Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kate Berry. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Kate, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Being an only child I’ve always been fiercely independent and self sufficient. Having the confidence to travel solo, go freelance, move countries and sustain myself in areas where often people have support is empowering. I keep pushing in my work because I love what I do and over time have grown to believe in myself (albeit a constant work in progress!). I think also gratitude for when times are good, reflecting on how far I’ve come, trusting my gut and remembering everything is temporary: I have the fortune and freedom to be able to change things if they are no longer serving me.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a freelance Travel, Lifestyle and Interiors photographer. I’m self-taught and changed course 12 years ago after studying fashion and working as a Trend Researcher at a big London design agency. I lived and worked in London for 7 years before moving to Los Angeles and I have recently left LA to live in Oaxaca, Mexico.
My focus is on transporting people to the places I photograph and capturing soul, whether it be of a person or a place. I love beauty and colour and natural light but I also love grit, I’m someone who is ok with contrast and balance. I like to keep it real and accessible and grounded as that’s who I am as a person.
Nothing excites me more than travel assignments but I also love capturing beautiful architecture and interiors. I love that I never know what commission is going to come next and that I’m not studio based, I want my work to continue to take me to far flung places and meet people I’d never normally meet.
In the next year or so I’d like to be able to share my journey and gift with others through teaching photography classes and workshops, hopefully combining an element of travel too, so watch this space.
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?
I took a simple photography course to learn the basics then I just kept shooting. Even now, I have to make myself shoot for myself to keep the passion alive. Keep learning, keep shooting, be nice to people! I also think it’s really good to get out there and visit galleries in real life. Go look at work in books or actual spaces and absorb it properly. So much more inspiring than looking at Instagram for example. Instagram is a useful tool and helps you to stay relevant but it’s intimidating, fickle and transient and I think is more likely to restrict your own creative process and journey. You have to stay blinkered and in your own lane otherwise you’ll never develop a style of your own, but looking at art in actual spaces I always walk away totally inspired.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
Try and keep everything in perspective. Take deep breaths. I meditate first thing every day and have recently begun the Artist’s Way and find the morning pages (journalling every morning) incredibly beneficial for clearing the brain’s cache and recognising things which keep coming up, positive and negative.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kateberry.co.uk
- Instagram: @katebe_
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katebe/
- Other: https://www.dublab.com/archive/kate-berry-the-orbit-03-30-23
