Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Cofer.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Today, I’m a single mom living in Atlanta with my own Photography and Content Creation business.
I grew up in Connecticut, and from the time I was fourteen I knew I wanted to be a Photographer. I took every photography class my high school had to offer and ended up getting accepted to SCAD here in Georgia. I studied Photography at SCAD and graduated with my BFA in 2015. From there, I always imagined I would start my own business, go into freelance and happily shoot photos of any and everything. As it turns out, getting off the ground as a freelance artist is not so easy. You have to dedicate yourself to a constant hustle, find your own motivation, get your name out there, and build your portfolio – it can be hard to know where to start. We all sort of expecting to find out a niche and begin finding our success, and when it doesn’t happen quickly for us it can be really disheartening. I ended up working as a product photographer for a few years in Duluth before I got married, and once I got married I realized my role in the relationship was a homemaker and mother – so my dreams went on the back burner for a while. This past winter, I realized I needed to get out of that. I picked myself up out of a tough situation, and with my daughter at the forefront of my mind, I told myself I HAD to make it on my own. I started looking for work anywhere I could – shooting photos for social media, volunteering time to shoot events, passing out business cards, applying to any freelance gig I could find online. I had to really, really believe in myself for the first time in my life I think, there was no safety net for me, nothing to fall back on. I bet on myself because I knew it was the right decision. Five months later, and I have several clients, a business that supports me and my daughter, and a renewed belief in myself and my talents and skills as a photographer.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road. I’ve had to do a lot of things I didn’t necessarily want to, I started out working in a place that didn’t really fulfill me right after I graduated because I felt a lot of pressure to get a job immediately. After leaving that job, I felt like I had wasted a few years and didn’t have anything to really show for it. I went ahead and got married, had my daughter, and lost myself. Having the expectation of being a full-time mom was a real struggle for me. I always try to give everything I have to anything I’m doing, and in doing so I lost myself. I was married to someone who needed just as much from me as my daughter did, so I became a full-time caretaker and people pleaser, always putting those around me first and putting myself last. I lost my passion for photography, for life, for creating. I don’t think I picked up my camera for an entire year at one point. That was really tough, because being a photographer was all I ever wanted to do, and I started to think I just wasn’t good enough to make it, or that I didn’t have what it took to make it happen for myself.
When I first left my husband, I had no idea if I could do it. I didn’t know if I would be able to succeed, but I knew I had to try. I tried to put all that doubt on the back burner in my mind and just think of my daughter and how this was the best way for me to be able to take care of her. It gives me the freedom to still be there whenever she needs me, to make my own schedule so she is still the center of my life, and to be able to work as much or as little as I need to.
I’m also diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, and it’s something I’ve struggled with since I was 15. Being Bipolar has its own unique challenges, especially when trying to make it on your own. There’s highs and lows, and there are days and weeks where I believe in myself more than anything, I get everything done and done well, but the lows follow and the doubt creeps back in. It’s a lifelong struggle, but something I’ve learned to manage with therapy and medication, and I have a pretty good handle on it these days. I won’t ever be ‘normal’, but I think I’ve learned how to use it to my advantage, and how to channel my ups and downs into something that can drive me further to make it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a photographer who specializes in a little bit of everything! That probably sounds kind of weird. I always thought I wanted to try and stake my reputation in documentary photography, shooting for a magazine or the news, capturing real people doing real things, and evoking emotion in my viewers the way all the really great photographers do with their work.
I never really broke out in documentaries, although it’s still something I love dearly. I settled into portraits more than anything. I love capturing people as they are, getting their personalities to shine through in a photo. There’s something special about a really good portrait. You just get a sense of who someone is, and you want to know more about them, That’s what really excites me about photography.
I’ve also recently gotten into food photography, which I discovered is another huge passion for me. There’s something so cool about taking a photograph of a dish and making it look incredible, you can tell a story about the taste just from a picture, and really draw people in and get them to imagine themselves eating the food. It’s kind of exciting to be able to elicit a response like that through a photo.
What sets me apart from others is that I will never put myself into a box. There really isn’t anything I can’t or won’t do when it comes to photography. I’ve tried my hand at everything, and I pretty much enjoy all of it. I also have the education behind me to really stand behind my work. I worked extremely hard, studied and honed my craft. There are a lot of self-taught photographers, and a lot of them are great, don’t get me wrong. But something about being able to stand behind the technical aspects of your work can give you a leg up in some areas, especially when freelancing for businesses, which is where I’ve been able to find a lot of success recently.
I also take a lot of pride in the way I look at things. I have a creative edge from studying in a fine art capacity, I never look at something just as what it is, but what I want it to say, how I want it to make my viewer feel. There’s something about taking photos with feeling that just sets them apart. I’m never just pushing the shutter, I want to tell a story.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
For networking – reach out in your community. Most towns and cities have a business association or even an artists community you can join. It’s really great to put yourself out there with like-minded people, and allow them to help you grow. Put yourself out there on social media, Facebook, Instagram, build yourself a website, order business cards and hand them out to any and everyone you want to know your name. It’s a constant hustle networking, but the more people you talk to and the more connections you make the better off you are. Make it fun for yourself, find people with businesses you’re interested in, and see if you can work together to help each other out! You get to add work to your portfolio, and you both get a chance to make new connections and expose your business to new clients. There are so many different ways to network, you just have to keep trying until you find something that sticks and works for you and your business.
Contact Info:
- Email: scoferphoto@gmail.com
- Website: www.sarahcofercreative.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/scoferphoto
- Facebook: facebook.com/sarahcoferphotography
Image Credits:
Sarah Cofer Creative
