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

Jackie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project that I’ve worked on was with a group of local high school and college students entitled, Silent Screams. I’m also a filmmaker and under my production company, I worked with local students on previous projects before, so they were also aware of my photography.

After the massacre at Tops Markets in Buffalo, NY of 10 Black people at the hands of a white supremacist, and shortly after, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, one of the students with whom I’d previously worked with, expressed her fear, anger, and frustration at recent events. She’d told me that she wasn’t feeling safe to attend school and didn’t know how to cope with seeing folks who looked like her family being gunned down in a grocery store.

She wasn’t sure how to express all of this, but she knew that she wanted to do it through art and that she wanted it to be seen widely around.

Kate Robinson is currently a senior at Irondequoit High School and was the creative director behind Silent Screams. She had the idea of looking up statistics surrounding gun violence, reproductive rights, and racial inequality to put on poster boards and to have the girls’ mouths covered to reflect how her generation felt silenced speaking on these matters. My role in the project was the photographer and, therefore, creating the look of the project. Not only did it spread like wildfire across social media, but our local PBS affiliate, WXXI News, covered the story about the project and it was also shared with our senator, Samra Brouk.

But where it made the most impact, in my opinion, was when a superintendent reached out to Kate to inform her that because of her project, they were taking extra security measures to ensure student safety.

Art holds power and to be able to use my gifts to not only uplift students, but to bring attention to concerns to those in power and for it to move people to action means the world to me. I will never forget what we were able to do with this project.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a portrait, editorial, brand, and event photographer based in Rochester, NY with over 8 years of experience in providing affirming photoshoots for high school seniors, professionals and small business owners. My journey with photography correlates with both my paternal grandmother’s love for photography and my personal journey to self-love and body acceptance with positive self-talk exercises and self-portraits.

It’s a combination of two things that sparked my love of photography. One was my paternal grandmother who was a film photographer with her own darkroom. Whenever she’d visit us, she’d bring her camera and wanted to take photos of us–my sister and I–as kids. I’ll never forget visiting her one day and wanting to show me her photographs. I remember seeing them all hanging up on a clothesline in her basement. I’d never really thought of her influence on me until I started to think back to the times that we’d buy disposable cameras and take photos around the house. After my grandmother passed, whatever she’d originally sparked in me, started to grow especially after college when my self-esteem and self-worth were at their lowest. It was at this time that the second thing that sparked my love of photography came charging through. I wanted to stop believing that I was this disgusting thing that no one would love or want, so I started taking selfies. I’d take as many pictures that I could a day until I found one that I liked paired with daily affirmations in the mirror. When I started loving how I looked, I noticed the same patterns of negative self-image in the girls in my youth group at the time and that’s when I started taking portrait photography more seriously.

It was around this same time that my family wanted to do family portraits. I’d insisted that we give our money to a local photographer rather than a franchise. I found a photographer whose style I liked and who had my family and I laughing the entire time. A photographer who’d taken our family Christmas photos mentioned at the end of our session that she was offering mentoring classes. My cousin elbowed me and told me that I should sign up with her. After several 1-on-1 sessions with her, she told me that I “had an eye” and that I “should start a business”. I wasn’t even thinking about starting a photography business at that time, but I also saw the potential in it, especially with wanting to do more for the girls in my youth group to boost their confidence.

This prompted a small project entitled “Priceless Photoshoots” where I gifted teens that were part of my youth group at the time with mini sessions and a gift print so that they’d be reminded of how beautiful they are. It’s been the driving force and common thread behind my business since as I expanded the services that I offered to my community.

For all of my clients, stepping in front of the camera is a major milestone – it’s because they’re not confident in themselves and my sessions are a way to overcome that fear of being seen. For my senior and headshot sessions, I recognize that it’s a very courageous thing to do in putting yourself out there, so from the time they book and throughout the process, I’m giving them encouragement that they are worthy of getting photographed with positive affirmations, posing and wardrobe tips that flatter their specific bodies and personalities, and a cinematic style of editing that makes them the main character.

