Today we’d like to introduce you to Amalya Shandelman.
Hi Amalya, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in Moscow to an artistic family in the broadest sense. My mother is a professional teacher of piano, and my father is an artist and sculptor. From a very early age, I was attracted to photography.
As a young girl, I walked the streets of Moscow (not alone, of course) capturing images of that impressive city with an old but very solid Leica that I had inherited from grandfather. Following high school, I attended university and graduated from there with a diploma in Journalism. Still, in my early twenties, I arrived in Boston, camera in hand, and made that city my home for about five years. Making the transition from western Russia to the USA was not too difficult, because Boston at its core has a remarkably European flavor. In that way and others, it also afforded many fine photo opportunities.
From there, I moved on to Houston. That move was for me somewhat more of a culture shock. But in Houston, my photography business took off in earnest. The community here has been amazing – the Jewish community, in particular, who greatly favored my photographs, and became my first clients, strengthening my resolve to succeed in my new location, and bolstering my self-confidence for doing so. Contracts were forthcoming in numerous categories: weddings, birthdays, bar and bat mitzvahs, family reunions, etc., etc. Almost all my clients became my close personal friends as well.
Moreover, I was especially gratified when calls starting coming in not only from individuals but organizations and businesses as well. I want to mention, in particular, Rice University right here in Houston, and the British Broadcasting Corporation and the British Museum across the pond.
Indeed, of late, I have been making fine inroads into my latest area of interest and accomplishment – corporate photography. Houston Business Journal has been a very fine springboard for that.
Never standing still, always moving forward – these are the best guarantees of success.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As I mentioned earlier, I had to contend with the predictable difficulties associated with creating a life and running a business in a new country, and then again in a new city. On the one hand, most of your readers will probably never need to face a cross-cultural challenge of that magnitude. And yet, it is relevant for the following reason.
Now, as never before, our business climate is international and global. As it happens, Houston has a reputation – and a well-deserved one – of being (perhaps) the most culturally diversified city in the United States. But one of them, for sure.
Being successful in business today requires keen awareness and sensitivity to cultural, ethnic, and even religious differences among your clientele. An interesting example of that is seen in my work with bar and bat mitzvah clients here in Houston. My photographs and the technical demands of that category of assignments are fairly uniform across the board. But the differences I have encountered in terms of the varying customs and rituals that arise even in a relatively small community, and in the context of a religious celebration that is very old and universally observed in that community, have been a rewarding educational experience for me. And not just educational for its own sake, but one that is vital for me to learn how to navigate, in order to satisfy my clients and relate to them in important ways that go well beyond technical details alone.
Another significant challenge has to do with the fact that there is always the business aspect of any profession or occupation that one embraces today. Assuming you want to run your own business, as I do, there is no getting away from that commercial side of your endeavor, whether it be photography, brewing beer, writing software, or whatever. While I think of myself as highly creative, in the past (now more and more the distant past) I never even aspired to become highly proficient in the business aspects of my profession. But now I understand that doing so is a sine qua non to success.
I can therefore not stress too strongly that although picking up such skills “along the way” may work for some people, a better approach is to make a formal study of the “business of business,” and even to associate with a mentor who can teach you the things you need to know faster and better than you could learn or assimilate them on your own merely by osmosis.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have always enjoyed photographing family events, both major ones, e.g., weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs, and smaller, even intimate celebrations. Surely, a birth – by which I mean actual labor and delivery! – is about as intimate a family event as anyone can imagine. I photograph those, too, with great satisfaction. All my clients are remarkable people who yearn to preserve for posterity, using high-quality photography, the most special days in their families’ lives – the smallest happenings and the most momentous, the unique interactions of family members, and, most important, the great love they feel for each other. Another favorite of mine is family portraits. People feel the special significance of family portraits, which create memories of themselves, of their forebears, and of their families as a whole. When I visit flea markets and yard sales, I page through the nineteenth and twentieth-century family albums with great trepidation, as entire family histories come to life before my very eyes. Besides the photographs themselves, the inscriptions I often find on their reverse sides are immensely fascinating to me. I bemoan the loss of that grand tradition in recent years and decades.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
I have learned many things along the way, but if there is one that dominates, it is the following:
The times when a woman’s ultimate destiny was determined by anyone else but herself are now long behind us. Gone are the days when unspeakably beautiful lasses waited to be rescued from remote castles. Today we ourselves willingly take on and slay any dragon, no matter how frightful. When I undertook to start my own business, I had to be prepared to take responsibility not only for myself but also for your hired assistants and partners. By “responsibility” I mean, inter alia, that it is not enough simply to bring those assistants and partners on board. You must motivate them in the work in order to achieve the best possible result. No matter how gifted are the workers you might engage, without your leadership, their contribution might well amount to nothing better than mediocre. For anyone seriously contemplating starting their own business, it is imperative that they also cultivate within themselves true leadership qualities.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.amalyaphoto.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amalyaphoto/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmalyaPhoto
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amalya-shandelman-284998183/
- Other: https://www.vogue.com/photovogue/photographers/91519
Image Credits
Irina Navarrete (model), Angelica Zelenov (florist), Nadia Friedman (model), A’izeen (model), Lior Shandelman (model)
