We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Melissa Lane Isaksson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Melissa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the name of your company?

Every idea starts with a problem. Ours was simple: the photography community was starting to feel like a popularity contest and not everyone had a lunch table to sit at where they felt welcomed and comfortable. We became concerned by the lack of support, quality education and encouragement of each person’s unique creative journey. As artists ourselves, we know the indisputable link between great art and free and open self-expression. We couldn’t stand how many vibrant voices were being stifled because they didn’t feel like they had access to a safe space to explore themselves and inspire their creativity. When each of us started our journey with Photography there were SO MANY RULES. What to do and HOW to do it., and moreover what NOT to do. It wasn’t until we begain listening to our creative self rather than what we were expected to create, that we began to feel like we had a voice in this industry. We started Unraveled Academy to create an alternative. We came up with the concept of UNRAVELING all of the expectations and rules to find your creative self. And what we found was that we were not alone in these feelings of being bound by industry norms. By creating an inclusive and nurturing community, jam-packed with educational and inspirational experiences, we provide students and teachers the opportunity to sit side-by-side and learn from, support and inspire one another in their own unique way. There is no hierarchy, only good questions and equal passion. By providing edgy courses, networking opportunities, and constant, hands-on interaction, we’re able to provide a higher-quality, more vibrant opportunity for artists to become masters of their own unique, creative journeys… not a version of someone else’s.We believe education should be accessible to all. We offer a cost-friendly membership so no artist looking for high value courses and community support gets left behind.Most importantly, we believe in the power of the misfits, outliers and underdogs to create art that will change the world.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Unraveled Academy is a small mom and pop shop of online photography education. Our company is comprised of three passionate artists myself, Sarah Driscoll and Ace Fanning. We are all very different, and live in different parts of the US, but we have one common factor, and that is photography and the desire to help other artists find their unique voice.

We believe that quality photography education should be affordable and accessible to all. We also believe in the power of community. Artist supporting artists, community over competition.

This is why we have built a global community of online photography education with over 300 courses and editing videos in every genera imaginable. But because this industry can be lonely we host multiple in person workshops, retreats and shoot outs throughout the year. From west to east coat, as well as Australia we love to connect with our community members in person. Over the past five years we have become more than a community, we have become family.

We are so excited to be hosting our first ever CAMP UNRAVELED in Austin, Texas this year! Summer Camp is not just for kids anymore, and we couldn’t be more excited!

Have you ever had to pivot?

It goes without saying that COVID threw the world a curveball. We were so uncertain how this would affect out business. After all, photography services are a luxury and with everything going on we were afraid that we would loose our community members. But to our surprise, we not only sustained, we grew! We were a place for people to connect with others virtually! Being stuck at home provided people the opportunity to finally dig into their passion and shift their focus from all of the uncertainty.

Our annual Retreat is a huge event we host every heart. We had to cancel the event, and in turn we created an online retreat experience for photographers from the comfort of their home. We did everything in our power to bring the connection and intimacy of the in person event to this virtual experience and it was such a HUGE success, we have continued to develop one every year since!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The entire concept behind our company is based on unlearning all of the things your were taught. We believe being bound to so many photography rules and guidelines stifles creativity. We believe that you SHOULD in fact learn the photography rule so that you can break them with intent to create your own vision!

All of our courses are created by countless photographers from all over the world. There is no ONE WAY to do things. What works for one artist does not work for another. Learning from another artist can teach you not only what YOU want to do with your art/business, but equally importantly, it can teach you want you do not want to do with your art/business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theunraveledacademy.com
• Instagram: @unraveledacademy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unraveledacademy