Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mistina Hanscom. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Mistina, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

My very first job as a high schooler was working for a local photographer “retouching” by hand his Black and White prints of families and children. Spotting was what it was called then, and was done by hand painting directly on the prints to remove spots and blemishes. That taught me patients.

After Art School, I went straight into assisting in the Photographic Industry. Gathering as many hands-on experiences as possible, while I was still fresh, excited, and could live on very sleep. Almost all of the established Artists I was working for were still shooting film, So I had a unique position coming in as a young talented creative, knowing the analog skills and pairing them with the digital age exposure that was still very new and intimating to the more season Photoghers who had been working for so many years with film.

I have always worked and made a living in the creative freelance industry, juggling jobs and project schedules. It is not for everyone, sometimes you have to live on very little. The best skill that I had to navigate those times was my ability to pivot and adapt. From being a Photo assistant to Digital tech to stylist assistant to catering a large job. I said yes to almost everything this big commercial industry had to offer.

Mistina, 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 gravitated to photography in high school. I found beauty in the quiet time I was able to have with this art. Out exploring or in the darkroom processing, it was my time to meditate and reflect, even though, at the moment I would not have known to call it by those terms, I can see it now looking back. That process has carried through to my professional life. I take my time with my work, I thrive best with I leave adequate time to prepare, extra time to get to know my client’s needs, and additional time to contemplate post-production. I am not a mass producer, each project has its own life.
My partner and husband, Luke is a consistent thread in my work. He too is a photographer. We work closely to create beautiful lighting designs, set designs, and of course the magic of retouching. Our lives and our art have molded nicely into one.
As a creative, I crave high-level productions, and the talk of Workflow and vision boards is riveting to me, we have formed a nice group of individuals within our studio village, who also strive to produce great work consistently. With a team like this, we take on photographic, video, and full-scope projects for local and national brands, and this is what I am most proud of, my community of creatives.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I could talk for days on this subject, but to focus more specifically…

I feel like Art schools and Business schools should merge. There needs to be more training for creatives on how to operate themselves and their talents as a business instead of the preconceive flakiness that we are currently labeled with.
It took me far too long to figure out how to set up my taxes and business needs to benefit me as a freelancer. Had college prepared me for that, I would have hit the ground running a little smoother.

Can artists of similar fields unionize? Does one already exist?

The expectation that we as artists and small business owners can do it all on our own is unrealistic. We need to have a team of support, representatives to sell, accountants, and grant writers, and those cost money, therefore our base price goes up to accommodate. Finding the balance is a challenge, its doable but not cheaply.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

We are inundated with visuals daily, a thousand times a day maybe. I want more high-quality work to be seen through the clutter of this noise. More images that make you stop and take into consideration the hours or the days that it took to make that one image. My goal is to only put good work out there, my mission is to work with organizations and brands that value artistic time, energy, and the pursuit of a cohesive storyline of visual creative elements. Like most photographers and artists I know, I want to work. I want to work in a way that creates a successful product that all involved are proud of.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lottastudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lottastudio/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lottastudionhv
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/lottastudio
• Youtube: https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCg3fvhZ8a2UbMWWFjrO3XNw/videos/upload?filter=%5B%5D&sort=%7B%22columnType%22%3A%22date%22%2C%22sortOrder%22%3A%22DESCENDING%22%7D

Image Credits
All images by Mistina Hanscom of Lotta Studio