We were lucky to catch up with Haley Varacallo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Haley, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

The ‘rollercoaster’ that is freelance life, is truly one of the most challenging and most rewarding journeys. I definitely have had my lows and highs; some months I am flourishing and others it is more of a struggle, but working consistently on something that I A. believe in and am passionate about and B. have to in order to survive, is truly a daily testament to my work ethic, my drive, my vision.. It took years working as a photographer for Saks Fifth Avenue, while also working full time on my own business in the evenings and weekends, to gain the courage, clientele, connections, and skills and to jump ship into running my own business full time. It was and still is terrifying, but i feel much more fulfilled and balanced working hard for myself, than for someone else. I will say this though, there is no turning it off… any business owner, especially a creative one, knows there is no turning it off.. which can be exhausting. But luckily, I do love what I do. Staying busy with freelance creative work involves a lot of consistent hard work, showing up and pushing hard, doing excellent work and then being referred to others, being enjoyable and valuable to work with, having versatile skills where you can comfortably say yes to any job, building close connections with various people, brands, creatives and other business owners, community is everything. I am a firm believer of knowing how to do the job well, and also being a joy to have on set, everything else should fall into place! I am no guru with social media unfortunately, I am sure if I fully utilized the various platforms I could see even more success, but in a lot of ways, the OG methods of doing solid work and having and making a lasting impression also go a long way!

Haley, 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 a professional photographer, art director, set designer, wardrobe stylist and retoucher. I offer editorial, ecommerce, stylized product, portraiture and commercial skills and experience. I specialize in lighting and color and fully believe color and light are what make the world so beautiful. I work primarily within the LGBTQIA community, and I love and am proud of my fam and what we stand for. My goal for my work is to create imagery that excites and enthralls our eyes.. I always aim for superb lighting, crisp clarity, a painterly touch, and high quality retouching. I love creating work that make my eyes and mouth water. When you book with me you are booking with a visionary who has any eye for all things extravagant and extraordinary. I take pride in how I pour myself into my work, and I have happy returning clients, assuring me I have created a safe space within my studio and community for individuals and brands to feel seen and prioritized. I want every client to know they are in good hands, whether they already have a direction, or whether they want me to handle all aspects of creating this photoshoot come to life, whether they want a full elaborate hair, makeup and wardrobe extravaganza for an editorial or their new album cover, or if they need clean clear high end images of their product to increase their sales, I am confident I can style, light, photograph and retouch it!

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

I think something that I have finally just recently learned and grown to appreciate fully is that my friends and I, and you too, have the power to set the standard for pricing, for what our value is, for what brands have to pay us or anyone for our work.. for our respect and better treatment.. We need to stop underbidding ourselves, selling ourselves short in fear we will miss out etc.. we need to all raise our rates, our standards, our expectations. We all know that creatives play such an enormous role in all things in this world, from sales of products to ideas, consumerism, to the arts and cultures of the world themselves, a creative is responsible for creating that product, that item or image, that mood, that idea, that everlasting essence and study of what it was, is, to be human. We are important, crucial, invaluable assets, we need to start demanding to be treated as such.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I just desperately want to create and work on larger projects, larger sets with wilder ideas, wardrobes, my dream hair and makeup creations, bigger budgets for bigger sets, bigger ideas, so that my dreams and the dreams of the fellow creatives I have the privilege of working with can be seen come to life. I cannot wait to see what all we create in this lifetime.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.haleyvaracallo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haleyvaracallophotography/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haley-varacallo-b05193a6/

Image Credits
All images are mine.