We were lucky to catch up with Lanell Swoope recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lanell, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
The biggest risk I’ve taken is moving to New York. I moved here in the beginning of 2021, with only a little bit of money and luckily the job I was working in Cleveland was able to transfer me. That was a good safety net but I wasn’t making enough money to afford living in New York. Basically living check to check, sometimes my account was in the negatives but I didn’t let any of that break me. I moved here with a purpose/motive and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me. My goal is to have photos in Vogue, Elle and up on billboards in NYC. It’s hard to do that, especially in a city where it’s really competitive. As time went by, I needed another side hustle to make money so I started doing deals on music videos and after that it was kind of a “domino effect”. More people started to reach out, but things started to get slow and I still needed an extra source of income to survive. I always wanted to work behind the scenes on film sets and fashion editorial shoots and I started to blast people with emails and messages via instagram that I was working on sets. Most of the time people wouldn’t respond but I got lucky and a couple of people responded. Just taking that risk of getting out 0f your comfort zone is really scary but it definitely builds character in a way that’s unexplainable.
Lanell, 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 name is Lanell Swoope, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. I’m a photographer/videographer based in Brooklyn, New York, moved here in 2021. I feel like I take photos of everything so it’s kind of hard to explain my style but mainly its fashion/lifestyle and street photography. My music videos are 90’s aesthetic vibe with tv static and glitches you would see on your tv when the signal is bad . I’ve been into photography since a young age, I use to get in trouble for using my grandma’s disposable cameras lol. Then once camera phones came out, the rest was history. I was the one people would come up to in school and they would ask me to take photos of them with their phone lol. I shoot film only when it comes to photos. I carry one with me everywhere, I feel weird if I leave the crib without a camera. I got into videos from skateboarding, I started skating when i was 16 and would film my homies. I’m most proud of shooting for Coach/Elle Japan and I also worked with a Photographer named Renell Medrano for the cover of Vogue Spain, I help out with set design for that shoot.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
In 2016 I use to promote my instagram through tinder. I know that sounds crazy but it worked. But building a social media presence is all about being consistent and knowing your audience.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I really enjoy watching interviews on youtube. Jay Z, Kanye and Tyler the creator drops so much knowledge when it comes to businesses and art. A good book to read too is ‘Serial Winner’ and ‘The Four Agreements’ 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wontonswoope.com/
- Instagram: @__swoope