Check Out Al Noelle Walter’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Al Noelle Walter.

Hi Al Noelle, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I love telling a good story. From a young age, I figured one day, I’d tell stories for a living. I talk a ton…and I’ve always been passionate about people feeling seen and heard. That summed up story-telling, it seemed like the life for me. I just always thought I’d do so with words, not images. Turns out, I’m pretty crap with written words and much better with visuals.

I was always pretty involved in journalism through high school and enrolled into Indiana University as a journalism major. I’ve always loved art and music, but I grew up in the midwest. At the time, the culture there made it seem pretty far-fetched to make either into a career and to pursue them wasn’t really encouraged for the long haul. (Now, there is an emerging culture of creatives and it’s so cool to see). So, being interested in photography, I figured the perfect solution was to study photojournalism. I could tell stories and raise awareness for causes with images while making art and still justify my major setting me up for a successful career.

After an internship with CBS in New York City during college and a couple of freelance jobs with Vice, I really fell in love with being on set. I loved chatting with new and interesting people all day and watching folks make quick decisions and be completely in their element. I knew that was what I wanted to do.

In that same time period, I began traveling a ton, there were lots of people for me to meet out in the world, so I started stopping people on the street and asking their story. Because my camera was always with me, I’d take a portrait after and share their story. I kept doing this with all different types of people and all over the world. I got a rush from it. That experience landed me work covering charities in the inner city of Indianapolis and Nicaragua to help raise awareness and money for them. I always wanted people to feel seen and heard, I found my camera was a tool to do so.

I moved to Newport Beach for my last year of university. There, I surrounded myself with a ton of people who were photographers. I hit up people through Instagram, bugged an ad agency everyday to hire me, and would meet up with anyone who would give me the time of the day. I would take any job for any price that was even remotely related to photography. I figured the more time I invested and the more relationships I could make, the more the doors would open. I started shooting as much as I could, either testing with agencies or just friends, and then started running social media pages and creating content for brands.

After I had built a little portfolio for myself (and not a great one at that, I was just 22), my friend who shot some content for TOMS reached out saying they were hiring a full-time person to shoot consistent content and thought I’d be perfect for it. It seemed like the dream job to me, it was fashion mixed with photojournalism. I would be traveling around the world capturing and telling the stories of the communities TOMS was giving shoes and eyewear to while also shooting their lifestyle campaigns. So, I moved up to Hermosa Beach and took the job. It was a dream. Today, I am still shooting all of their content, along with other brands. I’m extremely thankful for the opportunity.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road to where I am today has definitely not been smooth. I pretty much learned on the job and failed so many times along the way. My first campaigns were so stressful. All of the pressure is weighing on you to make the right decisions, how to shoot a look, where to shoot it, how to light it, what to have the subject do, etc. I was so afraid of messing up or looking like I didn’t know what I was doing. I felt confident shooting with just a model, but the second an entire production had eyes on me, it’s like I froze and my confidence went out the window. I was too busy trying to figure out if they liked what I was doing or not that it made it difficult to get in the zone and shoot what I thought was cool and knew worked. I had little confidence in a lot of my decisions back then. Eventually, I got used to the eyes being on the work I was doing, and now I love shooting with more people around and prefer it. It’s fun to collaborate with a crew that are all super creative and have a ton of ideas flowing.

There were times I was planning on quitting photography entirely. It’s easy to compare yourself to what everyone else is doing and think that your work is trash. I still do it all the time. It’s easy to see how much there still is to learn about what you’re doing, think you know nothing, then convince yourself you’re a fake. Imposter syndrome is real.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I mainly do commercial photography for a variety of brands. To keep things interesting, I try to do personal work. I love when photographs have a sense of humor; it’s my aim when concepting my own shoots. I’ll put subjects in places or outfits that seemingly don’t belong. I think it creates fun images and makes them stand out. More brands have started to take to it too, so shooting commercial photography isn’t as boring as everyone makes it out to be.

I’m most proud of the shoots that are really collaborative with people I enjoy being around and creating with. Not only do they take a ton of effort and coordination to pull off, but they are the most fun too. My boyfriend, Andy, and I have been directing shoots together. It’s fun concepting and building off of one another’s ideas until we have a direction. Most recently, we shot on the Air Hollywood set, which looks like the interior of an airplane, with three dogs and four models. It was ridiculous trying to get three dogs to pay attention (while wearing little headscarves and sunglasses) sitting on aircraft seats next to people, but we had so much fun in the making, laughed the entire time, and people got a kick out of the images. Images that get a lot of reaction from people is good motivation for the next one.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
People can reach out via email or Instagram for photography or art direction needs.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.alnoelle.com
• Instagram: @alnoellewalter

Image Credits:
Al Noelle Walter