We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gabriella Csapo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Gabriella, 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?

My photography journey started a little over a decade ago wile I was working as a model in the fashion industry. During that time, I acquired my bachelor’s degree in Design Technology, which granted me the skillset to autonomously pursue more creative endeavors. Over the past two years, I’ve worked as both a photographer and a consultant. My time in the industry has instilled in me the belief that photography really is magic, after witnessing first hand how powerful, enchanting, and even transformative it can be.

My two focuses are commercial & concert photography. Mainly I shoot products/photos for other companies including Canva, Adobe, Banana Boat, & more. I am a bit newer to the concert photography side of my work, but am currently on tour with band Mac Saturn! I’ve learned that if I keep up on the commercial work, I can fund what I enjoy doing some more fun stuff that can pay less.

When I’m not on the road or in the studio, you can find me streaming on Twitch and hosting live workshops on Daisie. I am new to Twitch this year but It has soon become one of my favorite social media platforms! I often stream me editing work for clients, self portraits & talking about photography related things in general. Daisie is a monthly subscription platform ($12/month) where artists teach artists. I’ve hosted workshops about social media, freelancing & have two upcoming workshops! The first being about concert photography & the second is focused on product photography.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

As I stated earlier, building a social media presence is going to be the main marketing output. Building a platform is tedious, time consuming and often times discouraging! With that aside, It’s necessary and not something we are moving away from any time soon. The most important part of social media is consistency. If you can get a decent post up regularly & build an audience of people who will engage with your account (& you engage back), the algorithms will start favor you. People often wonder how so many of these “talentless” people amass huge followings – it’s because they know how to play the game. Put yourself out there and keep doing it until something hits. There is still a huge opportunity on TikTok to grow a large following in a short amount of time if you’re consistent.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The freedom. People always say they want to be a freelancer so they can do what they love – to some degree I believe that to be true. However, I think what people really fall in love with is the control of their own time. There truly is no better sense of freedom knowing that I can wake up and decide what I’m going to do that day, a week from now, or even 3 months from now. I don’t have to request time off with the worry that I could lose my job for doing so. Of course, I am a bit further along in my career so it may sound like it was easy, but I really hustled for a few years to build my portfolio so when I was ready to “make the leap”, I knew I would be skillfully prepared.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gabriellastephaniec.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/gabriellastephaniec
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriella-csapo/
• Twitter: www.twitter/gabriellastephc
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/gabriellastephaniec
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabriellastephaniec Twitch: www.twitch.tv/gabriellastephaniec