We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephanie Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stephanie below.
Stephanie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
After many years of service in the military, as a federal civilian employee, and working for a public university, I’ve been a full-time creative entrepreneur for the past two years. In the years leading up to realizing my dream of living a full-time creative life, my artistic pursuits were relegated to the free time I had outside of my professional responsibilities. I’m a very driven, hard-working individual, with extremely high attention to detail, and I put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best at all things I do, and there came a point when I felt I could no longer continue on the path of the professional career. It was stifling my creativity, and it was demanding too much of my time and energy. I was burning the candle at both ends, trying to keep both aspects of my life going, and I finally made a decision to walk away from the professional job and to step out in faith to move in the direction of my passion to build a fully creative life for myself.
Because I had been taking steps to build a creative business while I was working a professional job, I did have a few things in place already when I stepped out on my own. I had been honing my craft and developing my style as an ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) & Creative Photographer for several years, and my passion for sharing the art and beauty of ICM photography with the world led me to create, develop, and publish a digital quarterly magazine, called ICM Photography Magazine (aka ICMPhotoMag for short), in early 2020, where I have been fortunate enough to feature nearly 200 global ICM and creative photographers from about 30 different countries around the world.
As the magazine expanded and grew, I eventually began collaborating with two other ICM photographers, Kaisa Siren (Finland) and Morag Paterson (Scotland) to offer online workshops where we teach visual storytelling techniques using ICM photography to create meaningful projects and bodies of work through Abstract and Impressionistic imagery.
At the time we held our first online workshop, I had already been developing ideas for an online membership community, and with the tremendous success and response to our visual storytelling workshop, that empowered me to move the membership community forward with Kaisa and Morag as co-leaders and co-mentors for that community, as well. The ICMPhotoMag Network launched in June 2021, and it is a wonderful continuous learning community that encourages and inspires creatives to tap more fully into their individual artistry with ICM.
As all of this has continued to unfold, and as ICM photography has been gaining momentum and more acceptance in the mainstream photographic community, my own creative work and the work I do to promote other ICM photographers around the world have opened the doors for so many other amazing opportunities that I’m not sure I could have ever imagined just a few short years ago,
I now give about 30 camera club presentations throughout the year, both online via Zoom and in person. I’ve also joined the team of instructors at the prestigious Santa Fe Workshops, where I have the honor and privilege to teach online and on-location workshops. I collaborate with a number of other organizations, such as Out of Chicago, Garden Club of America Photography Conference, and Camversation (in the UK) to offer teaching and learning opportunities to help others find their own inner artist and voice through ICM and creative photography. I’m also working to build a workshop extension for the magazine, ICMPhotoMag Workshops, to work with other photographers on-location in various scenic locations, such as the Outer Hebrides, Cornwall, Northumberland, and more to come in the future.
I have a number of additional ideas that are waiting to blossom and bloom, both personally and as extensions of the ICMPhotoMag project, but all things take time and come to fruition when they are ready to be manifested, I believe.
I tend to be someone who pushes to make things happen, and I do sometimes move ahead with ideas with the belief that it will all come together as it should. Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. Once you put yourself out there with the idea, it tends to lead the way, and things just grow, evolve, and develop along the way.
I’m a firm believer in the concept that we create our own reality, which means you must take an active role in creating the reality you wish to have. For me, that means giving more than I receive. It means encouraging, inspiring, guiding, celebrating, and sharing with others to build them up, as well. We are all in this creative life together, and what makes one of us better makes us all better, and in all that I do, I want to make a difference.
My life is unfolding in a beautiful way, and I don’t look back to think about whether or not there is anything I could have done to speed up the process. The process has unfolded just as it should, and in its own beautiful time, and I am happy, grateful, and satisfied with where things are in the moment.
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.
I began my photographic pursuits as a traditional landscape photographer, but in 2017 I turned towards a more abstract and creative approach to my photography using Intentional Camera Movement (ICM). I had been traveling to Ireland to photograph the majestic landscapes there for a couple of years, but I always had a difficult time getting out into my local landscapes to do the same kind of traditional landscape work, because Iowa does not have quite the same kinds of magnificent landscapes as Ireland.
