time. I have always had a passion for photography, I was always the person that everybody wanted their pictures taken by. I was already creative so I would make them do different poses and position them by different objects to create an amazing image with lots of creativity. I began to do free shoots for different people that I knew because I knew I didn’t have clientele at the time and I needed more practice so I didn’t charge for any shoots. Once I started gaining more knowledge of photography and started seeing progress in my photos and even other people would comment on the photos and tell me how amazing the photos look then I took my first paid client.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I believe me being genuine, honest and a great photographer is what is keeping me booked and busy and bringing different clients from all over. I don’t only do this for the money, I love what I do. Im passionate about photography and I can see myself doing this forever and making a living off photography.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: DaWonnJphotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaWonnJphotography