Daily Inspiration: Meet Rielle Oase

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rielle Oase.

Hi Rielle, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was home-schooled my entire childhood in Tucson Arizona, from preschool through graduating high school. Although my parents did a pretty good job socializing me, home-schooling came with some side effects. I was in community college at 13 and found it was much easier to look at people through a camera. It was obsessive, capturing everything, not trying to take a good photo by any means. Looking back, it feels like I was learning people’s behaviors by taking photos all day long, then taking them back home to sift through at the end of the day.

My parents sent me YouTube videos about photography – if I’m going to spend so much time on it, I might as well be good at it, right? Youtube university taught me all of the technical knowledge, and then the University of Arizona’s Fine Art program taught me about conceptual art. I’m really thankful for that program, it taught me how to communicate with photography. I really think all artists should take some kind of art history class, it provides so much context for what we’re up against today as artists.

In 2019, I moved to LA; at first, I thought of it as a necessary evil, but really grew to love the city. There’s so many creatives here – everyone just as excited to create as the next. I spent a lot of time trying to make ends meet with odd jobs and collaborating on things that I wanted to make. I lost money on every editorial, but I did them because I loved them. Those started getting me paying clients – people who loved the same things I loved. The journey also includes countless friends giving me advice or helping me get to my next goal, none of it was done on my own.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I don’t think it’s a smooth road for anyone. The biggest challenge for me was thinking I had to run the show myself. I would get so stressed out casting, scheduling, building, directing, shooting, editing, and making sure everyone was happy. As I was trying to pull together bigger shoots, the quality of my work was suffering. I didn’t think I could have a team because I didn’t have the budget for one, but I realized there were ways around it. My friends also needed assistants – so I would assist one of their shoots and they would assist mine. Another thing I realized was that there were people genuinely interested in roles that I didn’t like. Not just stylists and makeup artists but producers and PD. The producer I’m working with right now has been an absolute blessing; we collaborate on how to make concepts come to life, he handles the team, and he also acts as creative director on occasion.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a fashion and editorial photographer interested in time as a subject. We view photographs as single moments in time, when in reality that 1/1000th of a second contains an infinite number of moments. In exploring this, I play with concepts such as trying to stop gravity for a second or capturing two moments in time simultaneously.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Just ask questions. I’m constantly messaging people questions about their story, process, and challenges. Even peers can become mentors in that way. I’ve had some photographers formally ask me to mentor them, but I’ve also had people pop up with questions here and ask for feedback there. I help however I can with providing resources and opportunities when they arise.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.reallyrielle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/really_rielle/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Really_Rielle
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@not_rielle

Image Credits
BTS photo by Jared Espino