Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Johansson.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
You could say that I fell in love with photography before I could even talk. My mother, who was a photographer herself, had a dark room when I was growing up, and I spent countless hours in their seeing the negatives come to life and become colorful prints. It was a mesmerizing experience, and I have a soft spot for the very specific smell associated with a dark room, even to this day.
While I grew up with a camera in my hand, I went down the route of a “safe job”, and became an accountant in England where I was living at the time. However, things happen and I realized that life is too short to not be doing something you love with all your heart. I finally decided to switch gear and focus on photography full time about 4 years ago, and I haven’t looked back since. As scary as it was at the time to venture out and do something I never imagined I would do, I am really glad that I took that step.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think as an artist, it is really easy to get caught up with the aesthetic side of things, wanting to just create. The reality is that while I do get to spend about 10-15% of my time creating, the rest of the time is spent running a business. So coming from a finance background definitely helped once that reality kicked in. I spent years working as an auditor and could observe from behind the scenes what made a business successful, vs what made a business fail.
Victoria Johansson Photography – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I am primarily a wedding photographer, but I do a lot of other photography, including commercial, family shoots, and other types of documentary photography. I have been lucky enough to be present at some spectacular weddings, and through my portrait work have had the fortune of working with some fantastic people along the way. The sum of these experiences has greatly shaped the photographer that I have become, and how I approach things.
I focus on candid imagery, and I do feel like this is the main reason people hire me. At weddings, you will often find me just observing people, and their reactions, waiting for that one moment, when their emotions shine through, and you get a beautiful glimpse of their inner world. This principle applies to all of the other types of photography I do, and I actually do very little in terms of posing the people I photograph. Rather, I work on getting them to open up to me, and catch them in their natural element. It’s that little spark that makes them who they are, that really gives life to the photograph.
There are thousands of skilled photographers out there who can handle a camera, but I believe it is my ability to capture these special, once-in-a-lifetime moments that has helped me create a business amongst some very discerning and wonderful clients.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me, success comes from personal satisfaction and staying true to oneself. In my previous career, I worked in a very competitive finance environment, and while it had the potential of great financial upsides, I realized early on that climbing up that ladder would not make me happy.
I also think that within the creative field, it is really easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing. Yet no great works of art were created by imitating someone else.
So I truly believe that in order to be successful as artists, one of the most important things we can do is to stay true to ourselves, and the unique voice that we all have.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.victoriajohansson.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/love_travel_explore
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/VictoriaJohanssonPhotography
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