We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Olivia Strgacich a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Olivia , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?
I find that a lot of the support from friends and family comes naturally. There are sometimes isolated moments where I feel my work, my photography, or my vision for my account (or maybe a specific shoot), was not met and I will reach out to them more in those moments to validate any concerns or bounce ideas and concepts off of but more often than not they are vocal about their interest in my work regardless of me initiating the conversation. I think I can however at times draw a line when I start to place too much value in other opinions, whether it is friends or family or what I think friends or family will think of how exactly my work may be perceived. I can understand that I need to be comfortable with my choices and my creative direction before seeking certain advice or I may become insecure.
Olivia , 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 first received my Canon Rebel SL3 during the 2020 pandemic when I took an online course in intro to photography for one of my college classes. My dad bought me a used camera that I knew nothing about, and struggled to learn through pre-recorded zoom classes. With time I found that despite knowing little of how my camera worked, if I pushed enough buttons and changed enough meters I could figure out how to take a decent photo. I think I am most proud of my ability to execute my own creative visions in a way that I am pleased with. I almost never walk away from a project feeling as though I didn’t fulfill the goal I had set for myself and I always manage to do it resourcefully. I have an incredibly old lighting set up gifted to me by my dad that he bought for himself in the 90’s as well as limited backgrounds, props, and spaces to even shoot these photos in. I work with what I have and try and grow my collection little by little, however I never let it hinder my ability to create something just because I don’t have all the tools. I find that there is always a way to succeed with this, you just have to be innovative and confident. I think if there is to be anything taken from my work it is that you can make things look incredible with very little, it is more your attitude in executing the vision that helps you succeed, not so much the gadgets you have.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I had been in a film program where not only did the faculty that we all depending on for our education consistency let us down, but also neglected to encourage creative risks. I found myself advocating for a better quality education, better treatment for myself and my classmates, and more consistency in the curriculum, but was met with harassment and retaliation by my professors against my grade and my mental health. It stunted my learning journey in photography until I decide to grab the reins again and get myself out of this situation. I changed my major and never looked back. I took my camera, and what little I had learned from them and decided there was no better time than now to teach myself. I taught myself lighting, editing, composition, set deign, and most important of all- patience. I started coming up with more and more ideas for photos that I knew I could execute without having a team of people behind me telling me what I was doing wrong. It was and has been fulfilling to see the growth in myself.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn was to stop making choices with the worry of how other people will perceive it. I needed to understand that my work was MY work and I wasn’t making it for anyone but myself and sharing it was others is just a part of my work. Learning this was something that happened recently when I had started to become more open with my body and using it in my photography to help tell a story. I would get so nervous of judgement or the opinions of others when one day, before posting a set of photos, I realized this is one of the best photoshoots I had ever done and regardless of what other may have to think about it it only mattered that I was proud. My vision was put into real form in my photogrpahy and that in itself was an accomplishment I needed to understand before worrying about others.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://oliviastrgacich.wixsite.com/oliviaphotography
- Instagram: @livmstrg
