Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Meister.
Josh, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
When I was a little kid I got my first toy camera as a gift. The kind that’s long, rectangular and you cock the side to advance to the next frame. I remember loving to shoot pictures everywhere – on vacation, at family events, my friends running around the neighborhood. My first real camera was given to me by my dad in high school. It was a small 35mm Pentax SLR with a 50mm lens. It was very basic, but to me, it felt like the real thing, and I just fell in love with shooting. I shot for the yearbook for a short time and took a high school photo class, which gave me my first experience in the darkroom. After high school and a short stint at Georgia State University, I went on to Portfolio Center to study commercial photography. Shortly out of school I got the opportunity to work for ad photographer Jim Fiscus. I was there full-time for 2 years. This incredible experience showed me the real side of the commercial business. After that, I worked as an assistant for various photographers from all over the United States as I slowly honed my portfolio and eventually started getting my own shoots. My schedule was filling up enough with my own jobs to stop assisting. That was a weird moment to be out on my own, having to rely on myself as a shooter to get work. And even years later, I’m still figuring out what I love most about the business and how to navigate the professional photography industry. One of the best parts of this job is getting to meet so many different types of amazing people and get a peek into different lives and worlds.
Has it been a smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road! More like very bumpy with a bunch of twists and turns. Right out of high school, I was a bit lost. I didn’t feel ready to go to college, but it seemed like what I was supposed to do. I also wasn’t sure photography could be a more than a hobby for me. I was at GSU for 1.5 years playing around with graphic design, then took off a year, then went back for half a year. None of it felt right, though. A friend urged me to go check out Portfolio Center and the commercial photo program there. My first year at PC I struggled with projects and critiques. I had to reshoot many of my projects more than once, and it wasn’t until my second year that things started turning around for me. After working with Fiscus, the economy tanked, and work was thin. I heard stories of photographers closing up shop and changing careers. That was incredibly discouraging. Because I was desperate for work, I almost took a job as a crime scene photographer. I’m thankful every day I didn’t. In order to stay afloat, I started printing portfolios for PC grads, teaching at PC, and also assisting when I could. Over time, assisting picked up, and I was now starting to get a few of my own jobs, shooting for editorials and local companies. Shooting for magazines was starting to pay off. An architectural firm discovered me because of a portrait I shot for the Georgia Tech Alumni magazine. They hired me, and I wound up shooting architecture almost full-time for a little over three years. At the beginning of this year, I decided that architecture photography was consuming my life, it wasn’t what I was passionate about, and it was time to change gears. So now I’m taking a step back, ramping up on the editorial, travel, and portrait shooting I love, and working my way into commercial ad shooting – the more conceptual, the better!
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I have teamed up with Wonderful Machine to help with building my brand and showing my portfolio to potential new clients. I’m currently working on developing a relationship with some national agencies to work on larger ad campaigns, and I’m also working on my travel portfolio and trying to branch out into that world of photography. I like to have variety in my work. It keeps life exciting!
Let’s go backward a bit – can you tell us about the most trying time in your career?
My hardest time might be right now. At the beginning of this year, I told my bread-and-butter client I was no longer going to be working with them in order to concentrate more on the type of work I want to be doing. It’s not easy to walk away from solid money. This was half of my income. As an artist, you sometimes get caught up in what’s making you money and not what inspires you. I was beginning to feel like I had lost sight of why I was a photographer. I’m taking this year to refocus and rediscover the path that’s right for me, which is not always an easy process. I’m trying to focus on what’s most important to me in life.
Are there days when you feel like you’ve done everything you wanted to, careerwise – the “I’ve made it” kind of moments?
I think this was the day I finally said I was no longer assisting. It was a scary moment to tell so many photographers I had been working with for years that I was no longer available to help out. Almost all of them seemed excited for me. It was then I felt like my career was really starting to work out.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.joshmeisterphoto.com/
- Phone: 6785711795
- Email: josh@joshmeister.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/photomeister/
