October 15, 2016

Meet Fashion & Lifestyle Photographer: Kay Anchante

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kay Anchante.

Kay, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am originally from Lima, Peru, but I have been living in the U.S. for 14 years now. I fell in love with photography when I was in Journalism school. Although it wasn’t bare reality in the streets what caught my attention – and what I was supposed to photograph – but more intimate portraits of woman, mostly dancers, and artists. I started to make a living photographing actors, dancers, and rock bands on stage. That was probably the most bohemian time of my life, and I loved it.

Later I started teaching basic photography and darkroom techniques at a private university in Lima, while I was pursuing a Master’s in Journalism. It was then that I met the most well-known film critic in Peru, as a classmate, and he asked me to produce a program about film criticism for Peru’s national television he was about to launch. My previous experience with film had been doing still photography for a TV film, but producing a program was well beyond that and took most of my time, not that I complained. I was fascinated by all the technical part I got to observe when we went to interview directors behind scenes.

I came to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies in Spanish, and I obtained a M.A. from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. from Arizona State U. I spent the last fourteen years immersed in academia, being a college professor, teaching, and researching.

Despite the fact that teaching has always been an important part of my life, I felt that I had to reconnect with my creative part, let my soul out, even more, get out there and observe people, enjoy them as I used to when I was a young student. So I quit academia, and started taking portraits again, in the beginning mostly of my children, but then of perfect strangers, mostly women, capturing their (inner) beauty, glorious moments, and story-telling instants through my lifestyle photography. I feel photography allows me to help people preserve and remember this moment in their lives, so they can share it with their loved ones in the years ahead. Having a client for life – a woman going through falling in love, getting married, being a mom and finally having a beautiful family, are stages that are so rewarding to witness as a photographer. I believe I am on the right route to being appreciated as an artist and to being a successful entrepreneur.

Has it been a smooth road?
Probably the main struggle, in the beginning, was the technical part: The transition from a fully manual film camera to fully digital and all the possibilities you have with software now. It was overwhelming, but I loved learning again, going from darkroom to lightroom was a challenging adventure that I was happy to embrace. Also moving from the midwest to the west coast was like starting up again. Getting your name out there, finding clients – or better said, help clients find you -, getting social media to work for your business are issues that I am working on, day by day.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
In the future, I look forward to expanding my photography business and servicing nationally, and internationally! Travelling is one of the things I enjoy the most, and doing it to take portraits will be a pleasure, to say the least. I would also like to get into online photo education, as teaching has always been a big part of who I am as a professional.

Let’s go backward a bit – can you tell us about the most trying time in your career?
Probably the hardest time in my career so far has been making the decision to quit my “day job” -and the so-call security that comes with it – choosing to become a full-time professional photographer, and making the big move to California. It might sound too dreamy or unrealistic for some people, especially from the academic background I come from, but it was something I just needed to do, take the risk, put all my energy into what I feel is the right thing for me as a person and for my family as well.

Do you ever feel like “Wow, I’ve arrived” or “I’ve made it” or do you feel like the bulk of the story is still unwritten?
I think wow moments always happen when I see my customers’ faces with a big smile on them, just amazed and happy by the moment I witness and managed to capture. Those moments are always rewarding, make me feel really content.

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