Today we’d like to introduce you to Kendra Smith.
Hi Kendra, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Since I was a kid, I have always wanted to photograph the world around me. I would beg my mom to buy me disposable cameras, but I didn’t have much access to cameras until much later. My first real camera was given to me by my pattern drafting professor at fashion school in LA. He also worked as a fashion photographer, and I had the audacity to ask him if I could borrow a camera for a trip I was taking to Morocco and Niger when I was 19. It was a professional film camera, a Canon EOS, and that trip changed my life. I came back and knew that fashion wasn’t for me, and decided to drop out to take photography and general courses at Pasadena City College. I loved it so much more than fashion school. After years of moving around and debating on photojournalism or where I wanted to be, I finally finished school in Anthropology. In reality, I was afraid to call myself a photographer because I had so many friends and friends of friends doing incredible work in New York, Dallas, LA, etc., and I ultimately didn’t want to go for it unless I could be at a certain caliber of work. I worked in advertising and non-profit work for years and would always end up doing photography in these roles, and outside of it, because deep down it always felt like my thing. My circle around me also recognized this; it just took me a while to have the guts to go full-time. Long story short, after working as a creative director on commercial shoots in the food photography industry, I finally went full-time as a photographer in 2021. I started with primarily seeking editorial work, but weddings came naturally as I found people were looking for film more and more, and a documentary approach.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not, when I first went full-time, I still contracted some marketing work to help supplement income as I got started. It was in the NFT industry, believe it or not, and all was going well until that market crashed hard and my whole team ended up not getting paid for two months of work. It was a devastating amount of money for me at the time, and it felt like a huge setback. But I took it as a signal to put all my efforts into photography and stop looking for marketing work as a crutch. It really was the final test of resilience in my work. I’ve been growing ever since and am grateful for all that I learned along the way.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m an editorial & wedding photographer that specialized in film work. I’m known for my documentary approach and portraiture as well as medium format film. I work in digital and film mediums, as well as video, but love shooting film more than anything. Video is a newer venture for the past few years, but I really love the storytelling format in all my work. I’m most proud of the soft, authentic nature of my work. I strive to capture depth and a story in everything I do that has a level of integrity in the work. I think this is what sets me apart from others.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I am working on a documentary project that memorializes loved ones’ sense of place through objects, their home, and the general environment before or after they pass. I did this with my grandfather and took his portraits, and it is a powerful way to remember things as they were, as all things change with time. His home was incredibly special to me growing up, and I wanted to remember all the things that were so special to me because I knew they would change after he was gone. I would love to get more participants and work on a few projects focused on this aspect of time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kendrasmithphoto.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendrasmith
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/kendrasmithweddings/
