Olivia Taylor is a freelance photographer and business owner of a company called The Hot Mess which she started with three other photographers. Currently she is running the company by herself and her inspirations include Erica Moore, Luke Grimley and Nicole Jopek and she believes the quality of their work provides a target for her photography.
I recently had the opportunity to listen to a talk by Taylor at the University of Huddersfield where she spoke about her experiences and gave useful insightful tips for after leaving university and starting as a professional photographer. Taylor spoke about how important connecting with other creative industries is as during her time at university she helped a student make-up artist photograph her makeup project. She only had the bare minimum tools to work with which included two ring lights and a painted black wall as a backdrop. Both the makeup artists and herself struggled with the limited facilities however Taylor always pushed for perfection and ended up helping all the student make up artists. From this she built up her own portfolio and made connections that in the future gained Taylor two paid photography jobs.
Taylor also explained how difficult she found communicating to her team on set about how she would like the model and set to look. Taylor uses mood boards to explain to her clients (makeup artists and hairdressers) her vision for the photoshoot and how exactly she would like the photos to come out looking which allow everyone on the team to understand the mood of the images. This was a useful tip as when working with a team it is sometimes difficult to communicate how the photographer wants photos to appear and communicating using visuals is much easier.
During Taylor’s talk, she focused on how she struggled to find work during and after the covid pandemic and how many jobs she found were simply from Facebook. Taylor still often does Trade for Prints (TFP) to keep her profile updated and gain good connections. Taylor made many inspiring comments however the one that stuck with me was about how you don’t always need to be working on something you love. She also said that sometimes is better for your own portfolio to give up a job opportunity if it does not fit within your own practice. It was inspiring to hear Taylor explain her goals and where she needs to improve herself: for her this is social media- something I can relate to as my own social media is lacking in flair and creativity. I am sure that all we photographers can take some inspiration from this advice, maybe you could you could help her out and give her a follow- I certainly have!