We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jazmine Alexa. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jazmine below.
Jazmine , appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
Before fully answering this question I think that it’s really important, at least to me, to just briefly break down what “creativity” means/is. I recently listened to an episode on the healthy hoes podcast on Spotify where the host, Ri, was talking about creativity and how we as a society often view creativity like it is for a “collective few” like you are either a creative person or you are not and the reason I’d like to to start answering the question from here is that creativity is NOT just for a handful of people, it is for everyone. You can participate in the spirit of creating no matter who you are or what you are doing, whether that is cooking your lunch or arranging the bouquet of flowers you bought from the store or doing your hair etc, etc. Trying to infuse the everyday and the mundane with childlike wonder and curiosity keeps me excited. I truly look forward to every moment no matter what it brings and this mindset has honestly made it so much easier to bring little lightbulb ideas out of my brain haha.
In order to keep my creativity alive I make a real effort to interact with the spirit of creativity daily in everything that I can. This can be as small as what I pick to wear on a particular day or the music I choose to play in the background of my tasks or more intentionally some of the activities that really keep my creative brain going are things like cooking new recipes, trying something new and challenging myself or getting my eyes on something that i’m not used to seeing by going on hike i’ve never done before. To let you in on a little secret of mine that always gets my creativity going again when it is low, from time to time, I love to visit my favorite antique shops and allow myself to be captivated by new textures, shapes and color combinations.
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?
Officially I guess my title would be photographer and even more specific that I am an intimate wedding and elopement photographer but the true core off the work I do is simply storytelling. I haven’t always been a photographer, I actually only picked up a real camera for the first time about 3 years ago. I had been working as a medical assistant through the COVID-19 pandemic and found myself needing a creative outlet. After lots of reflection and thinking about what that would look like, I remembered an experience I had when i’d worked with a photographer during a really vulnerable time in my life, she encouraged me to exist where my feet were and made me feel seen in a way id never really experienced before, I thought I might work towards evoking that feeling in others too.
Photography was almost an instant passion, not just because I got to be artistic but because of the gratitude I always received from the other side of my lens. No matter the subject, the experience and photos they got out of our sessions always seemed to leave a big impact. By the end of sessions it would feel like i’d been friends with my client for a lifetime and somehow always ended up in deep heart to heart conversation. My love of photography was born when I understood its capacity to produce such a deep emotional response from the people I was photographing. The images I was taking weren’t just pictures; they were priceless, frozen glimpses of a person, family or couple’s essence that would be passed down through time.
Photographing others has helped me align my own priorities at the deepest level. Being present and intentional in my life is so so important to me. Officially starting Jazmine Alexa Photography is in part a gift from the pandemic, it’s the fundamental understanding that our time here is so limited. I won’t lie, starting a business was super scary because I was choosing to embark on what others told me was an incredibly risky path but the fear of being safe in my “secure” job but forever miserable was far greater than the fear of embracing on the journey of entrepreneurship. It’s so easy to get caught up in the chaos of life sometimes but it’s important to remember the importance of being grounded and being grateful for the people who make everything that much more worth it. We won’t be here forever and that is what drives me in my work. I want to spend as much time as possible making the most of the little bit we have and cultivating a space for my clients to do the same.
Although I am not quite where I strive to be in my business just yet, I am incredibly proud of where I find myself on the journey. I am finally at a place in my business where I have a deep understanding of the community I want to serve and am only taking work I feel I truly align with. While building Jazmine Alexa Photography has been incredibly rewarding so far, it has not been easy. Failure and disappointment have come in all shapes and sizes from being ghosted to being stood up but hardship is an unavoidable and necessary part of growth even in business. The way we handle difficult moments reveal our character. I’ve learned the importance of being deeply connected to my mission and to my art and the importance of relentlessly showing up no matter what.
I think the thing I want everyone who comes across my content and those I get the honor of working with to know about me is that their story means the world and should be photographed that way. I build deep relationships with my clients because it’s critical to capturing the essence of who they truly are and I am so passionate about giving anyone in front of my lens the space to let the most honest versions of them shine, belly laugh, double chin, goofy smiles, happy tears and all.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three qualities that immediately come to mind are a delusionally, optimistic and strong sense of self, resilience and humility. If you are reading this and are early in your joinery right now, I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am for you and who you will become.
It all starts from within you, this idea you have for whatever pursuit you have your focus on right now started as a little seed inside your soul and is the purest version of your vision, let that be an grounding point for yourself as you grow toward your goal and trust yourself! As you move forward you must also look in because your business will never any stronger or healthier than you and your sense of self. Along with all the joy and high emotions that come with starting a creative business there will inevitably equally low moments and in those times having a very strong ability to persevere and be resilient will serve you in a critical way. 90%of people who set out to do exactly what you are doing stop when met with the slightest resistance. Last but not least, you are not alone on this path! Lean on those in your community who have already has success and soak up their knowledge. Don’t fall into any trap that makes you feel like you can’t ask for help.I don’t think i’ve ever observed any successful person who I personally admire claim all their success for them selves, they almost always use those moments to acknowledge all those who helped them get to where they are.
You got this!
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
Hands down, The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo has had such a profound impact not just on my development as a creative and business owner but as a human. There is so much goodness to be extracted about how to lead a truly meaningful life but if I were to have to only pick a couple of nuggets to share they’d be the two following:
1. “Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested….The darkest hour of midnight comes just before dawn.” At this point in the story we are pretty close to the end of the narrators quest and despite all the challenges he overcame along the way, he is so close to giving up even though he is literally inches away from success he just doesn’t know it. It can be so corny to hear phrases like “it’s about getting back up no matter how many times you fall” but the message that they carry are so important to our personal growth. The fact of the matter is that we will all fall, you don’t know when or how but you MUST continue to get back up and push through. There is often something in those moments that will serve us after we’ve overcome them. Diamonds are formed under pressure.
2. “There is only one way to learn,…It’s through action.” The first time I reflecting on the concept that a goal with out a plan is just a dream it hit me like a sac of bricks. I am the type of person who can spend forever thinking about doing something and never actually do it. I get in my head more than I like to admit and find my self paralyzed in inaction. The simple cure, I just do the thing, I do it scared, I do it clueless, I do it when Ive convinced myself I don’t want to( especially then) because you can think and you can read and you can listen but until you get your hands dirty and get a little vulnerable and tango with the possibility of failure you won’t ever learn anything.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Sola Park, Wild & Sage co., The Lovers SoCal, Paulina Breanne, Nikki Lund, Jeune Perche, The Shukans,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
