Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandy Swartz.
Brandy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Some of my earliest memories of photography is walking home from school with a Canon point and shoot film camera with my best friends. To this day, those friends (and their kids) are still some of my very best subjects. I would boss them around to dress up in crazy outfits, stroll around town to the weirdest locations I could find and then pose them together in whatever way I wanted without any of them questioning my vision. 20 years later, I feel like my wedding photography now is just an adult version of the way I was shooting back then. I was hired for my first wedding at the age of 18 and it just snowballed after that. Along with massive support from friends and family, an incredible amount of willpower, an open mind and a young desperate hunger to know more… I just went for it. I put myself out there. I made incredible mistakes. I cold called experienced photographers and asked really naive questions. I pushed myself in a way that felt like survival. My business grew very quickly and I continued to challenge myself every year. Through the years, I kept finding new areas of my creativity that I never knew existed. Today, that young combination of hustle, passion and fear (or maybe overcoming fear?) allowed me to grow into a wedding photography business that travels all over the world shooting up to 32 weddings a year. And it all still feels like a dream when I say it out loud.
Has it been a smooth road?
I’m going to answer this question Yes and No. Yes, because I knew right when I turned 18 that being a full-time photographer was my goal. I didn’t struggle through any in-between time of not really knowing what I want to be when I grew up. I think that is a gift and it would have been more of a struggle if I had to go through a lot of different options trying to figure that out. No, because….no, lol. My road has been pretty crazy. I’ve made some insane mistakes in my career that I dare not mention here (maybe over coffee). I started when I was 18 so it still kind of blows my mind that I was able to live through my 20’s and manage a business at the same time. I would say my early struggles were mostly self-stupidity but also conveniently mixed in with self-doubt, insecurities, meltdowns and ego. As a person and a photographer, I am never done learning from my mistakes but I feel pretty good about all of those lessons helping me be “better than I was yesterday”.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a traveling wedding photographer. My main focus remains in the Chicagoland and Central Illinois area, where I started 14 years ago. I expanded to Southeast Iowa 9 years ago. I traveled all over the country for weddings for the first 10 years of my career. About 4 years ago, I rebranded and started also doing International wedding photography allowing me to travel places like Ireland, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Mexico and Dominican. My business is known for how much I travel and not only post my professional photos but I post a ton of my personal travel photos which I think stands out to my audience. I am proud of the way my photography and business attracts really fucking amazing clients. Can I say fucking? My clients truly are amazing and I LOVE that I am still friends with so many of them on Facebook and get to watch them grow into families. I think what sets me apart is some of my posing against landscapes and cityscapes. I combine classic images with really far out images and I think the blending of the two is how people remember me. I mean, I hope?
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I grew up visiting Chicago multiple times a year. I started my business outside of Chicago. And by the age of 22, I was living in Uptown on the north side of Chicago. As a young “starving” photographer… Chicago was great because it not only had a million options to do on the side for extra cash (I chose dog walking). It was an endless array of options for the growing creative mind. The city is a fantastic outlet for learning such as one-time classes, lectures and galleries. Not to mention the endless amount of interesting people, expansive landscapes and soulful moments all at your fingertip to stop in time.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.brandyswartz.com
- Phone: 815-878-5482
- Email: brandy@brandyswartz.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandyswartzphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandyswartz2015/
Image Credit:
Molly Koenig
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