When I first learned about ICM photography it intrigued me, and it helped me get out into the local landscape to see things differently and to connect in a different way with the environment I’m surrounded by. As I taught myself the technique and honed my artistic style with ICM photography, I ultimately made a very conscious decision to devote my creative pursuits to this style of photography, and I have created more prolifically in my local environment than anywhere else as a result.
The passion I have for ICM photography, for reimagining the world through ICM, and for celebrating the art and beauty of ICM has enabled me to grow a large global following, through both my own personal creative work and through the ICM Photography Magazine, along with its extension projects, that I have brought to fruition through my own original ideas for sharing this wonderful creative style of making unique and individual images.
I have a very deep passion for sharing…knowledge, techniques, encouragement, guidance…and for building others up to see their own unique and individual creative potential. I have an abundance mindset, which means I’m not afraid to share and give more to the benefit of helping others grow, evolve, and expand in their own artistic pursuits. It gives me great joy to see others succeed, or to have that a-ha moment of creativity for themselves, so I never hold back anything that might enable someone else to achieve that. I think this is something that sets me apart…that I give all of myself to the benefit of others. I’m not afraid to hold back, and giving is one of life’s greatest pleasures. It builds us all up and makes us all better, and I have been tremendously blessed by the connections I have made with others who are so eager and hungry for expanding their own artistry and creative expression and put their faith and trust in me to help guide them on that path.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist and a creative for me is two-fold.
First of all, it is, of course, an amazing gift to have found my creative vision and artistic voice. That, in and of itself is tremendously rewarding, and I never take it for granted. So many people live their entire lives believing they are not creative or that they are not artistic because society pushes us to deny that aspect of ourselves. It takes courage and conviction to push against the norm and to own the creative artist that lives within ourselves, and I’m grateful I finally found a way, after so many years of denying it, to open myself up and to allow the Universe to show me how to embrace my inner creative spirit and to guide the way for me to live this beautiful, creative life I live.
The other rewarding aspect for me is having the opportunity to share in the lives of so many people around the world and to connect with other like-minded creative spirits who are all making this world a better place for the beauty of their own artistry. Making a difference in the world and in the lives of others is hugely rewarding. Giving to others, sharing for the benefit of others, and celebrating the creativity of others is at the heart of all I do, and that in and of itself is also tremendously rewarding. This aspect of giving to others is as important to me as doing my own personal creative work. The two go hand in hand, and this makes for an extremely rewarding creative life.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Although I suppose I am an entrepreneur and a small business owner, I don’t think of myself in that way. I think of myself as an artist, first and foremost, who happens to be fortunate enough to make a living doing what I’m passionate about. I’m not necessarily guided by management or entrepreneurial resources, and I wouldn’t say any management or entrepreneurial resources have impacted my thinking and philosophy.
I am guided more by creative, inspirational, and artistic resources that keep me moving forward personally in a way that then enables me to continue building and expanding what I do for the benefit of others.
One of the books that has had the biggest impact on me and helped propel me on this path is a book by Canadian photographer David duChemin, called A Beautiful Anarchy. The book is about living a creative life, and in the book, he drives home the idea that you have to do the work. You can’t wait for inspiration to hit, you have to get out and do the work, and it is in the doing of the work that inspiration will come. This has been my mantra ever since. I have gotten out to do the creative work, and it has been through the doing of the work that all of this has manifested. It never would have happened if I had not made a very conscious and deliberate decision to do the work, and I am eternally grateful that book came into my life at the time I needed it most and set me on this continuously unfolding path.
Other books that have have been instrumental in my development as an artist, creative, and entrepreneur are:
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Universe Has Your Back by Gabrielle Bernstein
Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life by Wayne Dyer
The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer
Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
The Law of Divine Compensation by Marianne Williamson
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stephjohnphoto.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephjohnphoto
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephjohnphoto
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephjohnphoto
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/stephjohnphoto
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@stephjohnphoto
- Other: These additional links pertain to the ICM Photography Magazine and extension projects: Website – https://www.icmphotomag.com/ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/icmphotomag Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/icmphotomag Twitter – https://www.twitter.com/icmphotomag YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@icmphotomag ICMPhotoMag Network Community – https://www.icmphotomag.network/ ICMPhotoMag Workshops – https://www.icmphotomagworkshops.com/
Image Credits
Image credits all belong to me as the photographer/creator @StephJohnPhoto – Stephanie Johnson Photography