Rising Stars: Meet Jennifer Brindley Ubl

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Brindley Ubl.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Looking back on my journey, it began in Colorado where I was born. My interest in photography was always focused on photographing people – and it started in the darkroom in college. I knew I wanted to keep growing, so then I did some remote learning with the New York Institute of Photography.

After that, it was lots of deep, hard work on improving my craft with feedback from my photography peers. The first time I photographed anyone in a studio setting I was working in an 8×8 room I was able to use for free in a building I worked in while working for another company. A short time after that, I made the move to Milwaukee, and my studio was in the living room of our apartment! I was photographing weddings full-time then and did some portraits intermittently. It would be a few more years before I rented my very first real studio space in the old Pittsburgh Arts Building downtown Milwaukee. Of course, that building no longer exists in its previous incarnation as it houses condominiums now.

I photographed 200 weddings over the course of ten years and decided in 2017 to retire my wedding studio in favor of building a portrait studio. That all brings me to the present day where I have been operating an amazing 1,000-square-foot contemporary portrait studio for six years.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I don’t think anyone has a smooth road. There are struggles and challenges whether you decide to make your own way in this world, or whether you decide to work for someone else for your entire life.

I just had to make the decision: how do I want to struggle?

Do I want to struggle with not feeling seen, accepted, encouraged to be myself? Do I want to be stifled creatively? Do I want to fall in line with what the corporate norm is, and do I want to be forced to align with the ideals of someone else’s corporation? Do I want to be shackled by the schedule they required me to adhere to?

Or do I want to be challenged by a wide-open space to create myself in? Do I want the struggle of creating a business from the ground up? All of the hard work it takes to build a business for myself, of my own vision and ideology? One that syncs entirely with who and what I am, and gives me space and flexibility and freedom and total ownership of my successes and failures? Do I want total control of my life, my schedule and my time?

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve been a full-time, self-employed professional photographer for over 14 years. I operate a six-figure contemporary portrait studio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My studio offers a massive celebrity-style wardrobe and world-class hair & makeup artists. I provide an incredible portrait experience for my clients that is unrivaled in my area.

It’s my goal in life to photograph everyday women as if they’ve been photographed for a major magazine. We take them through all their style-selves – the various incarnations of their identity. Professional, casual, sensual, glamorous, classic, contemporary and so much more.

Every woman I photograph is asked how she wishes to be seen. It’s always a reflection of her, her mind and her journey. So many of my clients want to reconnect with themselves. They share their stories of struggle, hardship, challenges, and of triumph, success and joy. I focus on capturing these elements in my clients as well – their wisdom, their strength, their fortitude. Their happiness, their playfulness, their wisdom.

I create a collection of images to represent each client, for all time. They take home incredible archival prints that will be there twenty, thirty, forty years from now to remind them of who they were in these moments. And they will outlive those clients, and be there to tell their stories to the next generations of people who will love and remember them and their legacy forever.

Contact Info:

• Website: jenniferbrindley.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennbrindley/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenniferbrindleyportrait