Daily Inspiration: Meet Bliss Braoudakis

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bliss Braoudakis.

Hi Bliss, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My name is Bliss, which was my grandmother’s maiden name. I grew up in Atlanta as well as Chicago. Having access to such beautiful architecture and art museums led me toward a more intentional way of looking at the world. I now have lived in Los Angeles for nearly 10 years, which still somehow feels like a place I haven’t fully settled into, but I am falling more in love with it with time.

I painted daily and it did feel grounding, although, the idea of building a whole career around it didn’t feel right. Photography came through being gifted a 35mm camera as a teen and it shifted everything. I would try and recreate the worlds I would find inspiration from in the fashion magazines I collected, while photographing friends after school. Being able to tell stories through images felt closer to what I needed, even before understanding it. Now while traveling often, I work across fashion, still life, and interiors, still trying to follow that same instinct.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It was jarring, but I am grateful to have an artist mother because she never discouraged me from taking on the same risks. Finding something I loved so much as a teenager came with its own confusion, but it made me more introspective. Having to learn how to professionally direct people, understand light, load film in different cameras, make money to shoot more film, and navigating the long process of editing, all while still figuring out how to exist socially within it.

When I was 17, I was asked by a few magazines to do print work, but I turned it down out of fear of not feeling ready. Looking back, I think it was the right decision. At the time, I was scared to be in situations I couldn’t control. It took a long time to find my voice and understand less arbitrary parameters for myself.

Even now, with photography as my career, I don’t want it to feel like a task. I never set out to fit into an industry, and I still feel a distance from that way of thinking. It’s difficult not to be shaped by the awareness of being perceived by others. I think I’ve been trying to reconnect with a version of myself that made things without that awareness, which is quite the journey.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I try to focus on work that translates as unscripted. Photography is always shared. Some days I’m there to carry out someone else’s vision, to translate it as clearly as I can. Other times, I’m trusted to follow my own instincts, which still feels like something I don’t take lightly. Either way, I try to leave space for what I didn’t plan.

I primarily work on beauty and fashion sets. As well, many journal features of incredible people in their homes and work spaces. I really enjoy photographing people, it has always felt like the closest thing I have to a purpose. I’m proud of the reaction of my subject getting to see the way I see them, and the joy it brings. Spending long days with strangers while making art is a great life to be lived. I try and move through my work days noticing what’s already there, like natural light and the way things settle without being arranged to perfection. I try to make with less, to let my life and my work feel like extensions of the same without forcing it all into something overthought. I like simplicity.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Always. There’s a kind of responsibility in paying attention to people, letting them stay as they are instead of shaping them into something else. Try to leave room for that, for whatever someone is carrying and to show up without being molded too much.

Being trusted with being seen feels rare. I think all of it comes down to patience. You have to stay long enough to understand how the real, good work takes years. Don’t get into photography because you want to be looked at. You’re supposed to be the one helping someone be seen.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blisskatherine.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blisskatherine/