Meet Isabelle Winardi

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Isabelle Winardi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Isabelle below.

Isabelle, so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?

Navigating the Los Angeles photography scene as a solo Asian female can sometimes be daunting. When out with my fiancé, I haven’t run into any sticky situations, and when on photo walks with others, the group as a whole benefits from safety in numbers. During my time alone, however, I sometimes find that I stick out like a sore thumb.

A lot of my work captures the famous (and not-so-famous) parts of the city that make LA, LA. Naturally, that involves a lot of walking, a lot of public transportation, and a lot of interactions with the residents who call this place home. At best, people hurl racial epithets and I sometimes get mistaken for a tourist even though I’ve lived here for nearly a decade; at worst, I have run ins with unsavory folks who make me feel thankful for always having my pepper spray on hand.

All in all, nothing too serious has happened, and being vigilant while not being paranoid, being confident while also being inconspicuous, has helped a lot. All’s well that ends well!

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’m a photographer who’s been living in Southern California my entire life. I was born in Orange County, grew up in San Bernardino County, and currently live in Los Angeles County. SoCal is my home, and no matter where in the world I travel, my favorite photographs are all from here as I feel like they are the most genuine representation of who I am as a photographer and as a person.

My first experience with a DSLR was when my parents gifted me a Nikon D3200 that I would bring on family vacations, although I didn’t start taking photography more seriously until I got to college. I joined UCLA’s photography club while completing my undergraduate studies there, and eventually became the club’s graphic designer. From there, I began selling my own prints and even several magazines.

Nowadays, I no longer sell preprinted pictures in bulk as I used to before, opting instead for commission based work where clients can reach out to me directly for specific photos that they’re interested in.

I specialize in photos of cars, nature, and architecture with a side of vintage Americana, roadside attractions, and desert oddities, all with a touch of pastel editing. My early career focused on selling my own prints and magazines, which gave me enough confidence to enter my first photography contest, where I won an award—I’m proud to have made it this far, as this was a big step forward after most of my exposure came from being featured in group exhibitions. I hope to publish more magazines in the future and enter more competitions!

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?

Practice. From when I first started photography as a hobby in college until now, what has perhaps helped me grow the most is sheer practice. Learning how to frame a shot to get the optimal composition, playing around with shutter speed and aperture to capture the perfect moment, editing raw photos to elicit a certain mood with the final product. These are all things that come with time and experience. When I look back at my earlier photos and compare them to my work now, I can see how much I’ve grown as an artist even though I’ve been using the same camera all these years. It’s not something you learn by watching a video or reading a book or taking a class. It’s something you learn by doing things firsthand.

Experiment. Throughout the years, my style has changed from documentary style photography with minimal editing when I first began, to minimalist photography with simple compositions and bold colors, to my current pastel style showcasing ordinary things in what I hope to be an extraordinary way. When you grow as a person, you also grow as an artist, and the way your work changes throughout the years is a reflection of how much you have grown as a human being.

Repeat. It’s fine to take a photo of the same exact thing 10 times, 100 times, even 1000 times. It’s not ever really the same exact thing. The lighting will be different from day to day, the surrounding environment will be different from year to year, the composition will be different depending on how the shot is framed. By shooting the same object or the same location multiple times on different times of the day or year, you’re able to capture different moments and therefore evoke different emotions from the same scene. In a way, these photos become part of history, a way to document the changing world around us.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

Although I know that social media isn’t everything, this year marks the first time that my Instagram page has been on the decline. From when I first made my account in the beginning of college until now, I managed to achieve a slow but steady increase all across the board with followers, likes, and overall engagement. In the past year, I saw my account struggling to the point that I stopped using hashtags altogether when I noticed that adding them to my captions and comments no longer boosted my reach like before.

While the numbers might appear discouraging, all I can do now is continue to make art, as I’ve come to terms with the fact that views, likes, and comments don’t define us as artists. Looking at my progress throughout the years, my current work feels much more cohesive and mature than my earlier works, and now I am content knowing that whether my art reaches one person or a million, the only person I should be creating art for is myself.

At the end of the day, all I want is for people to feel something when they see my photos: happiness, sadness, hope, melancholy, joy, despair. I strive to create work that is as authentic as possible, and if that means 1 like, 0 comments, and losing 10 followers, I’d take being genuine over creating something with no soul and then slapping some trending audio on it.

Ultimately, social media isn’t the end all be all, and there are other ways to grow as an artist. The internet might be new, but art has been around forever. Word of mouth. Public exhibitions. Outreach. The possibilities are endless.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.idraniwinardi.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idraniwinardi/
• Other: https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/209612673/idraniwinardi

Image Credits

Personal Photo: Dang Nguyen

Additional Photos: Isabelle Winardi