Meet Hayley Valeri

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hayley Valeri.

Hayley, before we jump into specific questions about your work, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My story starts with a camera. The camera seems to be more of the main character than I am, which I am more than okay with. From a really young age, I loved taking pictures. In my earliest memories, I can remember my parents giving me this little red thing, I guess it was some sort of toy that film could be loaded into. From there, it became little digital point-and-shoot, and then my first DSLR when I was a junior in high school. I took photos of everything.

Once I was in college, I still didn’t have a very clear view of what I wanted to do for a career, but I was still taking pictures. I started shooting weddings for friends, among other things and really started putting in the time to teach myself photography. My last year at school, I was careening towards an early graduation, which scared me more than I wanted to admit, so I decided to document as much of my final few months as I could. I took my camera everywhere and took photos of everything. Mostly my friends, because I wanted to remember as much as possible. It stretched me and made me a better photographer, but it also taught me so much about myself, and how deeply I care about storytelling.

Then I discovered something else: motion pictures. I took a couple of video production classes and found out that I could actually go to Los Angeles for my final semester and essentially dive headfirst into a totally different world of cameras and storytelling. It felt impossible, almost miraculous. So I jumped at the chance. I showed up to film school with such little knowledge about filmmaking, and this great love for photography tucked away in my back pocket. About halfway into the semester, I realized I had fallen in love with cinematography, which for me was just an extension of the love I already had for images. All of a sudden, I decided I wanted to stay in LA. I was going to make a huge jump into the unknown without a second thought, just because I had fallen so hard in love with something.

Almost two years later, my friend Lauren Currie approached me about a web series that she and her business partner, Ellen Steves, had in the works through chap.three, the production company they started together. I remember sitting down with them over drinks and listening to them pitch this brilliant, ambitious project, and then hearing them ask me to shoot it. All of it. They hadn’t seen anything I had ever worked on, and they were pitching this project to me, asking me to be the Director of Photography for 51 episodes, and anticipating a yes, all on faith that I was fully ready to execute this rather massive vision.

It felt almost too good to be true. So, of course, I said yes. We went on to shoot 51 short episodes, with a full female cast and crew, and have been rolling them out every single week for something close to 20 weeks now. It has been the best project I’ve ever been lucky enough to work on, and I credit so much of the ways I’ve grown as a filmmaker to the simple fact that these amazing women took a chance on me.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of the things I’ve struggled with the most since diving into the world of the creative industry is this very traditional definition of success that seems to permeate every corner of Los Angeles. The more you work, the more money you make, the more big brands and big names you can list on your resume, the more successful you are. It’s a very narrow view of success that has tried to box me out time and time again. I have always lived at a slower pace than most, especially in a city this size, and the culture that we have created here doesn’t often allow for that.

I remember very early into my life here, maybe a week after moving here permanently after finishing school, one of my friends said to me, “I do think you’ll make it, it’s just going to take you a while.” It’s become this running joke with us, especially because he had no idea how right he was. It used to frustrate me that everyone around me seemed to be moving so fast, advancing in their careers so quickly, meeting the right people, making so much money, yada yada yada.

It felt like I was standing still in the middle of a marathon, except everyone else was sprinting. But the “slow and steady wins the race” cliche has always felt like it was written for me, especially once I realized that it’s not really a race at all. The challenge we all face here in LA is learning that there is actually a seat for all of us at the table. We don’t have to close the door behind us when we get let “in.” I can go at my own pace, and redefine success to be whatever I want it to be.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
I am primarily a cinematographer and photographer, though I have done a wide range of other jobs within the film and photo world. I have also been an AC, a gaffer, a camera operator, a photo assistant, lighting assistant, set designer, and writer — among other things. At the end of the day, I am a camera person at heart, and that it is my favorite kind of work to do. I am best known for my work on the web series City Kitties, which is currently releasing episodes every Thursday on YouTube.

I could not be more proud of the work I did on City Kitties, as well as the other photo and video work I have been focusing my time on over the last several months. I am currently working on transitioning a lot of my photo work from digital to film, which has already been a wild ride, and I know will take a lot more patience as a discipline to get where I want to be with it.

Everything I do hinges upon feelings – the question I always ask myself is how can I create real, complex emotions within people when they experience my work? For me, especially, the type of art that stirs something deeply emotional in me is what will have the most lasting impact, even after I have left the theater or the museum or the gallery. I want everything I do to have meaning, and not just for me. The difference is this: am I creating to be self-indulgent, just to express something for the sake of expression, or am I creating for something bigger than myself, so that those who decide to participate in it with me don’t leave empty-handed?

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
It’s always a funny thing to share a story that doesn’t have a beginning, middle, and end. Maybe something about it feels odd, almost unnatural. I’ve been working on sharing stories that don’t have endings because the best ones don’t. Mine is like that because I think I will always feel right in the middle of it. The great thing about standing in the middle area of life is that the future is always both mysterious and exciting. I’m not someone who plans for it very well, so it’s very true what they say — anything can happen. This year I have been focusing more on writing, and I have really been enjoying the stretching process of storytelling with words instead of pictures. But of course, I have some fun new photo projects I am working on, and I am hoping to be able to shoot some more short films this year!

Contact Info:

• Website: hayleyvaleri.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/hayvaleri

Image Credit:
Bianca Cataban
Kate Catanese

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