We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Whitney Brown. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Whitney below.
Alright, Whitney thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
I run a photography studio and art gallery – ALL of our work focuses on the physical aspect of portraits through fine art printing. The photography industry has become a shoot and burn, digital representation of what a photograph is truly meant to be – a physical piece of art. While our studio does offer digital copies of every print purchased, because let’s face it – it’s 2022 and we live in a digital world, we focus more on the art of the craft, the legacy of our clients and subjects, and the viewers of those heirloom prints over the next 100 years. A digital image will die on whatever device it’s placed on eventually, while a quality print will last several lifetimes. That’s what we offer at WDP Studio + Gallery. I’ve been drawn to magazine style portraiture, photographic prints, and the visual beauty of the human experience for as long as I can remember. As a little girl I would sit for hours flipping through my moms old photo albums; images of family and friends, past and present. I grew up feeling a connection to those photographs, times, and people even though some were long passed before I was born. It was almost as if I was a part of those moments and their legacy lived on through me because of those prints. The images that always stood out to me the most were the portraits; images of emotion, real, raw truth, and beauty. I felt a connection to each of those photographs as if I had taken them myself, especially the images of my mother, grandmother, and other powerful women in my life. They inevitably set the tone for the type of photography I would one day create, long before I ever understood those roots. They were emotive portraits of beauty, true self, and strength, and the type of photography still inspires me. It’s the type of photography we offer at our studio, and to me, it’s the most powerful form of art in our industry. If you asked me what my mission is today, it would just that; to create powerful legacy portraits of every person who walks through our studio doors so that one day when their time on this earth is over, those portraits will live on through the eyes of the next generation.
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
Absolutely! We touched on my childhood roots with portraits in the previous question, but I didn’t truly start to dive into the photography and art world until I moved to Southern California. San Diego and Los Angeles are still my biggest inspirations in my work, and where I draw much of my creative energy. A lot of my mentors have lived and worked in LA for years, and the type of work I saw being created there really pushed me to understand quality, and keep my standards and artistic eye at a high-level. It’s not an easy market to start out in, that’s for sure, but it pushed me to work harder, and to not take no for an answer. Fast forward 5 years, I now own and operate W.D.P. Studio + Gallery which offers contemporary portraiture for both women, men, and humans of all genders who are looking for a fine art level of portrait and luxury print products. We are currently booking in our main studio location in Dayton, OH, and offer several SoCal studio options for clients based in San Diego and Los Angeles. We are also proud to exhibit and sell art work for local SoCal and MidWest artists in our space on a rotational, quarterly basis. In my early days as an artist, I was told “no” so many times while trying to get my work into galleries if it didn’t fit the mold they were looking for; it was always a long shot. I want W.D.P. Studio to be home to those artists who have had the same experience, and provide them with a creative, safe path to let their work be seen, sold, and appreciated as it deserves to be.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Referrals. Hands down! I think every success or milestone for W.D.P. has come back to the fact that we give our clients an AMAZING customer experience. They go on a transformative journey of sorts during our portrait process, and it’s something they WANT to go share with their friends and family. I don’t think I’ve ever booked a client and then not worked with their friend, sister, aunt, grandmother, or even daughter afterwards. I have a STRONG referral program in place, and I’ve found that even after the monetary benefits associated with that expire, my clients are still raving about us, and influencing their loved ones to book the experience for themselves. There’s power in that, and it’s FREE. It’s free marketing. Kill your client experience, and watch your inbox blow up. Trust me on that.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I’ve done a lot of self-value work, and I think that’s so key when it comes to success in business, or life in general. One major thing I had to unlearn during that process was that nobody gets to decide what my value is outside of me. Nobody is judging us the way we so harshly judge ourselves. If you are giving your clients an amazing experience, and making them feel appreciated and valued, I promise you, they aren’t going to judge you, or your humble beginnings. This is actually a powerful point, and I think anyone starting out who isn’t exactly where they want to be should hear it and know that every single person who you see successful now, started in the same place with the same fears – they just went for it anyways. When I first had the idea of starting a photography studio, I wasn’t even close to where I am now revenue wise, and I didn’t have the type of income to afford a commercial space yet – that type of overhead was out of the question. So, instead of listening to that negative, self-sabotaging, fearful part of all of us who wants to crush our dreams and tells us we can’t do it if it doesn’t look a certain way, I started taking clients the best and only way I knew how, which was in a renovated garage building outside of my house… in the middle of a cornfield… and no that is not a joke. Do you know what the joke actually was – ON ME, because not only did I sell out every single session I offered in that garage studio space over the year I used it, but I built the capital necessary to open my first commercial space in less than ONE year. The key here is that I never viewed it as a garage. I never even called it that. It was my studio, and it was the place my clients came for an amazing luxury portrait experience. I never thought of it as anything less than that, so it never was, to me or my clients. Now W.D.P. is a working, commercial studio space, and it’s because of my true belief in the value of what I offer.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.whitneydaniellephotography.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/whitneydaniellephoto
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/whitneydaniellephoto
Image Credits
Whitney Brown, Whitney Danielle Photography