We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yasara Gunawardena a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Yasara, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents were supporters of the arts ever since I was young. My dad’s hobby was photography and he always encouraged that I take his camera in my hands and experience it. There was so much freedom in being able to explore and find out what I liked. My mother always said she wanted us to have jobs that fueled our passions, not jobs we resented. Because of that mentality, she was able to give me the security in knowing she would support the decision I had made. It was incredibly uncommon in our community for the arts to be encouraged — I have plenty of stories about aunties and uncles who couldn’t understand that one could actually support themselves as an artist. Despite that, my parents were able to provide a space that felt safe for me to give it my all, which has been incredibly valuable to my growth. Even though they themselves didn’t fully understand what was possible in this field, they chose to trust my choice and believe that I would make it work for myself.

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

Hello hello! My name is Yasara Gunawardena and I am a photographer living in Los Angeles. I feel very lucky to have always been able to call LA my home, and I don’t have any plans to leave it any time soon. I went to Art Center College of Design to study Photography + Imaging and began assisting shortly after I graduated. I met so many incredible people while assisting who helped shaped me in more ways than I can count. While I was assisting, I was always entering spaces with people who let me feel comfortable being myself and having a good time. I never had to put on the performance of an overly serious individual — I always made sure myself and the team were having a good time while getting the job done. This is something that has stuck with me in my own career — do a good job, but don’t forget to have fun. We are so lucky in our line of work, and it seems a shame if we forget to enjoy it.

I consider myself curiously observant — always taking in whats going on around me and trying to solve problems before they arise. I love using photography as a means to tell a story, wether that be in food, portrait, or still life. I look for the small details, and using those to build out worlds and make compelling images.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think the biggest gift this creative life has given me is the community it opens itself up to and creates. I consider myself an introverted extrovert — although most people might argue I’m simply the latter of the two. I love meeting new people and hearing about their experiences and sharing my own. Being freelance can be incredibly isolating and I do not think I would have nearly as many positive memories and experiences associated with being a creative had it not been for the people I’ve met and connected with along the way. It is so reassuring to know that other people in this industry may very well have experienced the exact thing I am, and being able to ask others their input lets the journey feel less isolating. Similarly, it’s very rewarding to be able to provide that for others. As a south asian woman, I am so happy that I have had other south asian women reach out to me to hear about my experience in this industry, as well as ask for my input on their journey. I am grateful to share these experiences with others and hopefully help them feel confident about their own creative growth as well.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

It sounds silly, but I think most of my new clients come directly from sharing work on instagram. There’s a decent amount of word of mouth as well, but its always been so interesting to me to see the direct correlation between what I’m sharing on social media and the job inquiries I receive thereafter. Some people know me for still life and food, others know me for portraits and story based work. When I share food work, I start to receive more food work. When I share portrait work, those more recent images tend to be used as references for the portrait inquiries. I unfortunately don’t allow myself enough time these days to make personal work that really interests me, but I know that doing that would bring in more clientele as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: itsyasara.com
• Instagram: @itsyasara
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasara/

Image Credits
All photographs courtesy of Yasara Gunawardena