We were lucky to catch up with Enrique Villasenor recently and have shared our conversation below.

Enrique Villasenor, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Last year around March I was working in the banking industry, I was in the fraud division so every interaction with the client needs to be pretty smooth because you are talking with people that has been robbed by someone, I was really good at it, I had a promotion waiting in another department and I also had a promotion to Strat doing training in the fraud department but I was feeling miserable, everyday it was really hard for me to go to the work, it was draining me, I was uninspired, sad, my relationships were falling apart, it was a very hard part of my life emotionally, at that moment I have been doing photo on the side, I kept working on photo building my portfolio as I was in my full-time job, then one day I couldn’t take it anymore, I decided to go full-time freelance, I spoke with my wife and she supported my decision, she was very understanding and she’s been very helpful, I did not knew if I would be able to generate enough money, to have enough clients and most important if my work was good enough for it but anyway I took the risk, I put my 2 week notice and started focusing on my craft, and by my surprise once I went full in in the freelance game I started gaining more clients, it showed me that when you commit yourself you can make it work.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born in Mexico and I lived there almost my entire life, I lived in Canada for a year, in Mexico I went to law school and earned a law degree, I did a Master in public administration, I worked as a Worker’s lawyer for a couple of years and I was very successful, I won some big trials and made enough money that I decide to open a donut and coffee shop, there I felt in love with the creative process, I would create donuts in different shapes with different decorations, it was very interesting and funny.

probably my first experience with photography was with my best friend, he always used to have this big cameras and small cameras (point and shoot) and him and his brother will take awesome pictures, I would go with them but to be honest I did not have much knowledge and in Mexico to get professional camera equipment is hard because of how expensive it is.

when I lived in Canada I bought a small camera, an Olympus one and I started taking pictures, all I will use was auto mode but I really enjoyed it, when I moved back to Mexico I will take it with me on the weekend to the club and capture my friends having fun but everything would be in auto, I didn’t even knew at the time that things like photoshop and Lightroom even existed.

Fast forward to 6 years ago I moved to the USA, my girlfriend at the moment was taking pictures of families and kids, and casual sessions for couples, she was very successful and made good money out of it, I always played sports and they were a big part of my life so I became interested in shooting sports, I was heavily involved in Crossfit at the time, so one week I asked my girlfriend to lend me her camera and I went to shoot my first Crossfit competition for free, that Christmas I bought my first camera and started taking it to the Crossfit gym and I will shoot a lot, then I started going to games and I would take the camera with me and shoot form the stands, or I would try to get closer to the floor and shoot form whenever I could, I started meeting people and creating relationships and that opened doors for me.

One of the moments that I’m really proud is when I went to my first Crossfit Games as a photographer, remember that bad in the days 2012-2016 I would look at the images of the Crossfit games and the website and I will think WOW THIS IS AMAZING, then at the end of the first day, I started looking at my images of the day and I realized that now I was the one doing those amazing images, I remembered when I used to admire it from afar and now I was there, it was me, somebody was looking a t my work the way I was looking to other photographers work several years back, it was full circle, I felt so fulfilled, so much joy.

Now I am on my second year as a full time freelance, I have big clients, I travel a lot to cover sporting events (specially Crossfit), I learned the basics of video and I can do sports graphics too.

I can say that my brand is about you could say drama, I love those dramatic images, to show those big moments, show the emotions, the raw moments, the people screaming, crying, I like to use dark colors, I feel that my brand is all about to make you feel.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I feel and think that the best thing that society can do to support artist is to pay them what they are worth, we live in a world that moves with images and still some people and brands want to make the creatives to bring princes down and to work for cheap, if you truly like any form of art support it, if you can’t afford to buy a piece there are different ways, you can share it on social media, you can show it to your friends and family, you can send a message to the artist/creator and let them know that you love and appreciate what you do, trust me those things have a big impact.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn that if I’m not winning then I’m losing, and that if you are doing the same thing as me in the same niche, we are enemies because if you win I lose.

Growing up in Mexico I had the mentality of I need to be first, I need to crush the competition, we can’t collaborate because we are enemies, because they are trying to take the business away from me, and that couldn’t be further form the truth.

when I moved to USA and I started creating I started receiving messages for other creators in the space and in my area telling me that my work was good and that hey enjoyed it, some even send me business when they were booked, then I learned that we all can win together, that if someone is doing the same as me we are not enemies, that we can be friends and that we can feed from each other, that together we can grow, now every time I can collaborate with another creative I get excited because I know good things are coming.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.enriquevphotography.com
• Instagram: @EnriqueVmedia
• Facebook: @EnriqueVmedia
• Twitter: @EnriqueVmedia

Image Credits
image of myself is from: Kara Everill. All others: Enrique Villasenor.