We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Faith Q. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Faith below.

Faith, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I personally believe that my journey to becoming a director started very late and that I’m still playing catch-up. I chose film sort of randomly in high school, because I liked making little skits and messing around with whatever cameras I could get my hands on. When I got to film school, however, they were pretty quick to formulate an opinion about me based on what kind of movies I’d watched growing up. But here’s the issue: I didn’t watch movies growing up, at least not what many consider to be classics. My parents didn’t consume media extensively, so most of my childhood was playing around with my siblings. I guess it created a sense of imposter syndrome, and I immediately felt that I was playing catch-up with people who’d been apparently studying film since birth. For a very long time following film school, I wished that I had gotten into it sooner. I would imagine what my life would look like now, with my work ethic; I fully believed that had I been watching “The Godfather” at two-years-old, I’d have an Oscar by now.

I think at some point, my brain had had enough of me being so anti-me, that it started replaying the memories of myself and my siblings playing around when we were kids, and how we would actually play pretend and I would be the one orchestrating these wild make believe stories (that were unfortunately never caught on camera). I was also remind about how much time I spend in my head, creating worlds and storylines that never end. And I was reminded that those little skits I shot were me following the blueprint of filmmaking on a very minute scale. I’d been doing this my whole life, just in a different way. I don’t know if that means I still should have an Oscar by now, but I do know that my journey happened the way it did because it needed to, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

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

I’m a filmmaker and a photographer; I got into the photography industry by establishing a network right out of school and building my portfolio, which got me hired for a variety of photography gigs, including set photography. Through that, I was able to network and bring my potential as a director to the forefront. I was hired to direct an episode of an upcoming television series, and I now offer the creative services of photography and film direction through my brand: faith’s lens photography.

Many clients have the foundation of what they might want to do, in terms of a written story or script, or a photoshoot idea, but they struggle to articulate it visually or bring it together as a project. That’s where my expertise comes in to play. My strength lies in not only delivering on the visual front, but ensuring that the client’s audience connected with their project on an emotional level. My goal with every project is to have the audience feeling like they watched their own emotions unfold on screen, or observed their emotions being articulated in a photograph.

I take the most pride in having been able to identify what I want to deliver to both my clients and my audience, as that has been a part of the creative struggle for me for such a long time and it’s quite freeing to know what it is I want to give people. Getting to this point is not something I take for granted and I believe my art is better because of it.

I am faith’s lens photography, and I shoot feelings.

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

There was a period of time wherein I was getting very little work and was growing increasingly frustrated from that. It felt the Universe has it out for me, because my car stopped working, my laptop shattered, and I was dangerously close to an eviction. It was a scary time, and I don’t really have a financial safety net as my parents aren’t that well-off. I had to have a serious conversation with myself about what it was that I wanted. I concluded that nothing in this world is for me if I can’t express myself the way that I need to. I decided to continue to create, even in the face of uncertainty. I kept shooting, kept editing, kept sending out my work. The very next month was one of the best and most profitable months of my life. I think the Universe wanted to see just how serious I was about this. And I think She was pleased with the answer.

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

Creativity is human nature, so I don’t think I can confidently call a person a “non-creative”. However, I do think that people who have chosen a non-creative profession will struggle to understand my stubbornness in choosing to do what I do at all costs. Many people have encouraged me to settle, and to take what I can get and be happy. I’ve been told that I’m being too picky about the jobs I’m willing to do to make a living and it was even suggested to me that I just work at a fast food joint.

I know myself. I know that I put 130% of my being into everything I do. I don’t think people in non-creative professions realize that creativity isn’t something one does, it is a state of being, and an extension of oneself. With that mindset, my priorities shifted from making a lot of money to making a great body of work. This is where it began to pay off.

I’ve focused in. And I don’t think they understand that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.faithslens.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsfaithslens?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faithslens
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faithq

Image Credits
1st Photo: Vanessa Lopez (@brendavlopez) the rest: faith Q (@itsfaithslens)