For my branding sessions, I acknowledge whether I’m working with a new or a seasoned business owner, the anxieties that come with being a business owner and navigating brand messaging along with all of the other things that we as entrepreneurs have to face day-to-day. It’s easier to build confidence in yourself and in the work that you do when you know that you’re not alone, so I treat each brand as if it were my own. I keep in constant communication with my clients getting to know the reasons for starting the brand, the needs in their community that they saw and felt weren’t being met, what makes their businesses unique, misconceptions out there already about their brand that they want to address, and what they want their brand images to look and feel like. From all of this, I’m building mood boards, shot lists, and providing suggestions for outfits and props to convey brand messages out of our conversations.

Building confidence for people with events comes in a different form. My aim at events is to always document moments that people aren’t always aware of. An audience member listening intently to a speaker on stage, guests hugging each other after not seeing each other in a long time, an award recipient getting emotional before giving their speech – these are things that say so much more about what it felt like to be in the room rather than a few posed photos of guests. Where encouraging people comes into play is how I show up to an event. Having one’s picture taken, especially when you’re unfamiliar with the person behind the camera, is very intimidating, so I do my best to bring people at ease. I’m giving compliments while taking people’s photos, engaging in small talk, and walking around the room greeting all with a smile.

What I want people to know about my brand is that photography should be encouraging, confidence-building, inspiring, and moving. I want seeing an image of yourself rock you to your core in how beautiful of a person you are. I want you to look at a photo and immediately feel the energy of what was happening in the frame. I want you to be moved to action upon seeing protest art. For me, photography is an extension of who I am at my core.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

It’s that my value is not based on how many likes I get on a post – that my worth as an artist is not in how much I can sell, but in who I am and how I make people feel. I’m constantly having to remind myself that as a creative entrepreneur, while I have to think like a business owner in selling services and products to people, that I need to be more concerned with how I’m using my talents to serve people.

It’s an ongoing lesson because I’m still struggling with this. It’s important that we market ourselves across multiple platforms, especially where we know our target audience is and it’s easy to try to produce as much content as we can so that we attract potential clients. However, I’ve had so many instances where I’m producing all of this content, but it doesn’t result in growing my following, getting the engagement that I want, and/or getting me paid clients. As a result, I’ll end up discouraged and burned out. What I’ve found instead is that when I put most of my energy into customer service – genuinely paying attention to pain points that they have, serving them in ways that solve their problems, sending them encouraging notes and holiday cards throughout the year and sharing upcoming events that speak to their interests that I found out throughout building a relationship with them – this is where I see the most results. They talk to friends about how I made them feel during a shoot, they’re sharing my posts on social media, they’re introducing me via email to a friend or colleague of theirs because they immediately thought of me after that individual expressed a need for a photographer.

People want to know that you genuinely care about them and this is constantly the lesson that I have to learn. It’s not about likes and follows – it’s about relationship building and going above and beyond for them.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Throughout the customer journey – from inquiry to delivering products, I’m actively listening to interests they share, potential photography needs in the future, and any other general details about who they are and what/who they care most about. As with any new individual that I meet – whether client or non-client, I’m constantly asking questions with genuine interest, so that after our portrait experience, I can keep those conversations going. To keep in touch with clients takes many forms – I ask if they’d like to join my newsletter, I talk to them about upcoming events that might interest them based on our past conversations, I send them birthday and holiday cards, I comment on social media posts, and if they own a business, I’ll share their business posts. When people know that you actually care about them, the more likely they are to want to continue that relationship and that also means sharing what you have to offer with their family, friends, and colleagues.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jackiephotographs.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jackiephotographyroc
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/jackiephotographyroc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiemcgriff
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/jphotographyroc
• Other: Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@jackiephotographyroc