We were lucky to catch up with Kaila Coleman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kaila, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

The first dollar I ever made was the first opening night I hosted after being represented in The Walnut Gallery. I hosted an intimate party where a couple of my friends fell in love with a piece I took in Japan.

I still have the cashed check tucked in with my undergraduate diploma!

Kaila, 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 black-and-white fine art photographer working around the world. I have been working in photography for over eight years. I offer prints as well as portfolio/portrait services and promotional services.

I got started in photography, begrudgingly, in high school actually. My high school required a certain number of art credits in order to graduate. I decided black-and-white film photography was going to be the least painful. I ended up falling in love with the art form and accelerated to an independent study and student taught my senior year. I discovered that I could capture my frustrations about societally taboo topics in my photos and comment on them.

After high school, I continued to publish photos in university art journals and contract promotional services for local theatres and actors. After I graduated from my undergraduate university I took a bold step and contacted a local gallery curator to see if my art was ready to be in a gallery. The Walnut Gallery represented me for over a year where I sold several pieces.

In addition, I was a featured artist at The Cultural Center for Cape Cod and other online galleries across the country. Every single opportunity I was able to be published or offer my art in a gallery I took.

It was important, in my early career, to create space for the emotions I felt absorbing my surroundings. I was and continue to be inspired by all sorts of other art forms, music, shows, people, architecture, etc. Photography offers a space where I can explore my interactions with the world and I hope it offers a space for others as well.

I believe that in a society where we market ourselves and our persons, I pride myself in allowing my clients and myself to shine as authentic to a range of emotions. I hope that those who find me on my socials or website are able to find inspiration in my art and authenticity in my clients.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I actually started by printing my own work and then found a really workable company that allowed me to expand my prints to sizes I was not able to print and on materials I did not have the equipment to do so. I wanted to stay local so I could see and visit the facilities to ensure the quality of my prints and discussed which vendors I should look into extensively with my curator.

I worked with several different companies and I will always say, if the company communicates with you as a person and an artist, who will work with you and your deadlines, they are a great company to work with. I had a few prints that fell apart really quickly and it was so embarrassing to sell my work at the prices I was that was not the quality I wanted to sell at.

I always look into value and cost and communicate directly with vendors before using them. That is the biggest lesson I learned.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

My advice to managing teams and maintaining high morale is to know your team. Knowing who your team is and how they each function not only within the team but as people, allows you to communicate and facilitate productivity so much better.

Building a team is more than having people to delegate tasks to, building a team is curating individual experiences that allow different people to come together to support a company as a whole.

I love fostering people as individuals professionally because I get to learn as much as I am teaching. There is nothing more encouraging than working with your team not overseeing them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://charliekphotos.com/
• Instagram: @kccharlette or @charliekphotos
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kailacoleman/

Image Credits
Charlie K