Meet Grace Hefley

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

Grace, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

My resilience comes from the lessons I’ve learned in my past, the trials I am facing in my present, and the hope I have for a brighter future.

Let me be clear, there are days when I have slim to none resilience. The hopelessness shows its dark face, and I feel like I can’t move from the place that I am at. I log on to Instagram and see the millions of other photographers, some with the same storytelling/empowerment niche, and I feel like giving up.

When I find myself here, it’s never an easy road back to my inner strength. The light at the end of the tunnel seems like a million miles away, and I find it hard to put my feet on the ground.

In order to overcome this feeling of insufficiency, the best thing I can do for myself is take a huge step back. I turn my phone off, I tap back into my body, and I remind myself why I create art in the first place: to connect with my community, and thus connect even deeper with my past, present and future selves.

I take photos for the joy of those connections – for the stories that come from each image. I didn’t start because I wanted likes or comments or shares or saves. I started because when I was in the darkest place of my life, photography saved me. This craft pulled me out of multiple depressions because it allowed me to see things in a different way. It created a bridge between the physical world and the spiritual, between the mental and the emotional.

There is nothing I would change in my past or my present, because I know deeply that this is where I am meant to be. My path is not always clear, but the direction I am going is bringing me closer to my highest self – where I get my resilience from.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I started 2 Jupiter Photography during my senior year of college at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication. I began my journey professionally with the idea that I wanted to empower every single person I worked with. In Eugene, my clientele grew into something that I was extremely proud of. The stories I was telling were passionate and the pictures I was taking were embodied.

Everything changed when I moved to Portland in 2021. I had just graduated with my BA in Journalism, and I was ready to move to a bigger city with hopefully bigger career prospects. That being said, my senior year at UO got ripped away from me because of COVID, so my internship opportunities and post grad jobs were extremely limited. But that didn’t stop me from trying my best to make my mark in the Portland community.

Then, my mom died. It seemed like life was really trying to stop me from creating art and telling stories. I started to really lose hope that I would ever make a strong relationship with my community. I had zero energy for creation and my mental health plummeted to an all time low. You may be wondering why I’m telling you all of this. The question was about my brand, my art, my new projects. But this story is really who I am, and what drives my creativity in the present moment.

After a year of mourning, I finally started to book shoots again. A lot of them were fun styled sessions, more still were self-love sessions. There were weddings, concerts, branding packages, and more. I worked with some of my biggest inspirations and I made some pretty unreal connections. I was hired for festivals and events that I only ever dreamed of shooting. But after 2 years of filling my schedule with anything I could get my hands on, I finally discovered what the “burn out” is that so many artists experience.

We are in the present moment now. A time where I look back on all the hard work and photoshoots that I have created, and feel a deep sense of slowing down. I am finally at the point in my career that I don’t accept shoots that aren’t in total alignment with me and my brand. And honestly, I am still trying to figure out what my brand really is.

There are a few things that I know for sure. I am a storyteller. I am a connecter among my community. I am a photographer. I am a brand designer. I am a journalist. I am a traveler. What I want to do with all of these skills moving forward is still unknown, but I am taking intentional space to figure it out.

The burn out is real, but it’s also a beautiful opportunity to hone in on what I really want from my art and from my business.

So what’s new in my life? Literally everything. I am rediscovering myself and my passions all over again.

I can’t wait to see who I work with, the stories I have the opportunity of telling, and the people I can help in the process.

I know that the next few years are going to be the most transformational ones yet. I am grateful to have you all following me on my journey.

Some exciting things to look out for in my world are the photos and videos I capture at Oregon Country Fair and Pickathon music festival.

I also plan on working with many more artists and fellow storytellers to create a publication that amplifies marginalized voices and inspires our community to stand up for what they believe in!

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

A mantra of mine that follows me wherever I go now is, “I am in no rush.”

I use this all the time; I use it when I am in traffic, waiting in line, waiting for a job response, while I’m scrolling on social media. I often found myself stressed out for no reason. I was trying to get home as fast as I could, trying to get any job I could get my hands on, trying to rush relationships that needed more time to cultivate. What I found was that life was passing me by, and I wasn’t fully in the present moment. I was rarely listening to my body, which led to anxiety attacks and feelings of hopelessness. When I finally decided to take a step back, slow down, remind myself that I really do have all the time in the world, everything got a whole lot easier.

Once I slowed down, I started to learn the skill of spending my time intentionally. Rather than doing something half assed just to get the job done, I started to do less things but do the things I did do with more effort. My stress levels continued to go down, and I was a lot prouder of the tasks I completed and the art I created.

Finally, an area of knowledge that was the catalyst for a profound sense of healing and overall surge of creativity was the energy I put into my body. I started to move every single day with more intention and alignment than I ever had before. I implemented a solid work out routine, a regular yoga practice, and a kick ass vitamin and mineral supplement program. Once I started to really dial in on my body’s health, I was able to expend more energy doing the things I love.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I am looking for folks who value storytelling and want to make a positive impact on their community. I am constantly inspired by my fellow creatives that work intentionally with the people around them, and create for a higher purpose. My goal is to establish a strong network of individuals that also want to tell stories that make a difference in the lives of others. You can find me on Instagram @tojupiterlovegrace as well as my website 2jupiter.photography.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.2jupiter.photography/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tojupiterlovegrace?igsh=OWZuZXJoemE5aWFs&utm_source=qr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-hefley-833a87172?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app