We recently connected with Jordan Minder and have shared our conversation below.

Jordan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents gave me and my siblings total freedom to explore different hobbies, passions, and potential career paths. My mother quit nursing to pursue art full time and my father is a veterinarian. Both of them love what they do and have always encouraged me to do the same. I remember my dad telling me something like, “I don’t care if you want to be a musician, doctor, or whatever… Just do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I think the sentimental cliche was paramount in how I went about figuring out what I wanted to do in life. From day one of my photography journey they supported me and encouraged me. I was gifted with a Nikon D40 from them when I was 12 and my life trajectory made a turn. I had friends with parents who had these expectations of what schools they would go to, what career paths they would take, and I always reflected with gratitude on how my parents let me take the reins on where I wanted to go in my life.

Jordan, 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 Jordan Minder, a freelance photographer and overall unsystematic creative.

I began photography as a young teen for fun and never put the camera down. I fell in love with self-portraiture and took airy, whimsical photographs of myself on my family farm. I took photos for my high school yearbook class, community college newspaper, and finished my art degree at Illinois State University where I experimented heavily in different photography styles. I also helped run the darkroom and spent most of my time taking developing black and white 35mm photos.

My photographic style has ranged since I started, from sharper fine art concept pieces to more abstract, blurry captures. I’ve always liked to bend the rules and aim to create something unique. I’m inspired by fashion and general aesthetics, which I like to incorporate into my photos. I think my biggest consistency in my work has been my subject matter, which is predominantly people.

Now I specialize mostly in candid portraiture. I shoot from the heart and work intuitively. I am in the process of building a darkroom in my studio and have aspirations to practice creating film photos, specifically tintype portraits. I like to mimic the vintage look in my digital photography either through post-editing or by using vintage lenses.

I’m very passionate about body positivity and minimal post-editing. I love throwing boudoir parties to help boost people’s self-esteem and making a forever product for them to take home. Overall, my main mission is to help people feel beautiful and confident.

I’m still trying to find my groove and fine-tune my brand as I am entering the professional realm. I am just enjoying the journey for now, having fun creating cool photographs, and making people happy. As a working creative, as long as I keep making things I know I’m fulfilling my purpose, even if it’s not the best thing I’ve ever made.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I am still in the process of unlearning negative self talk. It gets in the way of a lot of my everyday life, but it hurts me most when I over criticize myself with my work. I have nothing else to hold me back in terms of building a career with photography, but I often ask myself the same self-defeating question of, “There are so many great photographers in the world, is there even room for me?” I’ve always battled with anxiety and depression, and although photography has been huge in helping me cope, I find myself still shooting myself in the foot when I let those thoughts take over my creative life. My mental health has often prevented me from going out in the world without fear to create, take certain gigs, and do what I do naturally. For now I try to replace those thoughts by shooting consistently and being gentle with myself. Instead of worrying about the competition or comparing myself to others, I try to remind myself that there is only one Jordan Minder, and that in itself is beautiful and rare.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The biggest goal I have within my work is to help others with the power of photography. Whether that be capturing a wedding, birth, family get-togethers, or just for fun creative work, I believe photos are so important. It’s a forever product. People will look at the photos and be able to go back to that moment whenever they want, which is super cool! Currently I am focusing more on boudoir portraiture, which I feel has extraordinary healing power. I started taking photos of myself as a young teen to help with my self-confidence and issues with body dysmorphia. I photographed my legs a lot when I had my first psoriasis outbreak. It helped me to cope and accept the way I looked. I channel those tools I learned for myself when photographing others when they have the same goal to boost their confidence. I see boudoir as a beautiful and fulfilling outlet, not only for myself, but for the people who trust me to photograph them in such a vulnerable state. Overall my drive is to inspire and uplift, and I’m grateful to be using my talents to capture others in a beautiful light.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @st.nothing
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordanminderphoto

Image Credits
All photos by Jordan Minder