Meet Aliah Husain of Raw Portraiture in San Francisco

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aliah Husain.

Aliah, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Growing up in a first generation South Asian family, my parents were always trying to guard me from doing anything that they viewed as unconventional or unstable. My hobbies of drawing and creative writing were seen as “cute” and never anything to be harnessed or taken seriously. My life was written as a doctor, lawyer, scientist or whatever.

And ultimately, I did all of the “right things”– worked from the time I was 16, financed my education in Business Management, got a high paying job in recruiting, and then went into sales for a Silicon Valley financial consulting company. Looking back, I made a lot of life decisions and career choices based on the desire to be financially secure and independent. Creativity was ALWAYS present in my day to day, between cooking elaborate meals for friends and family, writing poetry, scribbling, daydreaming, etc.

In 2014, I had my son and just experienced a complete shift in every aspect of my being. A lot of it was mental, emotional, and spiritual. And a lot of it was that my time had drastically been cut down and I started to have to prioritize my time in a completely different way. I very suddenly was hit with an epiphany that I need to be reserving all of my time and energy for the people, places, and things that I only loved the very most. It was the only way I could be a balanced human being.

I quit my job in 2015 to care for my son full time and began exploring business ideas. I was very into the nontoxic beauty world and started to play with the idea of experimenting with makeup artistry with the intention of doing a clean product line. I borrowed a camera and began shooting my portfolio. A few photoshoots in, I realized two things: 1) I was OBSESSING over every detail of every photo, like I needed to create an image with an overwhelming urge to tell a story with it, and 2) I was falling in love with every woman that I photographed and also helping them feel amazing about themselves; it was the most connecting way I had ever experienced these people.

I could not let those two things go! And, that began my journey into almost four years of teaching myself photography and creating a business out of it, and I have never looked back.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Absolutely not. I have had so many challenges, throughout my whole journey as a “working artist”. On a personal level, I have had a young child at home and that has taken quite a bit of juggling, to make the time, and to manage to have enough mental and emotional energy to be creative, be constantly learning, and to give the women I’m photographing an amazing experience and really show up for them.

Being self-taught has been another hurdle, in a way, because you don’t have a foundation of the technical aspects of what you are doing. I can’t tell you how many 1000s of photos I’ve taken over the years that sucked because of the smallest, most basic technical things that I never learned. But alas, experimentation is, quite frankly a necessary pillar of being in any creative field, so not having a formal art or photography education has its benefits in that way, as well.

The other major struggle for me has been just accepting, hey, I’m not for everyone and neither is my photography. When you are an artist, you get so much criticism for your work, and most of us TRULY take it so personally. Because it is personal. We are out here expressing ourselves and being rejected on that level is difficult and makes you question what you are doing. I heard something from another photographer recently, that if everyone likes you and your work, that’s cool. But if some people love it and some people hate it, that’s when you know you stand for something. I try to keep that in mind.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Raw Portraiture story. Tell us more about the business.
My business is called Raw Portraiture. I have a home studio at my condo in San Francisco, and also do a fair bit of traveling around for shoots. My primary service is providing the everyday woman the experience of a fashion photoshoot. So essentially, a client comes to me wanting glamorous portraits of herself. I design and conceptualize shoots based on the woman and her personal style. I put together a luxury experience, entailing professional hair and makeup styling, champagne, and fresh fruit, and we photograph them looking and feeling amazing. My style is very much fashion-inspired, artistic, feminine, yet strong and confident.

What I am most proud of and what sets me apart from others in the portrait business is how my service makes people feel. Not just people– women. Sure, it is great to be an artist and a creative but the most fulfilling aspect of my work is collaborating with women to tell their stories, teaching them to love themselves, and helping them work on their confidence. It goes far beyond just having nice pictures of oneself. It is about working with someone to dedicate time to truly feeling good in their own authentic skin.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
This is a cheap answer, but I don’t believe in luck. I think that we create our own destinies. I think that everyone has challenges and things to be grateful for, and how we react in those moments defines us, our art, and our success. That being said, I do believe that timing plays a huge part into how our lives and businesses pan out. I feel that the best example of timing as it’s affected my business is honestly, starting a business at a time during which I am mentally ready to do so.

At times, I have felt regret that I hadn’t taken a hold of my creativity early in my life, valued it enough to pursue it as a career. When I have difficult days, I say “Shit, if I had just gone to art school, I would be 10+ years into this business and have my life together by now.” Realistically though, I just wasn’t ready. And I am ready now. And that is a product of making very intentional choices of what I want to accomplish, and being mature enough to handle hardships well. And of course, having a business degree has ended up being a huge asset of my photography successes.