We caught up with the brilliant and insightful McKayla Gonzalez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, McKayla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

After I graduated from college with my BFA in photography, I moved to a bigger city with more opportunities for artists. I had the mindset that I was going to hit the ground running and immediately become a fine art photographer. The thing they don’t prepare you for in school though is how hard that actually is. I wish I had more confidence in my work back then and more confidence to network and get myself out there. If I did I wouldn’t have dealt with some people taking advantage of my kindness which ultimately made me give up my passion for a few years. So I know it’s a bit of a a mixed response, but I wish I had started my career sooner, but with the passion and confidence that I have now at 30.

McKayla, 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 McKayla but my friends and family call me Mickie. I am a photographer and a part-time variety streamer on Twitch. I was born and raised in Kansas but now live in Utah. I have a wonderful husband who is a talented chef, and two cats name Frankie and Delilah. My husband is my biggest cheerleader, and without him I wouldn’t be where I am today. Growing up I was surrounded by creatives, those creatives being my parents. My dad is a tattoo artist and my mom, as much as she doesn’t want to admit, is a photographer. With having a father in the tattoo industry I met several artists and creatives growing up, but never had a desire to be a part of that world. I’m also pretty average when it comes to drawing and painting, but the people I met over the years are all incredibly talented and great to talk to about art. My mom more so did photography as a hobby, but I was always in awe, watching her take photos, and getting them printed to see how they turned out. My mom doesn’t like to talk about herself or how she feels very often, and I always thought the photos she took were so beautiful and powerful, they captured her personality and her feelings in ways I would never hear. Whenever I look at them I feel like I understand her a little better and get a bit closer to her. Especially because she moved across the country when I was 19, it helped to close the distance. She’s really the one who inspired me to pursue photography, I wanted to show her that I could make it more than a hobby and make her proud. I’m slowly making my way there, so one day I hope I can succeed.

So, I recently moved to a new state and am still getting my bearings, but for my photography services I do portraits primarily, but in my style. I really enjoy dark, moody portraits, it was the style I gravitated towards when I was in school, and kind of what I became known for with my classmates. I want people to feel something when they look at my work not just look at the portrait and go, “oh, that’s a nice photo.” I still work with film occasionally, and I still prefer that method and alternative processes but for now primarily work in the digital medium because it’s more easily accessible. My friend from my old retail job was the first person to really give me that opportunity post college, to pursue that style professionally, and now they are my forever model, friend, shoot, maybe even muse. My best work is produced when they are modeling for me.

As for the streaming, that is something I decided to pursue about a year ago. I was helping a friend of mine who streams with graphics, editing photos and videos and offering my services as a creative and one day told him that I had been thinking about doing it for a while but lacked confidence in my self. He encouraged me and told me that I had the personality for it and thought I’d be great at it, so I did a ton of research, acquired equipment and really polished it before going live for the first time. It was rocky in the beginning, my voice was flat. and it was apparent that I was nervous. The more I did it though, the more comfortable I got with it, and now here I am finally Affiliate and slowly building a community of great people who like to watch me play games and chat. Part of this experience has been healing for me because when I was younger I was told that I shouldn’t play games, that it was for boys, etc. Some of the fondest memories I have with my dad growing up is when I played games with him. So when my parents eventually separated, it was suddenly difficult for me to play. Now as an adult I can play whatever and whenever I want, and it’s been nice to say the least.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I graduated from college and moved to the city, the exact day I moved to be precise, my husband and I took a break from unloading vehicles for the day and figured it would be fine to leave stuff in my car since we were in a residential area. I did have the common sense to pull out my laptop and some camera equipment before going inside, but in less than twenty-four hours someone pulled into the parking lot, saw my Honda, broke into it, and proceeded to steal it. They didn’t care about anything inside and dumped it all, they only cared about the car. Little did they know they had thrown away my entire portfolio as an artist so far. I had years worth of negatives, darkroom equipment, paintings, etc. just gone. The plan was to try to go to grad school, but now I had nothing to work with, nothing to submit. It was one of the most defeating moments of my life, and it was entirely my fault because I should’ve just unloaded my car. I was young though, and tired from moving all day and didn’t know any better. I had to stop creating for a while because I had nothing not even a car and had to save up money to get a new one because insurance gave me a measly $500 for a new one. They also gave me $500 to replace the thousands of dollars of art supplies I lost because I didn’t “keep receipts.” So I worked in retail, and worked, and worked until I saved up for a car. Then started working for a school portrait company, and while it was not what I wanted to be doing as a photographer it didn’t teach me a lot about the commercial side of photography. I worked with a lot of talented photographers who were also in a similar boat, and they taught me a lot. I learned how to pose people better, to use lighting better, to pay attention to details better and I am incredibly grateful to them. To this day they are some of my best friends, and we constantly encourage each other to just go for it. Finally I was able to afford a new camera, and some new gear to start building up a portfolio again. It took about five years and about two years to get my portfolio up to a presentable state. I had a lot of bumps in the road, moments where people took advantage of my kindness for their own agenda and made me question my worth, a lot of moments where I felt like giving up, but here I am, a phoenix rising from the ashes ready to start anew.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

We as a society need to be better about protecting artists, from theft, from being treated poorly and so on. So many times I see artists that I follow that get their work stolen from vendors in other countries, or people who think no one will know if they trace someone’s work and change a small detail to make it their own. When I was in school I was required to take a course that taught me my rights as an artist and how to protect myself legally, but it’s not as accessible for artists who choose to not go to school. I think there should be better resources for artists so they are able to protect themselves. Also, I think there needs to be more empathy and kindness towards artists, for example if they are charging what they believe is their worth there shouldn’t be pushback or nastiness as a retaliation. If you don’t like the price just move on and find someone else. I’m even told by my fellow creatives that I undercharge for my work, so to be told that I overcharge for everything I do for my clients seems like a reach.

Contact Info:

• Website: mckaylagonzalezphotography.com
• Instagram: mickie_d_duh & mckaylagphoto
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mckayla-gonzalez-312a7b26a/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mickie_d_duh
• Other: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mickie_d_duh

Image Credits
Images all taken by myself, McKayla Gonzalez Model in the first 2 images are Hope Burke Model in the last 2 images are Eli Katzer