Meet Nico

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

Nico, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

When I was younger, I thought confidence was something I was just supposed to have. It took me years to understand that confidence is something that can be cultivated. A lot of my life has been a process of trial and error. I have never been one to just take someone else’s word for it. I’ve always needed to put my body into the direct experience of something to truly understand and learn. When I was in my senior year of college (finishing a BA in Photography, which I still find incredibly ridiculous but also feel so grateful for) I had little to no confidence in myself, my work, or my abilities. But I just knew I needed to figure things out, because I needed to support myself. So I just started experimenting with my life. Some experiments were successes, some were failures, and I felt pretty insecure and full of doubt the whole time. But with each failure, I found resilience in starting again. With each success, I reflected on what worked and how to build on that. And over time, I built my confidence because I saw that I could do what it took to progress. The confidence I have now is not so much in my talent or in any level of success, but rather in knowing that I am someone that is resilient, can do hard things, and can use what I have to figure out what to do next. I don’t really use the phrase “self-esteem” because it has never resonated with me. But I think that any level of love and acceptance I have for who I am, has come from finding courage within myself to live my life – however bumpy, strange, or silly it may look to someone else. Without a doubt, I know that any skill can be learned and improved upon with enough courage, commitment, and determination. And that makes me feel free.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’ve always felt so funny talking about “what I do” because “photographer” or “videographer” just feel like such a small sliver of what excites me in my work. At the core of it all, I love to create spaces where people can deepen their relationship with themselves. When I offer photography sessions, they come with intimate pre-session and post-session meetings where we uncover the deeper meaning of why they want to step in front of the camera. People often come to me while or immediately after going through massive transitions in their lives. Pregnancy/birth, weight gain/loss, divorce, milestone birthdays, building a new business or dismantling an old one, overcoming fears of being seen, and so much more. I think it comes down a beautiful quote by Beverly Clark, “We need a witness to our lives.” Each of us wants to know that our life as meaning and that we matter. I see photography as a process of feeling witnessed, truly seen and appreciated in whatever iteration of our life is unfolding at that moment.

With video, I mostly document transformational group spaces like retreats or immersions. Usually these are gatherings where people come to heal, to express, and to be in community. At the root of it, my job is the same – I am there to witness with my camera and to capture the essence and energy of the work.

This February, I am co-leading my first ever retreat in Costa Rica where I will be merging my 1-on-1 work with my years of experience documenting retreats. I intend to deepen into this work of creating spaces for people to Unfold (also the name of my 1-on-1 photographic journey containers I mentioned above). I want people to love and enjoy the relationship they have with themselves, and to move into the world from that ground of self-love.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

If you desire to do anything outside of the accepted, expected norm, I think you need to be resourced in order to sustain the journey. If I had to narrow it down to three skills to develop, I would choose these 3: 1) Resilience 2) Courage 3) Optimism.

The reason why I called these “skills” rather than “qualities,” is because In my experience they all take development. It’s when we are open to life and allow life to push us to grow that we can expand these skills. Resilience in seeing failures and challenges as opportunities, courage to face our fears and not let them be louder than our calling, and the optimism to be slightly delusional (I’m only half joking here) in believing that anything is possible despite what our friends/family may tell us. I don’t condone toxic positivity but I do believe that choosing to focus on what’s good and working rather than what sucks and isn’t working is a necessary skill to develop when creating your unique life and following a soul calling.

My best advice is to build your relationship with yourself. Learn to trust yourself, to hear AND follow your own intuition, and to heed all the crazy little whispers that say, “what if..?!”

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

As an artist and the owner of a small business, I always feel the pull to deepen and improve in what I’m doing. I just always know there are more layers to pull back and more to learn. One year ago, I decided to leave my life in structured life in LA for a nomadic lifestyle – where I spend a few months in different places depending on where I’m being called for work – whether outer or inner. At the same time, I decided that I would push away all outside influences so that I could deeply listen to what my own wisdom and intuition were guiding me to do. This meant unfollowing a bunch of other photographers on social media, saying NO to courses and coaching, and generally not getting swayed by other people’s input or perspectives (unless specifically asked for). What I have uncovered in this 12 month journey is an unprecedented trust in myself. I have seen, firsthand, the magic of being in the right place at the right time. I have watched literal miracles unfold of synchronicity and timing that I never could have planned with my rational mind. And ultimately I have touched a trust in life that I didn’t know I could ever feel. I have been reunited with my creative writing practice, which has led to the creation of my substack which has been such a gift for my self-expression. I have deepened relationships with community that I have all over the world. I have opened myself to new depth in the direction of my work, which has fueled even more healing and transformation in the containers I’m holding for people. TRUST was my word of 2024 and it led me to one of the best years of my life!

Contact Info:

• Website: under construction
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lenslovingyou
• Other: substack: https://niconelson.substack.com/

Image Credits

All photos are taken by me.