Today we’d like to introduce you to Teresa Rafidi.
Teresa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My photography addiction began when my parents gave me a Kodak Disc camera as a kid. I would shoot from the car window and was amazed by the images and how “reality” was not as it appeared when I clicked the shutter. I also liked to create things out of anything laying around. I remember we had a bag of concrete in the backyard for some home repairs. Once the bulk of the work was done, I asked my mom if I could use it to make things. She said, “Yes,” and I made a series of small objects, sculptures and dice. Growing up, we had art and art books in the house. Though art was around me, I never thought of it as something that I could do. It wasn’t until college that I realized I could major in art and create things for a living.
I attended Brookhaven College, taking my core classes and thinking that American History or another degree was going to be my major. It was in the first photography class that I saw an image develop out of nothing onto a piece of photo paper. It was mesmerizing. It wasn’t just photography that intrigued me, but all my art classes. Creating things and letting my creations have a voice was captivating. Eventually, I majored in Art at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and my fascination with photography increased. It was hard to pull me away from constantly creating images. Eventually, I realized that photography could be a way to create art while collaborating with clients and growing a business.
There are several versions of me: the photographer, the artist, the teacher. I teach continuing education classes at SMU and also privately tutor clients in photography and image processing. It is a balance to do all of them and have my private life, yet it is the constant swirling of it all that makes me tick.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Overall, it has been an interesting road. I worked other jobs related to photography, but not applied the way I would have liked. I jumped into photography backwards as a business. That made it a harder road because I didn’t start out by assisting another photographer who could show me the ropes. I had to figure it all out by myself. We all hit walls and obstacles in our lives and the key for me was to reset my way of thinking and move forward.
I could have moved out of state for college and other opportunities but ended up with responsibilities that kept me in Dallas. I used to think, “what if I had left Dallas?,” but now, I believe that path is the one I was supposed to be on all along. It led me to lifelong friends, lots of struggles, failures, and successes. It is the struggles and failures that shape me the most as I walk this road.
Please tell us about Teresa Rafidi Photography.
My business is Teresa Rafidi Photography. I specialize in portraiture, commercial, and editorial work. I enjoy shooting everyday life around me. You will find me exploring a field on an editorial assignment or doing my best to capture a person’s spirit in a single portrait. I could be shooting a high school senior, a family, commercial project, or just shoot something in my backyard, because I love creating and responding to things around me. Being in the moment and always keeping the camera clicking is what keeps me fresh. My style is more natural, rather than highly processed images. I prefer creating the image in camera. Now, that doesn’t mean that I will not edit every pimple, 5 o’clock shadow or wispy hair out of place. It is just that I would rather see a less overly-processed image as a final product. What keeps my clients coming back is knowing that they will get as much or as little photoshop as needed, but they will get all of me in the shoot creating those images.
Photography isn’t limited to just my clients, it is what I live and breathe. As an artist, I use the camera as a tool to create ephemeral works of art. I typically show a familiar space that stirs the memory, with unraveling sensations of desire and longing. A faint figure is suggested or a sense of presence that dissolves before our eyes, drawing us closer to the uncertainty that lies behind the light. I have been making these ethereal images since I was a child.
Being a photographer and an artist is not that different for me. It is an ongoing investigation of reality, creating and digesting what I see and what is there. My camera is my sketchbook.
I give a “one-a-day” project to a lot of my photography students. It’s where you create an image every day and post it for at least a year. One day, I realized I should do my own “one-a-day” project. It is a great way to explore, sharpen my skills, and keep pushing my creativity. Some days, the images are fantastic and others can be as mundane as our daily lives. There is absolutely no cheating, so it really pushes you to make something out of nothing. It’s where I get to play, explore, make mistakes.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Maybe not shying away from asking for help and guidance in the beginning and along the way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rafidiphotography.com and www.teresarafidi.com
- Email: teresa@rafidiphotography.com
- Instagram: @teresarafidi
Image Credit:
Teresa Rafidi
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