We recently connected with Fischer Wallace and have shared our conversation below.
Fischer, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I started my business in 2000 in Nashville TN
I started over in 2003 in Hawaii
I started over in 2008 in Ohio
I started over in 2010 in Seattle
I started over in 2020 in Montana
I started over in 2022 back in Ohio
My life/business has only been about risks and following my gut. Always believing that money was a renewable resource.
With every move I have had to supplement my freelance income with a steady job. In most every town I chose something in the non profit world that involved helping the community. In Seattle I worked as admin for “Soulumination” which is a group of photographers providing family portraits to children suffering life threatening diseases and to parents who have a terminal illness. Soulumination.org
I continued volunteering as a photographer with Soulumination but decided to work with the unhoused community in Seattle at AuroraCommons.org where we served that community by being space to offer connection, community and resources to people experiencing homelessness. I didn’t know it at the time, but this experience would be the foundation for my current job.
The pandemic was my reason to leave Seattle and move close to family in Montana. I was a caregiver/property manager for a couple in their 80s. The gentleman had late stage Parkinson’s disease.
Again, I couldn’t have known, but that experience was building the background for my current job.
From 2010-2020 while I was working in these roles, i was also working as a freelance photographer. While living in Montana, I would drive (getting covid tested 2 times [crossing state lines]) back and forth to Seattle to continue my work with Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (now Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center) and University of Washington Medical Center. Photographing providers in their work environments. I took great honor in that role. I was hired to ease the new patient by providing a welcoming, friendly portrait of cancer doctors, researchers, nurses et al.
Happily I am still working as a contractor for UWMC currently.
The greatest risk was moving to my current city, Athens Ohio.
March of 2022 I moved ‘home’ to be close to my dying father.
July of 2022, a friend sent me a job posting for a non profit: Athens Photo Project.
I have been working there ever since.
Athens Photo Project teaches photography to people in recovery from mental health challenges. We teach photography as a way to build confidence, community, explore creativity and self expression. Currently I am teaching classes specifically focused on individuals in recovery from substance use disorders. My team and I have a little project inside of Athens Photo Project that is called Recovery Reframed (recoveryreframed.org) After teaching artists the skill of studio photography they were ready to give back to our community by making portraits of individuals in recovery. We travel to rural Appalachian town that have been devastated my the opiate crisis and photograph recovering individuals.
“A multi-county stigma reduction campaign creating awareness around recovery through portraiture and writing sessions. By sharing their stories, our participants become community advocates that challenge others to reframe their perception of those on the journey to recovery”
This has been what all my risk, all my travel, all my skills… have been leading me to.
Having the belief that every risk, every step, every odd job.. will build on the last is what propels me forward.
In the back ground of all this work, I am constantly working as a freelance photographer. Photography organizations like Legal Aid or the Athens Bar Association or our local bank.
I live in constant gratitude for what I have been given, for the people I have met and the places I have traveled.
My entire existence is a risk but my faith that I am being prepared for the next thing is why I take those risks.
Fischer, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
SwaePhotography.COM
I’ve been a professional photographer for 29 years. I’ve photographed for fortune 500 companies, non-profits, couples, families and everything in between. I love my job and what I have learned from the 3 decades of my career is that we all just want to be seen.
From west coast to east coast and all over the world I’ve had the honor of ‘seeing’ and photographing the most amazing humans (and animals) ever!
PS. I love plants. I live in a 450 sq ft tiny home with my furry soulmate, Ronin, and 85 plants.
I specialize in onsite portraiture. Whether your company is leading the world in cancer research, representing human rights or selling goods at your community farmers market; your clients want to see you.
I create a space of real connection so that your patient/client/customer immediately sees an approachable confident person looking back at them. I believe my talent lies in the ability to cultivate a connection and not simply ‘take a photo.’
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
helping my clients look approachable.
choosing the right expression for the emotion they want to portray
This takes a whole lot of conversation with my clients. Creating that space to quickly disarm my clients… make them feel comfortable in my presence even with a camera between us.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
volunteering as a photographer.
word of mouth
giving clients good work consistently
shooting for clients… NOT TO IMPRESS OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS
Contact Info:
- Website: https://swaephotography.com
- Instagram: _swae_
- Linkedin: fischer wallace
