We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kristin St Sure . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kristin below.
Kristin , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
From the very beginning of my photography journey, I wanted my brand to represent real people. To show those people how beautiful they were in my eyes. To love and accept themselves as they were, not a conception of what society said they needed to be. To capture real moments and memories. I was very adamant in my contract about what I would and would not edit. Because what I classify as “body alterations” violates my personal code of ethics. As someone who has struggled with self-worth, self-esteem, and self-love much of my life, I refuse to do anything that would make people feel there was something physical about them that needed to be altered. I wanted every experience to leave them feeling beautiful, empowered to keep being the uniquely amazing people that they were. It was my own healing journey and discovering the peace and freedom it brought me. Not just mentally but physically. That inspired me to start advocating for people to love themselves. I knew I had a story people could benefit from. Being vulnerable is not easy; sharing our pain is not easy. But my main goal throughout my entire life has always been to help people. I’ve always said if my pain could help one person, then it’s worth sharing. We all live busy lives. Because of this, we often find ourselves stressed or overwhelmed. Sometimes we use staying busy as a way of coping. But if we don’t take the time to care for ourselves, we will burn out. I learned this the hard way. By age 17, I was working three full-time jobs. For years, I struggled with crippling anxiety and panic attacks. At 23, I became extremely ill, but the doctors could find no cause. By age 31, I’d been diagnosed with over 20 disorders, conditions, or issues. Every doctor told me the same thing other than manage symptoms: there was nothing that I could do. I simply had to deal with it. I sat with it for a while, then decided that this answer wasn’t something I was okay with. This led me to my own research, looking for ways to help support and heal my own body. Throughout the course of my life, I was never one to talk much about what I’d dealt with. Reflecting back, I realized that even though I thought I’d put things behind me, I never fully processed them. I never faced or felt the emotions that my trauma caused. Instead, I buried it, deeply internalizing all of it. It was destroying me from the inside out, in ways I never could have imagined. My biggest goal is to help people learn that they are not their traumas; we cannot change the past, but we can impact the future. We have no control over other people’s actions, only our reaction. Our value is not dependent on other people’s opinions. If we are strong enough to survive what has damaged us, then we are strong enough to learn to thrive, to heal, to take our power back. By learning to face our fears, we add real meaning to our lives, and not just years.
Kristin , 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?
My story for getting started is much the same for any artist; we have something we enjoy, we do it because we’re passionate about it. Our own lives and experiences shape the lens through which we view things. My photos, my memories were always my greatest treasure; to me, they were priceless. As a child, I was always taking photos of everything and everyone. Never imagining it would turn into something more until it did. Then panic sets in; you start scrambling, trying to figure out how to run a business. I’ve always heard it said, “Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life.” But I’m telling you, do what you love and you will work harder than you ever have in your life. You won’t give up when things get hard; you’ll do whatever it takes to make it work because you value it. My approach is greatly affected by the photos that have always had meaning to me. They are never the staged “picture-perfect” photos but the ones that make you feel something. The ones that make you remember that moment in time with joy. One of the most meaningful photos I have is one a friend took; most people would say looking at it, that it’s not really a good photo, but to me, it’s priceless. Why? Because it was the last photo I had taken with my father before he passed away. While the majority of what I photograph is weddings, what I’m most passionate about is creating relationships with my couples and families. Working on creative projects and doing sessions that help others feel beautiful and empowered. My goal is never to be there for just one day but to see their family grow and change. To see them grow and change. Creating experiences they can look back on. Capturing true moments that become memories. Photos only become more valuable to us no matter how much time passes. I, like anyone, struggled with imposter syndrome. But this came from comparing myself to others. I realized I’m not like everyone else and instead of trying to be, I need to embrace what makes me different. I might not be the most creative, but I don’t need to be. I have an eye for the moments that matter. I know how to easily capture authentic interactions. It’s about attracting the people that resonate with you. We are all different for a reason. I care about my couples, about their day, their family. I interact with people as if they are my own friends and family. In a way they are; everyone I have the honor of serving has their own corner in my heart that they never leave. If I were to say that I were proud of myself, it would be because regardless of what life has thrown at me, I refused to give up. I learned to love myself as I am and embrace my own strengths instead of trying to fit into industry perceptions. I’ve always said if I could impart any gift to anyone, it would be for them to see themselves, even if just for 5 minutes, through the eyes of someone that loves them. Then they would never again question their own worth. My goal isn’t just to do my job but to leave an impact. To help others to know they are enough just as they are.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
We don’t have to be perfect. I know saying this might sound like a no-brainer. No one’s capable of being perfect, right? Yet we continue to place unrealistic expectations on ourselves. Then berate ourselves when we fall short of them.
I strived for perfection from the time I was a child, as if this was what gave me value, what gave me worth. When I realized, at almost 20, that this was a standard I couldn’t live up to, my life fell apart. It required restructuring my life from the bottom up, to evaluate the way I looked at everything. To embrace the fact that I am perfectly imperfect, and that’s okay!
Have you ever had to pivot?
My life has been a series of death and rebirth, a cycle of endings and beginnings. It is this ongoing journey that has given me the passion for what I do, learning and growing every step of the way.
In 2016, I made the choice to walk away from my ‘career’ as a dental assistant. My father was terminally ill, and I needed to make more but work less. So, I left the office and worked part-time in a restaurant. Time was my most valuable asset, and I wanted to be able to give as much to him as I could.
In 2017, that time I had with him came to an end. While I knew I couldn’t be a server for the rest of my life, I had no regrets about the choices I made. In 2018 and 2019, I spent more time doing photography as it was something that had always brought me comfort. I found myself wondering if it was really something I could do, toying with the idea.
In 2020, I got asked to cover my first paid event. In the midst of COVID, I dove headfirst into growing my business. Since then, it has been ever-changing, ever-evolving, just as we all do.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stsurephotography.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/stsurephotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristin.stsure.5/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristin-st-sure-86b1b1230/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@stsurephotography My tiktok is mingled and linked in are the only things that focus on the self love and speaking, my Instagram and facebook are my focused on photography
Image Credits
StSure Photography