We were lucky to catch up with Melanie Russell recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Melanie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I believe something that takes to be successful is self determination, or at least from my own experience, not giving up when it feels like you want to especially when you keep getting rejection after rejection. Continuing to grind every day until you finally reach your goal, whatever that is. I think another factor into being successful is also your attitude and outlook on life, having a positive yet realistic outlook helps you, or at least myself, to know what I’m capable of and most of the time I end up surprising myself with my capabilities, I tend to underestimate myself often. Having a good attitude and just genuinely being yourself really helps in my industry, especially when it comes to networking and when working alongside artists, it makes them want to interact with you more which then can lead to other opportunities as well. One thing that has really helped me is putting myself out there and making myself uncomfortable, as an introvert in a very social industry its so easy for me to want to just stay inside of my own introvert bubble and not send the email, text, or message, or go somewhere bc of anxiety or fear, but one thing I’ve come to love the being uncomfortable because its made me grow as a person, as a photographer, and just as a creative in general. Being uncomfortable has led me to some incredible work opportunities, and even build relationships with some amazing people in the music industry that I would’ve never even thought could be possible.
Melanie, 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?
I am a music photographer and content creator. Music and art have always being such an important part of my life, it has helped me to express and understand my emotions because I’m not good at emotions, lol, so during COVID as most of us, I downloaded TikTok and I slowly found my community in the alt music side of it, I started with just making stupid videos with some of my favorite songs, then it led to collaborations with some bands, artists, and labels, from promoting music to creating album art, photography was always something I did as a hobby (one thing about me is that if it involves anything artistic, I love challenging myself in it, whatever it may be, I’ll try it until I’m good at it.) As my passion for music and art grew, I knew I wanted to get more involved in the music industry, so one day I felt ballsy and I sent a email to shoot an event, I got accepted and then everything happened so fast after that with some amazing opportunities. My passion to be able to capture someone else’s passion through photography and to be able to display that band/artist’s style, music, and ambiance is such an amazing feeling for me, I knew this was what I was meant to be doing. I think the thing I’m most proud of besides working for and along side some of my childhood heroes, is definitely how far I’ve come and grown in the industry so quickly and as a human being. I’ve learned so much from some incredible photographers and met some life-changing people, that I’m very grateful for.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Honestly, I think a lot of it has to do with my personality or at least that’s what I’ve been told. This industry is so heavy socially based and being a good hang helps so much when landing gigs because if you tour or even are spending extended amounts of time with bands/artists that hire you, sure, your work/portfolio absolutely matters but usually they also want someone they can be around and feel comfortable to be themselves with, especially as a female in the industry in a heavily male scene.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I know I’ve already stated this in a previous question, but nothing feels more rewarding to me then when I can capture the artist/band’s style, music, PASSION, and ambiance through a photo, capturing those little details and specials moments bring me so much joy, and you can almost always catch me with a dumbest grin on my face when I’m shooting someone doing what they absolutely love. It makes me love what I do.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.melanierussell.photography
- Instagram: itsmelanierussell
Image Credits
First Photo of Me, shot by Zander Koble edited by me, Melanie Russell rest of photos, shot and edited by me, Melanie Russell