We were lucky to catch up with Kaylee Reagan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Kaylee thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
My mission in photography is to capture moments that individuals and families will be able to relive for many years to come. Sounds a little simple and cliché I know, but for me it has a bit of a deeper meaning. My appreciation for photographs and the way in which they can preserve a memory started when my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. For seven years my mom and I watched as she lost all knowledge and memory of everything that made her who she was. The worst part, we came to find, was her last eight days alive as her brain no longer remembered how to eat or drink and the only thing we could do was watch by her side as her body slowly began to shut down. As hard as watching her go through this was, what helped us the most was being able to look back on the photos and videos we had of her before she got sick. To be comforted in hearing her laugh again and seeing a smile on her face. Seeing how much the pictures helped ease my family’s sorrow after she passed, made me want to use my photography as an outlet to do the same for other families.
Kaylee, 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?
My name is Kaylee Reagan and I am photographer based in St. Louis, Missouri. My interest in photography began in the 8th grade when I received a point and shoot camera as a gift from my stepdad. It started out as just a hobby where I would take pictures of friends and family or just anything that caught my eye. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I decided I wanted to make it my career. I first studied photography at St. Louis Community College Forest Park and then completed my Bachelors of Arts in Photography at Webster University in 2019. I feel one of the things in college that helped me grow both as an artist and as a person was my semester abroad. It was my first time being out of the states, I had just lost my grandmother two months prior to leaving, and I didn’t know a single person going into it. When I was first got there, I was feeling such a wide range of emotions, but it ended up being an amazing semester. I made new friends from different parts of the world, I tried food I had never even heard of, and I visited places I thought I’d only see in movies. My favorite part photography wise was the two-week course at the end of my semester that was held in Italy. The very first assignment our professor, Francesco Visconti, gave us still sticks with me to this day. It was our first full day in Pistoia and our assignment was to walk around for an hour and take photos as if we were going to tell a story of the town without using any words. Something about that was really beautiful to me and it forced me to pay closer attention to the pictures I was taking and what I was looking at while walking around. It also reminded me of being in a gallery setting where all you may have is the name of the individual pieces or series and the images tell the viewer a story through the artist’s eyes.
Since graduating college, I offer primarily digital portrait photography services. I take photos ranging from families to weddings and even to clothing brands. Out of all the shoots I do I think my favorite are the non-traditional, creative concept portraits. Some of my favorites would be an Andy Warhol pop art themed one, a Michael Jackson inspired birthday shoot, and sessions where I’ve created prompts that let my Instagram followers vote on different elements of the photoshoot. Along with that, over the past year I’ve started to create digital vision boards for majority of my sessions. I’ve been told this, along with my editing style, is one of the things that sets me apart from other photographers. Originally, I was only creating them for myself to help organize and breakdown all the details of a shoot, but I’ve found that clients and models really appreciate them too. I include the overall look/theme, possible pose references, location and time and anything else relevant to that specific shoot. It has become such an essential part of my photoshoots because it has improved communication and helps clarify any confusion on what the goal for that session is.
Looking back through my journey in photography, what I’m most proud of is both my passion for the craft itself and my desire to constantly learn and grow from each shoot that I do. As with any business starting out, there’s been many times where I’ve questioned if I made the right choice or if I can really even make it in my field. There are also times when I see the work others are creating and that imposter syndrome kicks in and I start second guessing my own skills and what I can do. It’s during those times where I’ve had to remind myself that I love what I do so very much and that I’ve come entirely too far to give up now. For a while I’ve had this mindset that my work is good but not great, and I don’t mean that in the sense that I’m never satisfied, but more so as a reminder that I still have so much room to grow and get better. I enjoy learning new things and watching how my work has changed so much over time. If there’s something I don’t know how to do, I will research it and practice until I figure it out. In order to help me understand how to pose people and what it’s like to be in front of the camera, I’ve been pushing myself to doing more self-portrait series. Doing them has also allowed me the freedom to play around with editing and try out new techniques in Photoshop I wouldn’t normally do. Even when I’m editing pictures from a client session, I take note of how I shot certain images so I can know how I could do better, what did/didn’t work, what I should try next time, etc.
For all of my clients, whether new or returning, I try to create a safe space where they can be themselves and feel comfortable without any judgement while taking pictures. I will always do my best to make sure we get the most out of our sessions and that whatever vision you have is brought to life.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding parts of being an artist is seeing a vision in your head fully come to life and seeing the joy on someone’s face when they receive their images. I enjoy the whole process of planning out all of the details with a vision board, capturing the moments once on set, and finally sitting down and watching it all come together in the editing process. It can be really fulfilling when you’ve spent so much time planning a creative project and then it ends up looking exactly how you wanted it to or even better sometimes. Especially when you send the final images to a model or client and they get so excited when they see the images. Sometimes it’s the little things that can make you smile the most. Like when I see people use the photos for profile pictures for a long time or when they send me a picture of where they’ve hung up a print in their house. I also appreciate the way photography has introduced me to other creatives around the city. There are so many incredible artists within St. Louis and I love being able to meet and interact with them at art events or even connecting over a project they’ve shared. This year alone, I’ve been able to collaborate with ten different creatives who I didn’t even know around this time last year. I’m especially grateful to have been able to work with artists whose work I admire and look up to when it comes to the type of images I want to create.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
As I’ve mentioned before, watching my grandmother go through the process of Alzheimer’s has been a major influence in my life. It has motivated me to keep a promise to myself that I will make the most out of life and experience as much of it as I possibly can. I can genuinely say that my five months abroad was truly the happiest time in my life. Even now, some of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken are from that time away. Unfortunately, COVID put traveling on hold for quite a while, especially abroad, but I’ve been slowly getting back to it by going to places within the states. I’m hoping that within the next few years, I will have enough saved up so that I can take a long trip overseas again and get back in that element of travel photography. There are still so many places on my bucket list and I can’t wait to start checking more of them off again.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kreaganphotos.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/kreaganphotos
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/kreaganphotos
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kreaganphotos/
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/kreaganphotos/ https://www.behance.net/kreaganphotos
Image Credits
Kaylee Reagan Photography