Meet Jeremy Pierson of Jeremy Pierson Photography

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Pierson.

Jeremy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Today, I am a full-time professional photographer, focused on fashion, advertising, and portraiture, but I began my photography journey more than 20 years ago shooting musicians in dark, dirty nightclubs. If that wasn’t difficult enough, I was shooting on film back then (because digital wasn’t an option, right?) and figuring out how to capture a fast-moving subject in very low light was super challenging. One of my very first club show, I photographed completely underexposed two entire rolls of film. Absolutely zero images. Two rolls of pure black. Not only that, it took a week of shooting the show and getting the images back from the film lab, only to learn that I had absolutely nothing. Going from photographing my musician’s friends on stage and backstage, to photographing them for their album artwork, press kits, and eventually websites, I was moving more and more into the world of portraiture. I still photograph a LOT of entertainers (not just musicians), but my focus and interest are primarily in fashion and advertising, where I get to be as creative as possible, while still getting paid a livable wage for my services.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
If you ever interview a photography and they tell you it was a smooth road, they are a lucky, lucky individual. Any creative professional has a difficult road because our society just isn’t set up to encourage or even enable that. The top 0.01% get massive stardom and success, while everyone else struggles endlessly. Or at least, that’s how it seems for those who eventually give up. I’d say there are, basically, three paths to success as a creative:

1. You get lucky, right out of the gate, with very little struggle. Good for you.

2. You are creative, passionate, and tenacious, but ultimately you’re unwilling to make the sacrifices and compromises that it takes to earn a living at what you do, so you become an incredibly talented hobbyist. Maybe, after years of doing it as a passionate hobby, opportunity strikes and you get to quit your full-time job and make your hobby your life/career.

3. You’re neither of the above two, and you struggle for years, trying somehow accomplish the apparently oppositional objectives of making a living AND and enjoying what you do. With never enough time, money, help, or other resources, everything is a constant struggle, but you never give up, you learn to decide which compromises you’re willing to make, and eventually you’ve built a business that brings in consistent revenue doing something you don’t hate, and you have enough profit and a little time left over each month so you can still pursue your creative desires. In short, you become a version of Number Two up above, only the day-job you have is working for yourself.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I’m mostly known for my portraits of artists and entertainers, but there’s no money in that. Well, there’s no money in that Houston. Or, there’s no money in that if you’re in Houston and you’re me. So, I’ve spent the past year trying to find a way to build a photography business around doing portraits for “regular” people, but still bringing in the style, grandeur, and aesthetics of my fashion and entertainment photography. I still haven’t found a wide enough audience for my work that I have a steady stream of clients, but I’m incredibly proud of the work that I do. Somehow, every year, I manage to create images that are more amazing to me that I’ve created ever before. This is the only evidence I need to know that I am constantly evolving and pushing myself as an artist and creator. Houston is an incredibly competitive and cutthroat city, and I believe this is fallout from the energy industry. But, I don’t see other photographers as my competition, at least not as a threat. Only friendly competition. I try to surround myself with other creatives who are all seeing what everyone else is doing and we challenge ourselves to keep up, or – even better – outdo the last person. As a business, we are often hired to produce solid images of product photography, headshots, and things like that, but our real goal is to become that top-of-mind name people think of when they want images that literally no one else can create.

What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was, I think, a relatively happy child, of sorts. I mean, I had the appearance of a happy child. I laughed a lot. I joked a lot. But I was actually very shy and constantly in fear of embarrassment. In a small circle of close friends (two or three, at the most) I could be myself. Beyond that, I would tend to just sit towards the back and mostly keep my mouth shut. I became a waiter and bartender once I graduate high school, and that went a very long way towards getting me comfortable with talking freely with strangers. I’d say, it turned me around a hundred and eighty degrees. Another fifteen years after that, I became a lead singer and that was another apex of conquering my fear of public humiliation. To this day, I’m still basically a “shy” person, very introverted, but when I have to be “on” in front of a group, I can manage. I can even entertain. But it’s work. I sweat like crazy!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jeremypierson.com
• Phone: 713-357-1547
• Email: booking@jeremypierson.com
• Instagram: @JPiersonPhoto
• Facebook: facebook.com/JeremyPierson

Image Credit:
Jeremy Pierson

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