Today we’d like to introduce you to Carey Sheffield.
Hi Carey, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve always loved photography. Advertising images mainly, at the time I took up photography, I’d worked in marketing and loved the conceptual approach to images. I’m a creative thinker so I enjoyed visualizing and selling in this way, using images. I held photographers and still do, in high esteem. Back then, 15 years ago, photographers were respected more. Everyone wasn’t a photographer. They were trained artists, skilled in their profession. I had just had my third child. I was 30 years old and owned a marketing and events company and a very busy florist shop. It was a lot! I sold the business to focus on my three young children and went to night school/college to study black & white ‘film’ photography. I had no aspirations to become a professional at the time. My sales and marketing skills have no doubt helped me in my success as a photographer but I like to think my humility, curiosity and interest in others have also given me the best opportunities.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not! Technically there is a lot to learn, a process many think that they can skip. I’m sure they become unstuck. In this ever-changing world and with expectations that come from the illusion that is social media, you have to stay on top of all there is to know. I also have a family, so of course, I juggled. Then I moved from the Uk to USA. I gave up a very successful business there to follow my husband’s dream. Of course, my work is transitional but I had to start again. I’m tenacious, so I feel I am now established and it actually helped me to grow and streamline to the work I want to do and not ALL the work.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ve traveled the world with my camera, for paid commissions and also for personal projects. People are my specialty and recognizing and demonstrating their story. They could be a Tea picker in the Tea Gardens of Assam or a glamorous woman in a mansion, a senior in high school or an aspiring actor. They all have a story and I know how to tell it. With words and pictures, I allow others to see into lives that walk past them every day. My 50/50/50 project and my own ‘Year in my Life’ projects were well received and appreciated. Being creative for the sake of it is what drives me. In my work, I love to capture people who have something to say, to sell or, for women who have lost sight of themselves, I like to show them and the world how beautiful they are.
What makes you happy?
Big question… and it changes. Of course, my children bring me incredible joy. They are young adults now so I often watch them from afar. My personal happiness in my work is change and variety. I love to travel to new places and share with the world the wonder that is beyond our borders. It’s like oxygen to me to be with new people, trying to communicate without words when we don’t understand each other, connecting on a spiritual level. Loving our differences and feeling a myriad of emotions. I often work in social impact situations where my stories highlight the plight of the suffering or abused. Knowing that you are there to help and them conveying their desperation is very powerful. Of course, the situations I have seen require few words. The picture often tells the story.
Contact Info:
- Email: she@careysheffield.com
- Website: careysheffield.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careysheffield
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/careysheffieldphotography
