Meet Jill Sutherland

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jill Sutherland.

Jill, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have been professionally photographing people since 2012. My photo career is a soul calling to inspire and express myself through the means of photography and multimedia art. I enjoy working with passionate artists and muses, people that are willing to be seen, to play, and to experience the power of a great photo. How it can make you feel, what it can do for you, what it can inspire, how it can be a treasured piece of evidence for your life’s archive, a defining milestone in time.

I’m a romantic at heart, and I recognize all these moments as precious. I love adding my unique view to history and I relish the notion of holding onto something special forever, like an enduring photograph of a loved one. Photographs are a way of capturing a moment, a person, a feeling, and keeping it alive for as long as those that behold it are willing to treasure and preserve it. I pride myself in my ability to connect with my clients and extract the magic.

Great, 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?
My greatest challenges have been in finding the energy and time to create! I’ve been very busy taking care of others for the past few years, which has left a lot of my creative ambitions simmering on the back burner. In 2016, I was pregnant with my first child at the same time I found out that my “bonus mother” Victoria was dying of cancer. It was both an incredible challenge and an incredible privilege to experience the overlapping portals of life and death in that way. After Victoria had passed, and I felt like I was finally coming up for air, my Mother Susie was also diagnosed with cancer in October of 2018. The next seven months were a journey from diagnosis to death, a journey of terror, hope, acceptance, and grief.

Needless to say, this has been my greatest challenge in life. It’s affected my business and my ability to perform. Now, emerging once again, and carrying all of these experiences, I am using the time I spent creating a human and letting go of two mothers as spiritual fuel for my creative work. What is really important? What do I really want to create? The photos I create, these precious moments and creative expressions, they have much more meaning to me now, and I’m emerging through this grief with a focus to working on what truly brings me purpose and joy.

Please tell us about Jill Sutherland Photo.
I am a Los Angeles based photographer offering studio & location portraits, intuitive photo adventures, custom commissions, multimedia art & large scale photo murals.

I specialize in making people feel comfortable being photographed, extracting authentic inner beauty and creating stunning portraits.

In addition to my personal photography business, I have a collaboration with my soul sister, Anne Staveley. Together we are Staveley & Sutherland LLC. Under that umbrella we contain a myriad of creative, “all scale” photographic arts including:

Photographic Tarot Deck & Interactive Art Installation – www.WOFTarot.com www.CircleofDoorsTarot.com
Wedding Photography – www.Foreverhooked.com
Large Scale Photo Murals – www.LIVINLARGEPHOTO.com
Artists in their Studio’s – www.voices-of-art.com

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
One of my favorite memories from childhood was my Mom setting me up with a gypsy fortune telling booth consisting of a cardboard soap box as a table, a blanket rigged over a chair with a little crystal ball. She always had creative ways to make fantasies come to life.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.JillSutherlandPhoto.com
• Phone: 310-890-1872
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jillsutherlandphoto/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/jill-sutherland-photo-topanga-canyon-2

Image Credit:
jillsutherlandphoto

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