Meet Amy Carson

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

Amy, 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.

As a child it was always clear to me that I was an artist. Everything I did with my spare time had a creative or artistic component. But my parents are very practical people. Both worked in the medical field, and I received strong messaging as a teenager that artists were not serious adults.

Throughout my 20s and half of my 30s I tried to find a career that was “serious” but still interesting enough that I’d be able to bare it. Inevitably, all the careers I tried became boring, and without creative impetus, I felt like my soul was being drained from my body.

In 2020, I got a free pass to focus on something that actually lit me up inside. It ultimately led to my current career in photography. I can now see that my talents are absolutely valuable to my clients, as well as those in my personal life.  I can be myself, and people respect me for it.

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

I’m a commercial and editorial photographer specializing in food and drink, as well as product, lifestyle, and hospitality. My clients are CPG brands (consumer packaged goods), restaurant groups, hotels, magazines, and cookbook publishers, to name a few.

I’m known for the extensive visual storytelling in my work. My style has been described as romantic, evocative, rich, and moody, with vibrant colors and dramatic shadows.

For commercial projects, part of my job is understanding each company’s unique mission and branding. There is sometimes a creative director who oversees the project’s vision, and I work closely with them as well as the art director to bring our collaborative vision to life. Depending on the size of the project, there may also be a food stylist, prop stylist, models, hair and makeup artists, and various technical assistants on set.

Then there is another layer of finesse that happens in postproduction. Through editing and retouching, I get the subject to really pop. For every day I spend shooting I typically spend at least one full day editing the final images. This includes removing dust and distractions, enhancing colors and textures, and even subtle manipulation of shapes in Photoshop. This is very detail-oriented work, but the difference it makes in the final images is vital.

One of the great things about specializing in CPG & product photography is that I can work remotely with clients based virtually anywhere in the world. Pre-production meetings are done via Zoom, they send me their products in the mail, and we can also be connected virtually during the shoot.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I think it’s important to be disciplined, adaptable, and resilient as a freelance photographer. When you are working, you have to a solid workflow in place to stay organized and get the job done efficiently. But you also have to be ready to adapt when the circumstances of the shoot don’t work out as planned.

When you are not working on a paid job, you will still need to keep busy marketing yourself and expanding your skills. That part takes discipline, when there is no one else depending on you or setting external deadlines. Also, you will get rejected a lot. It’s just part of the job, so you need to get used to it and learn to not take it personally.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is a good resource for anyone who feels their creativity has been suppressed by the pressures of society, family, and too much adulting. The author used to lead workshops to help peopl let go of the limiting self-beliefs that were holding them back from expressing themselves creatively. The book suggests exercises like automatic writing every morning and taking oneself on artist dates. In general, it asks a lot of introspective questions to help the artist set herself free.

One of my goals is to become more childlike every day, for the rest of my life. The irony is that it improves my work, and people take me more seriously the less seriously I take myself.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Amy Carson Photography

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