-By Kaylee Nitsiza
A placing facet of survival within the Northwest Territories is resiliency within the face of daunting uncertainties.
A self-taught Dene artist has demonstrated this brave trait by launching herself headfirst into the revolutionary world of entrepreneurship. Reclaiming her independence has led this impressed visionary to grow to be the profitable enterprise proprietor that she is in the present day.
Jamie Stevenson, an Indigenous photographer, is devoted to her craft. By providing skilled images providers across the NWT, she has cultivated Yellowknife-based Jamie Stevenson Pictures whereas remaining grounded in her Northern roots.
“If I wasn’t keen about images, I’d by no means have began it as a enterprise,” she says of the enterprise she launched nearly a decade in the past.
Stevenson’s inventive imaginative and prescient has expanded right into a full-time enterprise since first taking pictures with a digicam at age 14. Persistence and dedication to her artwork has reworked part-time facet gigs into common, formally booked periods. She was decided to understand her ambition regardless of dealing with restricted assets initially of her enterprise enterprise.
A self-taught photographer, Jamie Stevenson produces placing photos by way of her personal enterprise. “If I wasn’t keen about images, I’d by no means have began it as a enterprise,” she says. The picture above is one she titled ‘The Nomad.’ Make-up artist Karen Murray made the wheat corset, all pure supplies from the land. The picture was placed on show in a Yukon gallery this yr. “That was actually enjoyable and that was one among my favourites.” Photograph courtesy of Jamie Stevenson Pictures
Whereas rising up in Behchoko, the dearth of presence by native photographers left her and not using a guiding hand.
“I didn’t have any mentors once I was beginning out so there was no person that I might ask these inquiries to. So I simply began out from scratch and went from there,” says Stevenson.
She explains that this barrier had little impact on her through the preliminary rise of her self-led firm as a result of she discovered an alternate. This independently pushed lady has utilized the web to pave a path in the direction of self-sustainability. Stevenson educated herself by referring to video content material from photographers on YouTube. This helped for example classes like navigating between completely different digicam settings and correct upkeep procedures.
She continued to spend money on her firm by attending workshops and enrolling in programs for numerous topics, together with customer support, “the best way to work with shoppers, contracts, all of that enjoyable stuff.”
Apart from collaborating with many respectable organizations, she describes essentially the most gratifying a part of her job as with the ability to “have real conversations and to create significant connections.”
Her profession has guided her towards quite a lot of alternatives and experiences that brilliantly showcase her abilities. An instance of this being a inventive set titled ‘Nomad’ that was exhibited in a Yukon gallery earlier this yr.
Stevenson provides, “Shout out to Karen Murray, who’s my make-up artist. She is type of just like the inventive brains, I’d say, behind the work that we’ve performed collectively.”
Her images providers have additionally been appreciated in different communities within the North. She clearly possesses a eager perception for her artwork that’s mirrored in her flourishing franchise.
“Among the best items of recommendation that I’ve obtained was, the reply is all the time gonna be no if you happen to don’t ask.”