We caught up with the brilliant and insightful SARI FRIED-FIORI a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

SARI, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

As an artist and business owner, I think this is perhaps the most critical skill needed for success. When taking photos, I regularly experiment with different angles, lighting scenarios, content selection and location. Sometimes what I thought would work doesn’t so I have found that it is critical to take the risk to change up my approach and try to take the photo in a way that I had not previously considered. As a business owner, you must be able to pivot and to pivot quickly in response to feedback from your clients and the marketplace. I regularly examine my approaches to marketing and client acquisition in pursuit of improving my understanding of their needs. That’s not to say that I don’t have strong opinions! But, it is essential that every business owner be responsive to the changing landscape of their business. All of these aspects require that I be nimble and take risks.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Just recently I realized that I have always been an artist even though that was not the path I took for many, many years. I began drawing and painting when I was 5, started playing the piano at 7 and the flute at 9. Throughout high school I engaged in many creative activities like creative writing, performing in plays, and participating in public speaking competitions while continuing to be a music performer. In college and until my late 30’s, I continued playing the flute on a semi-professional level while pursing education and a career focused on HR, training, and organizational development. I purchased my first professional camera at the urging of my husband who recognized that I had a talent for capturing the world uniquely through the lens. While continuing in my HR career, I took my camera everywhere and built in time to photograph wherever I was traveling and working. In 2012, I decided to take the risk to go full time as a professional photographer and started my business – Sari Fried-Fiori Photography. Since then, I have taken classes to hone my craft, had a solo exhibition to put my work out into the world, competed successfully in national and global photography competitions, exhibited internationally in Rome, Barcelona and Budapest, and even had one of my images published in Glamour Magazine. I am an active member of several international photography groups, have received more than 1400 awards, and serve as a judge of global photography competitions. In the past two years, I have launched a new website and expanded my marketing efforts to include creating a strong social media presence. Taking risks has been critical in helping me arrive at my current destination and the journey continues.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Art is personal to each individual and it is always a great joy for me to see someone select one of my photos because it holds a special place in their heart. I want people to choose photos because they mean something to them or remind them of an important time, place, experience or person. My mission is to bring beauty into our world by finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. This makes my photos accessible to everyone. It’s also important to me that my art be affordable, whether on their wall or on a coffee mug. My greatest joy is when someone selects one of my photos because they want it to be a part of their daily lives.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

This is a vitally important question at this time in the US. To support a thriving creative ecosystem, we need to increase the visibility of art and artists in all forms of media, fund emerging artists, create venues where artists can display their work, put art back in the curriculum of our schools at all levels, expand access to art in communities that have not had exposure, and celebrate artists for their vital contributions to the overall wellbeing of society. When we are designing public and personal objects, architecture and spaces, beauty and aesthetics should be as important and functionality and finances. There is also a need for strong guardrails on AI in the creative ecosystem that includes accountability, respect for copyright, and compensation for “scraping” someone’s art into the AI image generators without that person’s permission. We must seek ways to feed the soul of America by integrating art into our everyday world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sffphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sffphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sffphotography/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarifriedfiori/

Image Credits
Sari Fried-Fiori