We were lucky to catch up with Vera Pashkevich recently and have shared our conversation below.

Vera, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

I was born in Belarus, a small Eastern European country just north of Ukraine. My parents were poor (despite having a high degree of education and well-established careers). We lived in a dictatorship that, to this day, doesn’t get enough global press coverage. My parents did everything in their power to get me out, so I could have a better chance of breaking the poverty cycle.

The US offered opportunity to do anything, and they imagined me being a doctor or going into finance. But when I first picked up a camera at sixteen, I had this strong sense of “knowing” that I wanted photography to be my life.

Growing up, I dealt with a lot of uncertainty.
I never excelled academically, even though I was a good student. We moved every few years or so with the military. My parents had a drawn-out and messy divorce. We started over a lot.
Photography felt like my constant, like a ticket to a life worth building for myself.

My parents did one thing right, through all of the chaos. They never limited me with the expectation of a specific career or a life choice. They emphasized that I had the choice to do whatever I wanted, and working hard was all that mattered. They never showed disappointment as I took out loans for art school. At times, they told me that I had chosen a “difficult life”, but going into the arts was a luxury that they couldn’t have imagined growing up.

I didn’t know how much I needed their support until later in my career, but I never took their sacrifices for granted. The lack of questioning in my choices gave me the kind of certainty I needed to fully pursue my work.

Vera, 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’m Vera Pash, a Seattle-based portrait photographer.

I was born in Belarus and raised as a third-culture kid in Germany. At sixteen, I bought a tiny, inexpensive camera so I could have something of my hometown to hold onto before making a move to the US. That moment sparked a love for visual storytelling and journalism in me, and before long, the camera became a constant companion in life.

I graduated with a BA from The Evergreen State College, focusing my studies on art history, photography, and creative writing. Since then, I’ve focused on building my freelance practice in Seattle. I’ve been in business for over fourteen years, working with hundreds of clients worldwide.

I take a personal, artful approach when capturing documentary-style events and strive for an atmospheric, thoughtful aesthetic in portraiture. I offer coverage for weddings, engagements, single portrait sessions, creative branding sessions, corporate, and family.

I also have a creative practice outside of my freelance work, collaborating with other artists of different disciplines and painting.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

To me, the single most valuable thing an artist can have is enough time.

In my early 20s, my resume was heavy with one-off jobs (ranging from mattress sales to restaurant management to fast food). I often had to work full-time to support my passion, but the 40-hour workweek left me exhausted, with very little time to focus on my creative practice.

These days, my life has more balance: I’ve learned to be cautious about what I choose to spend a majority of my time on. To me, that’s the most rewarding element of what I do.

Getting the choice of how I spend my hours, days, and weeks. Being able to say no to projects that don’t align with my values. Knowing that “down-time” is a part of the process too.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

For the longest time, I thought that taking a high volume of clients was the most important thing in my business. I undercharged ten years into my career, conflating being busy with being successful.

Undervaluing my work meant undervaluing myself, and when I first switched to full-time, I said yes to everything. I wanted to give the impression of being busy — and got taken advantage of.

Coming into the community and making friends with other professionals changed my mentality, even though it took years to undo the bad practices. But by being more discerning, keeping competitive rates, and staying true to my vision, I’m finally able to work less and focus on creating a better experience for clients I truly connect with.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.verapashphoto.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/verapashphoto
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VeraPashPhoto
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/verapashphoto/

Image Credits
N/A (all my images)