Today we’d like to introduce you to Terri Griffin.
Hi Terri, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I am a native of Columbus, Ohio living in Los Angeles. I have been a freelance photographer for over twenty years. As a young child I always love taking pictures. In school, I always took art classes and wanted to be a cartoonist, but unfortunately, in the 70s, my parents told me, you don’t want to be an artist; you will starve to death. I let them kill the dream of being a cartoonist. Fast forward my last year and last semester of high school I took a basic photography class. We were taught to make point-hole box cameras, I was amazed that it actually took pictures. We were then taught to print black and white photos in the darkroom, once I saw the photographic paper immerged in the photo chemicals the picture appeared like magic. I was hooked and I am still hooked this very day. For me taking pictures is like breathing. I could not live my life without it, I love the sound of the clicking of the camera. After high school, I went to Ohio University to major in photography, but my first college photography instructor told me that my photography was this and that, and he recommended that I not continue in photography. I thank God every day that I did not listen to that instructor and let him kill my dream of becoming a photographer, because I did not listen to him, I have been all over the world to places like Kenya, Israel, Ghana, Jamaica, Canada, and Mexico, clicking my shutter button “Capturing A Moment in Time”.
In May of 2022, I graduated from Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles with a Master’s Degree in Film, Television, and Photography with an emphasis in Documentary Filmmaking. I wanted to take my storytelling to the next level. While at Mount Saint Mary’s University, I received a $10,000.00 Nikon Storytelling Scholarship to work on the documentary I was producing.
My high school photography teacher was Mr. Hudson when I went to college, he gave me one of his cameras to take to school with me. Mr. Hudson is the reason I am the great photographer I am today, and because of him, it is my heart’s desire to go back to the inner city to teach kids photography and film through a program called “Inner City Clickers I want to make a difference in their life like Mr. Hudson made in my life. I want to teach the young people that nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it and don’t ever let anyone kill your dream.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As a black woman, it has been a struggle because photography was a very male-dominated field. I was told by my first college photography instructor that I should not continue in photography. I then worked at photo studio in Colorado Springs that photographed schools, I worked in the lab printing school photos; when I asked if I could be a photographer, I was told I could not be a photographer because I did not know how to shoot the bull and drink beer with the principals at the schools. I also worked in the imaging lab at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where all the images from the spacecraft came through our lab. My travel photographs hung in the director’s office of JPL three years in a row because I won the artist competition for the Director’s office, but I was not allowed to be a photographer and make $50,000.00 a year. Although it’s been a struggle, I did not let that deter me from my dream to be a photographer. After I was laid off from JPL in 2002, I decided to start my freelance photography business, Terri Griffin Photography, which has allowed me to photograph Weddings, Headshots, Special Events, Travel, and Red Carpet. I even had the awesome privilege to photograph Mrs. Rosa Parks and various other celebrities and yet I still rise.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
It took me a while to realize that I was a creative person, and because of that, I never liked working a nine-to-five job. I did it because I had too to survive, but I love being out and about taking pictures, it gives me great joy. I do headshot, portraits, and special events. What I love capturing the most is worship photography I have been a church photographer for several ministries. Traveling and shooting travel is a passion that goes hand and hand. Photography is my passion, and traveling is my second passion. In high school, I got the opportunity to go to Paris, and again, I got hooked on travel. I have had the great pleasure to travel all over the world, and I think this has been some of my greatest body of work. I think what sets me apart from others is the fact that I am a people person, it allows me to interact with the people I come in contact with to photograph with a great respect for my clients.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
I am the official photographer for the documentary “Called Up” a documentary about Emmett Ashford the first Black umpire in Major League Baseball in 1966, scheduled to premiere this summer. One of my desires is to mentor young people and have them work with me as interns but it is a paid internship for their work. Right now, I am the process of finding support for the program I want to start going into the inner-city and teaching kids’ photography and film. I am also trying to get funding so that I can improve my documentary that I was working on while I was getting my master’s degree, I want to put it in film festivals and pitch it to PBS. I am also working on a documentary about my friend’s mother who was in the play “Porky and Bess in the fifties.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.terrigriffinphoto.com
- Instagram: tgphotoartist
- Facebook: Terri Griffin Photography
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terri-griffin-mfa-520475173/
- Other: https://tgphoto.smugmug.com
Image Credits
Terri Griffin
