We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sivram Jackson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sivram below.

Alright, Sivram thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

In a world where the things we do characterize our entire life from start to finish; starting over always becomes a question that pops up. If I were to start over, what would I do differently to get me to where I am now faster; well for starters I’d tell myself to forget what everyone else is telling you about what you like to capture as a creative photographer. When I first started off, I allowed everyone’s views to drive the direction of my photography and I got to a point of being truly unhappy with the product of work I produced. Following my heart and doing what I love would have allowed me to appreciate what I was doing much sooner and love the craft so much more, capturing the attention of a lot more people. Secondly, I would have learned the art of consistency in the promotion of my work. A business can’t grow without exposure consistently. Social media has single handedly creating so many careers and opportunities that spawned from the consistency of those who put in the time and effort. These points would have been my start over points that would have skyrocketed my career.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My photography journey began in 2014 at the HBCU known as Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana. While attending this school during my undergrad years, I took a photography elective class in which the instructor made it mandatory to purchase a camera for the class otherwise you would not pass the class. As we fast forward in time through the multiple times my camera was stolen as well as the many hobby shoots for graduation photoshoots, it was at this time that I was only doing photoshoots as a hobby, someone would ask me if I shoot photos for graduation and I’d always say yes, but I was never truly serious about taking photos. It was one moment that I can remember that changed my life with photography, that moment was the time my department chair told me, “I’ve noticed that you’ve taking a liking to shooting photos but you don’t seem too adamant about taking this as a serious job when you start taking this serious let me know and ill connect you to a well-established photographer who captures images for the president of the united states.” Once he let me know that real money can be made from such a profession I was sold, from that point on I made this my career shooting photos, capturing and editing videos, the whole idea of content creating became my passion and landed me in Los Angeles, California. When I arrived, I was blessed with the opportunity to work an event where I was introduced to Joe Boyd the Head Video Commissioner at Atlantic records, and I’ve been working there capturing behind the scenes photos and videos for people like Kevin Gates, Roddy Ricch, Becky G, and Teamarrr to name a few.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

To be honest I have no recollection of how I built my audience I just created the content that I loved and posted that, and a following was built. I will however say that I have learned that consistency is the key to a growing a successful business in this day and age. Being able to post on a time schedule that allows your audience to look forward to a specific time where they can catch your content.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The only resource i wish i knew about in my earlier career was the art of networking to gain business. Networking can single handedly change your life in a positive direction just meeting the right person.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sivramjackson.com
• Instagram: @patternimagery
• Facebook: Sivram Jackson
• Linkedin: Sivram-Jackson
• Twitter: @iiactbrandnew
• Youtube: patternimagery5977

Image Credits
1. Adam Rodriguez 2-4. Aisha Debayo 5. Sage 6. Yasan Washington & Tianna Danae 7. Danika Edwards