We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Craig recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stephanie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with 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?

I began pursuing my photography business full time about 8 years ago when the family that I was nannying for decided to move to another state. I had graduated from photography school two years prior but was working part time to build my business and figure out how to make a living doing what I loved most. I certainly wasn’t prepared to take the leap into full time when I did, and if this family hadn’t decided to move, I might have continued doing it part time for several more years. It was scary in the beginning but with all of my energy now being put towards my business, it wasn’t long before it started to grow, and I was able to support myself. Building this business has been the most empowering thing I’ve ever done for myself. It’s not always fun and I’ve made a lot of mistakes but it’s a constant reminder that hard work and persistence does pay off.

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?

This year will mark ten years since I launched my photography business. In the beginning I photographed everything and anything – weddings, newborns, food, school portraits, artwork, events, construction sites and headshots.

It was through this process that I discovered my passion for portrait photography.

The portraits I love most are those in which the subject has permitted themselves to be vulnerable; that’s when the camera captures both bravery and insecurities—and powerful images are made.

Creating that kind of work means listening deeply to those I photograph, collaborating with them to understand who they are and who they want to be. I always remind myself to listen first and photograph last. Otherwise, how would I know what I’m looking for behind the lens?

My photography has been featured in several print publications, including Letters to Doris: One Woman’s Quest to Help Those with Nowhere Else to Turn; 41°North magazine; and Deerfield magazine. In 2021, my work was included in the Springfield Museum’s exhibition This Is Us: Regional Portraiture Today.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2019, my business was thriving. I had worked on two major book projects and was traveling all over the United States taking portraits. I was photographing weddings most weekends, and starting to take on some bigger commercial clients. I was working full time doing what I loved, but I started to hate it. I wasn’t leaving time to be creative and I felt apathetic towards my work. In 2020, when the pandemic took away almost all of my work, I got the rest and recovery I needed. I had been working myself to exhaustion, and saying yes to every job that came through my inbox that I lost track of who I was, and who I wanted to be. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, I’m not sure I would have the business that I have today. The time to rest gave me the perspective I needed to reorganize and actually build the business that I wanted that would allow me to thrive and support myself.

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

I graduated from Hallmark Institute of Photography in 2012. The Hallmark program was essentially an intensive 10-month photography bootcamp. In 10-months we learned how to master composition, lighting, posing, and post production, I left Hallmark with a very specific idea of what the perfect portrait looked like. I was confident I could create a beautiful portrait, but I had lost almost all of my natural creativity. I went into photography school with the idea that I would learn how to hone my creativity to create beautiful work but it actually destroyed a lot of my playfulness around creating. Over the years, I’ve learned to break myself of these habits my prepping for shoots with precision but allowing time to break the rules and create something unexpected. To give my subject time to unwind and relax behind the camera. It’s in this space that I’ve created some of my strongest work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.stephcraigstudios.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/stephcraigstudios
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephcraigstudios
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-craig-2b003443/

Image Credits
All photographs are taken by me.