Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Adriana Arguijo Gutierrez

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Adriana Arguijo Gutierrez. Check out our conversation below.

Good morning Adriana, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
I’ve been compensating for how little I went to the movies during my busy work season lately, and I’m loving it! The fall months are always busy ones for me, and while I always look forward to those fall photoshoots, it’s relieving to have the time again to pour into my other passions.

I most recently saw Edward Yang’s 2001 “Yi Yi” in theaters with a dear friend. It’s one of those movies I’ve been putting off for a while because I really wanted to experience it in a theater. I’m lucky enough to live a reasonable distance from a few repertory cinemas, so there’s never a shortage of screenings for me to choose from throughout the year. I also caught a screening of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which unsurprisingly moved me to tears. But it also put me in the holiday spirit. I just deeply cherish cinema’s ability to bring me back to my essence, and heal whatever uncertainty or doubt I may be feeling at that moment. Cinema is like worship to me.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Adriana Arguijo Gutierrez, I’m 25 years old, and I’m a photographer based in Eastern Massachusetts! Although I’ve been taking photos since I was old enough to be trusted with the family camera, I’ve been managing my photography business since December 2016.

I knew photography was embedded in me when, years ago, someone asked me: “Are you really gonna do photography for the rest of your life?” and I could hardly wrap my head around the question! For me, it’s always been a nonnegotiable; it’s something I don’t have to consciously choose because I trust my intuition. Regardless of what I’m going through, I know I can count on this expression to bring me back to feeling most like the essence of myself. It’s muscle memory.

When clients ask me how my business came about, I tell them it was kind of an accident (which is partly true). I didn’t take so many photos growing up because I wanted to make money from it. I did it because my reverence for life felt older than me — sometimes too great to carry in my baby heart. I may not have had the right words for it at the time, but before I picked up a camera, I dreamed of taking the intangible and translating it into something my eyes could see. In retrospect, keeping this to myself made me feel alone. What joy is there in witnessing the world’s wonders if you can’t share them with someone else?

Fast forward 9 years, and clients are seeking out my work for the qualities I once believed were too unconventional. I am so grateful for that. Collaborating with people who appreciate my process is very special to me. It pushes me to keep engaging with the world, not solely as a portrait & event photographer, but as a more attentive human being.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I was extremely introspective growing up. I still am! But a moment that especially reflects that quality of mine happened in July 2012.

I was in Mexico visiting my family for a few weeks, and I remember going out onto the street next to my grandparents’ house to play a makeshift game of soccer with my cousins. It started to rain. And I mean really rain. (A lot of people are unaware of this, but some years it rains more in Mexico City than it does in London!) My cousins and I kept playing, even after adults called for us to come back inside. In this moment, I looked up at the surrounding buildings, the flashes of purple lightning cutting through the clouded sky, and my cousins, soaked from the rain, smiling back at me. I distinctly remember feeling like I was in a scene from a movie; I was filled with a strange, but sweet sensation of gratitude.

After that moment, I increasingly felt myself recognizing and really soaking in the beauty of different moments as they unfolded in real time before my eyes. At first, I was afraid of letting these moments slip from my hands. Sometimes I felt like I was the only person taking notice of how special a moment was. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to practice a healthy detachment from this notion that “living in the moment” means mourning it before it’s even gone. It doesn’t always need to feel fleeting. Immortalizing some of these moments through photography has certainly helped me cope with the impermanence of it all, but even so, I like to stand somewhere between acknowledging the ever-moving present and simply breathing it in without scrambling to verbalize the ephemeral.

When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
Upon entering middle school, I struggled a lot to feel like I belonged. Aside from being ethically and culturally unlike my peers, I felt that my interests and values couldn’t be more different than theirs. I journaled nearly every day of my time in middle school — most often about how bothered I was that my classmates were preoccupied with “trivial concerns” like dating and physical appearances, as opposed to academic curiosities or questions on the meaning of life.

In retrospect, life wasn’t as miserable as my diary made it out to be. I had several great friends, budding hobbies, and a healthy sense of whimsy. I simply yearned to surround myself with people who could validate, entertain, or maybe even challenge my observations about the world. I quenched some of this thirst by collecting “TIME for Kids” almanacs and becoming absorbed in fictional worlds like Star Wars, The Hunger Games, and Doctor Who.

Throughout the course of high school and college, I was fortunate enough to come across people who recognized my perspective and pushed me to make it known. To name a few:

When my TV Production teacher in high school, Danielle Mannion, saw my passion for filmmaking, she motivated me to submit my work to film festivals and taught me that media and communications are college programs worth applying to. When my undergraduate film professor Fabrizio Ciccone picked up on my interest in surrealism, he set me on the path to discovering my favorite film director of all time, which, in turn, allowed me to explore and visually translate the spiritual parts of myself I once believed were indecipherable. When my close friend Saloni Kumar and I met in college and connected over our mutual longing to express ourselves artistically, I grew more comfortable in verbalizing my wants and needs. I’m no longer afraid of making myself known. If anything, I’ve learned that hiding who we are — what we want, what we dream, what we fear — keeps us from feeling truly seen and understood.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. How do you differentiate between fads and real foundational shifts?
I think the real foundational shifts come from within. You can’t rely on others or social media to tell you what to create next. It has to come from the essence of who you are and what calls most deeply to you. At least that’s what I’ve found motivates me to make my best work.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: If you retired tomorrow, what would your customers miss most?
It’s funny, in the last year I’ve had some clients ask me if I’ll still be around to do their child’s senior portraits in a few years. I definitely don’t see myself retiring from doing senior portrait sessions any time soon, so it means a lot to know that my clients look forward to working with me for years to come. I also have several families I work with annually, so that’s something I imagine they’d miss. While every client I’ve worked with holds a special place in my business’s journey, there’s something truly heartwarming about those who return to me year after year.

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Image Credits
Adriana Arguijo Gutierrez

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