We recently connected with Alexandra Sapp and have shared our conversation below.
Alexandra, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I have always tried to follow my gut even since I was young. As a teenager, I loved documenting everything through the camera. I couldn’t really imagine myself doing anything else with my life other than creating images through photos or video so I sought out a way to figure out how I could make a living off doing what I was passionate about. It definitely is a long journey and takes a lot self motivation to keep believing in yourself, but to be able to collaborate with other artists and brands makes me grateful. Balancing my art practice while making commercial work is its own challenge. I believe making personal work is what shapes all the work in my life. It gives control of the type of work I want to be making personally as well as commercially. Finding purpose is about continuing to chase the passion and not letting the flame burn out. Overtime, purpose will evolve into what you truly love doing.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m a filmmaker and photographer based in NYC. I currently work in the commercial and documentary space. I love working with fitness and outdoors brands the most because it aligns with my passion for health and wellness. I hope to expand that work more and have it intertwine with my documentary style work one day.
I feel most excited about creating new work every week through shooting videos, photos, or editing in the Adobe Suite. Every week is different. What’s special about making work right now for me is finishing my first feature documentary. It’s been many years in the making. The beauty about docs are you seem to never know when they’re going to end, but when that ending starts to show itself it becomes very exciting. Wrapping my head around editing has been the hardest part of the project for me. 20% of the work is shooting the project and about 80% is weaving through the footage. Watching the footage slowly, but surely come together has been the most rewarding part. I never thought I could edit down over 400 hours of footage to an hour and half, but it’s well on its way to getting there. I think the hardest part of editing this project has been finding the time to balance shooting commercial work while finding the motivation to keep cutting the footage down. In this type of field, you have to have a present mindset and celebrate the little wins that come with progress. It’s how you reach the finish line.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three areas of knowledge that have made the most impact on me are finding inspiration, creating space to make art, and sharing my work with an audience.
I would still consider myself early in my career so I can only give so much advice from my experience, but believing in your own ideas and ambition is your super power. No one can take that away from you. Create from your unique experiences. You’ll find an audience that will relate to those authentic experiences and ideas.
Find your inspirations through people, art, books, and experiences. Always write down the new idea that pops in your head because you might forget it if you don’t. The first step is coming up with the idea so take in all that life gives you for inspiration.
Making time for your ideas to come to life can be hard. From filming with subjects to grinding down a never ending editing timeline, the logistic hurdles never stop, but the passion is what keeps you going. Periods of rest and reflection are just as important to the process as working hard. Nothing great comes easy. It takes time. If you are meant to make a project you’ll see it through.
Once you have finally completed the work it’s time to share it for feedback and reflection with an audience. Create work that will make people emotional. Remember, not everyone has to love it. Successful art makes people feel things, even if it’s happy, sad, or mad.
Just enjoy the Artist’s Journey!
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
My biggest improvement within the past 12 months is creating a routine for my personal wellness, commercial work, and creative practice. As a freelancer, it feels like I “work” constantly, but I do truly love what I do. Sure, doing the admin work is my least favorite part, but its apart of the job. Having a home base desk I has helped me stay more organized with pre production and editing logistics. Traveling can make balancing everything much harder. There is always something to shoot, edit, or organize during down time. The work is just about balancing projects with life because life definitely throws its punches as well. Every year, I hope to gain more perspective on what work flow is best for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alexandrasapp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandra.sapp/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrasapp/
Image Credits
Photos by Alexandra Sapp
