It's rare that a fashion photographer becomes a successful brand, but such is the case with Jamie Beck of Ann Street Studio. Beck has developed a cult-like following thanks her early start on Tumblr, her incredible work ethic and of course, loads of talent. She's also caught the attention of the fashion industry at large, no small feat.
In just five years, the 30-year-old Texas native has landed photography campaigns with brands including Oscar de la Renta, Tiffany, Donna Karan, Armani, and Saks Fifth Avenue. She's often spotted sitting front row during New York Fashion Week with professional camera in hand, and her most popular Tumblr posts have more than 600,000 notes.
Racked chatted with Beck about how she started her own photography business, the invention of the cinemagraph and how she found the courage to plunge into the intimidating world of high fashion.
When did you start to shoot with a digital camera? 'Oh, I hated it! I went in kicking and screaming but to survive as a photographer commercially and personally, you have to. There are photographers who shoot in film but Kevin made me start shooting with the Canon 5D mark II, it was the only camera that felt closer enough to an old film camera. That was probably in 2007, 2008, but I still shoot with film.'
What are some of your favorite things to shoot? 'I love shooting fashion; the girls in evening gowns, the whole fantasy and story you can create. I like shooting travel; we travel all the time, it's almost a souvenir to me to photograph my travels. I also love shooting flowers, I do that all the time.'
Why do you think 'From Me To You' became so insanely popular on Tumblr? 'In the beginning, I didn't really have a strategy, I was just pulling up old images to be an archive. But the blog became popular, and while I was doing jobs shooting for indie magazines, I thought that more people would be able to see these images on my blog than in this magazine, and that was a moment for me. I began to think about what stories I can tell and what experiences can I share with other people.'
Did social media help at all with the jump start? 'Well, I was kind of behind on Twitter, but Tumblr for sure, it was amazing. They were really supporting our community of original content creators. We were part of the original smaller group of people [on Tumblr] so it was easier to engage. We went to meet-ups, and made friends who were incredibly supportive. It was definitely right time, right place.
When did you feel like you had 'made it' as a photographer? 'I hate this question because I don't feel that way. I feel like I'll go to my grave thinking I haven't made it. I have so many goals, I'm always thinking about the next photograph and I have miles to go. I have a lot to learn but that's the fun part. I enjoy finding new paths and new ways.'
What were some of your favorite campaigns to work on? 'A beautiful project we did with Tiffany; that was really lovely because it was the first time we worked with a cinema camera. We did a three-part series for Lincoln Motor Company specifically for Instagram. That was really fun because some of these things are total leaps of faith, you're either going to love it or hate it. We put all this time and money into the project and then posted it to Instagram and got to watch if it did well or failed. We've also done some really fun cinemagraphs. We did one for Saks, it was like a forgotten dinner party and we created a sort of ' Alice and Wonderland' scene. It was incredibly successful. We also did a project with Armani where they gave us a pair of glasses and told us to make something. We thought, you see out of glasses, and New York City was the perfect subject, so we did a series on that. Our most popular cinemagraph was from that, reading the New York Times while stirring coffee: it had over 600,000 notes on Tumblr.
There are a lot of photos of yourself on the blog. Do you enjoy that, being photographed? 'Well, yes and no. I use Instagram as my personal diary. For me, it's my Polaroid of the sixties, where I show what I ate, where I was, what I was wearing. I like that and it's fun to have, something that I can show my kids one day. But for the blog, I like when I take it myself but I don't necessarily like when they take my picture. I have an idea of who I am and it's a funny thing, even though photographers know what they are doing, I'm always questioning [what they are doing] and then I don't look like myself in the photograph. I think it might be that I know too much about it!'
Why did you switch to the name 'Ann Street Studio?' 'I didn't have a whole plan for the blog! I didn't want it to have my name because if I were to delete it, I didn't want people to wonder, 'where did Jamie Beck go?' As I got older, and Kevin and I started working together, and we got big campaigns, with real world, real life, I felt like From Me To You was the old, young me that shot in film and I had grown up a lot. Our studio was downtown on Ann Street so we named it after that. It was a growth thing.'
Is it hard to have a business with your husband? 'Everything falls into place naturally. He does the business stuff and I do the social media and chitchat stuff. If he was a doctor, I'd never get to see him, so it's amazing we get to travel and collaborate together. We make ourselves stronger and better together and we're always pushing each other. You have someone to dig the trench with. Those things make it wonderful, but of course there's the other side. We see each other twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. He can be annoying sometimes and I can be annoying sometimes, but then we try to separate ourselves creatively. I'll go out to shoot film, which isn't his thing, and he'll work on 3D animation, which isn't my thing. We try to have some personal artistic projects.'
What advice would you give to someone who's just starting in your industry? How do you stand out? 'I would say, just put your work out there because you believe in your work and you believe it's worth seeing. You have to work really hard and know that every day you're not working, there is someone out there in there who is because they want that opportunity. That's what keeps me motivated. When I think that I can't do it anymore, I know that there is someone out there my age that wants this as badly as I do. Also, don't compare yourself to others out there. It's important to learn and be looking but it's also important to focus on yourself and what you're doing.' · Ann Street Studio [Official Site] · One King's Lane Ladies Introduce Their Next Home Run [Racked] · Rank & Style Founders on How Math Finds the Best Products [Racked]
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