Meet Seán Arena

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Seán Arena a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Seán, 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?

At a young age, I learned very quickly that I would get torn down by life if I didn’t roll with the punches and keep moving forward. Being in the middle of my parents separation and divorce, trying to find the right career path for myself in a town that was unsupportive of my aspirations, and being a teenager in the Post-9/11 era – it all meant being constantly bombarded by multiple forces. Some knocked me off course, some didn’t, but I learned to dust myself off and just keep going.

When I came of age and went off to make my way, it became clear that I was very much on my own. I had to build my life from the bottom up; I had to slowly build my own network of contacts in the film and television world, while doing everything I could to earn a college degree and pay my bills. I had to continue showing up for myself when it felt like no one else could or would.

Since then, I’ve learned to break down the walls I inadvertently built around myself early in my adulthood. I’ve learned to ask for help when I need it and be kinder to myself. But most importantly, I’ve learned that every day is a practice day for tomorrow.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

My first job in the industry was as a Camera Production Assistant in 2007 on American Idol. Since then I’ve worked for companies like Dotdash Meredith, Time Inc, NBCUniversal, and Cablevision, as well as a freelancer on various film & TV sets. Over the last decade though, I’ve found my true passion is photography, both digital and film.

I live and work in New York, NY, where you can find me on the subway with my face buried in a book or wandering into every corner of the city. If I’m not traveling and exploring, I’m thinking about traveling and exploring. Or tacos. But mostly the travel thing.

Earlier this year, a documentary I had the pleasure of writing aired on PBS Hawaii. Keeper of the Bay is a film about marine conservation through the eyes of a native Hawaiian woman as she fights to continue her family legacy. It can now be viewed for free on their YouTube page, and now it is part of the in-flight entertainment for Hawaiian Airlines.

But the bigger milestone for me was publishing my first photography book. The book is Mileage; a collection of my favorite photos from my travels over the last decade, beginning with an impromptu but transformative trip to Montauk in Winter.

I decided to self-publish the book through Blurb. With the birth of my son creeping closer and closer, it was important to me that I set an example and stop letting the barriers in my head stop me. So what if agents and publishers wouldn’t get back to me? If every artist allowed blockers out of their control to prevent them from creating, then there wouldn’t be any artists left.

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 do believe that everyone’s experience is unique and I don’t generally recommend trying to copy someone else’s path, but I do very much believe in using an ingredient from someone else’s recipe and adding it to your own as you figure out what does/doesn’t work.

Looking back now, I was not as patient or humble as I should have been. As I inch closer to 20 years of experience, I can say I certainly have learned my lesson. Little can shake my calm and my patience at this point because nothing is worth giving up your peace.

As I mentioned previously, every day is a practice day for tomorrow. In other words, it’s not only okay to make mistakes it is inevitable that you will. Mistakes are experience. Whether or not you choose to learn from them is up to you.

And lastly, zoom with your legs. Now this one came from a mentor early in my career. I was a news photographer at the time and figuring out my style. Some people were fine with zooms, others were not. Said mentor was the latter and would tell me to zoom with my legs, which was a fancy way of saying “Stop zooming in and just get closer to the subject.” Over the years, it has taken on a new meaning for me – be willing to do the hard work; don’t look for the shortcuts.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

Finding out in my thirties that I’m neurodivergent was not easy. But at the same time it’s been incredibly freeing. It’s allowed me to look back on the past with a different perspective and be a bit kinder to myself. Most importantly, it has allowed me to relearn my own brain.

I’ve since found the boundaries of my own limitations, which means recognizing when I’m overwhelmed or overstimulated. The simple things matter most like taking 5 minutes to step away from your work area, whether it’s a studio or a cubicle. If you’re overwhelmed, trying to barrel through and white knuckle the situation is like trying to run through a brick wall.

For me, a good cup of tea and the sun always grounds me. If I’m home, I make a cup of tea and sit by a window. If I’m working, I let my legs take me to a place to get a good cup of tea and get outside into the sun.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.seandarena.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanthearena?igsh=MXJhYm5za2Vna2l5ZQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qrP
• Other: https://www.blurb.com/b/11980018-mileage

  https://www.pbshawaii.org/keeper-of-the-bay/

Image Credits

All photographs by me