We recently connected with Jordyn Smalling and have shared our conversation below.

Jordyn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

As an artist, I think finding the keys to personal success involves knowing and maintaining a connection with work that brings you joy. Within my own journey, and that of my peers, I’ve observed the vice of success and longevity for artists, to be burnout. Enticing mentalities of “work harder, do better” and “keep up with industry trends”, lend an artist to stray from creating from a place of intuitive joy. I believe staying on that hamster wheel will eventually lead to burnout and resentment of the work itself. For me, this job of wedding photography started as a hobby and creative passion– I absolutely love it, and therefore want to protect it. In the post-pandemic rush of weddings in 2022, I found myself overcommitted and overworked to the point of wanting to turn away from the job. I was climbing a ladder and had lost my sense of groundedness as an artist.
In effort to reset, this summer I took an 8-week sabbatical to create photographs and other pieces of art, simply from a place of joy. In doing this, I confronted decades long fears of financial security, and fear over how my industry peers would see me. This time spent nurturing my inner artist has restored something playful and childlike inside of me– a part of myself that I believe will bring a stronger, more intuitive eye to the wedding days I will document this fall.
Today, I know in order for me to achieve personal success and have sustainability as an artist, I need a consistent rhythm of nurturing myself through creating from an intuitive place, regardless of industry trends and norms.

Jordyn, 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?

I am a documentary wedding photographer based in Nashville, TN. I started photography as a hobby alongside my dance career, and then ended up studying film photography in a traditional dark-room format where I earned an undergraduate fine art degree. Today, I have the honor of documenting the first day of a marriage. Together, with my clients, I capture the essence and spirit of that day, and how they want to remember moments 20 years from now. My approach keeps future generations at the heart and soul of how I create imagery.

Have you ever had to pivot?

A few years into my career, I was only shooting digital photography. I had left my roots in film and was working with DSLR cameras only. I felt a sense of disconnectedness from the work, and decided to reintegrate film into my process. This has changed the trajectory of my work in a deep way that has brought me to more like-minded and soulful clients, as well as brings me immense challenge and joy within the process of shooting a wedding day.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Early on in my journey, I am so grateful for the seasoned photographers who let me assist them as a second photographer at weddings. I only wish I would have worked with more people– I believe this kind of experiental-based learning is so shaping.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jordynsmalling.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordynsmallingphoto/

Image Credits
Jordyn Smalling Photography