Women in Photography: MadeNChynna
I first came across Chynna via Twitter when she posted an amazing pic of Childish Gambino at Broccoli City this year as well as the edit of the pic and asked for thoughts and comments. I was hooked on her TL and work from there! I had the honor & pleasure to chat, when she had a moment to breathe from her extensive festival schedule, about her photography journey, helpful gems about the business and all these amazing full-circle moments that she’s been experiencing ! Be sure to check her work displayed below & her website out and don't hesitate to book her now cause after her amazing 2019 the price is definitely going up!
Chynna at Trillectro 2018 in Columbia MD Photo Credit : by @tourexali
Broccoli City shot by Chynna: Top, left Cardi B 2018, Future 2016, Jhene Aiko also 2016 , 1st yr 2015 Tink!
Give us some info on your photography background and camera of choice.
Made N Chynna: So I started in high school, l took a few classes in the darkroom. So I learned film photography first before I ever learned digital. I took two classes in high school and I thought it was very cool and thought I could learn how to develop film in the darkroom and then we learned a little bit about Photoshop and Lightroom. Then after high school, I didn't really do much regarding photography, I instead started taking pictures on my phone. I really enjoyed taking pictures on my phone and people would always say, “You have an eye, you should get a camera.” In I think 2014, I purchased my first digital camera and with digital, I learned (I was self-taught, I didn’t take any classes). My major was computer science in college, which is totally different (laughs), but I really loved photography and always wanted to learn more! I started taking pictures with a Nikon D5100 and then I purchased a Nikon D750 last year which is a full-frame camera. I’ve been Team Nikon since I started, it hasn’t failed me yet (laughs) and I’m still enjoying it!
Talk about your aesthetic and what you are trying to capture with your work and how it’s evolved from when you first started to now in 2019?
MBC: When I started, I never wanted to take pictures of people (laughs)! I could never see myself (back then in the beginning) posing people and guiding people or asking random people if I could take their pictures. So when I started I just took pictures of landscapes, art, nature and different things like that. A piece of my life that stayed the same was I always was going to concerts. I loved music, of course. So I would always stand or sit in front of all the shows that I went to during school. They were always general admission/standing room so I would always make my way to front since it was always artists that I love! During that time, I would just have my phone with me so I would take pictures with my phone of the artists and I would see all these photographers in the pit and I would be like, “Hey, they look kind of cool, I wonder if I could do that?” Then I would be doing something that I love while capturing people (artists) doing things that they love!
I’d been going to concerts all throughout college, then in 2015 I had a friend who wrote for a blog called “How Was the Concert” and he reviewed a bunch of different festivals in the area and he had seen my pictures before; this was even before I had a real camera. He said, “I know you bought a camera now, are you interested in shooting Broccoli City festival?” This was theBroccoli City festival 2015 and I was like, sure; I didn't know really what I was doing but I love music and this would be my first kind of chance at shooting anything like that so I finally got a chance to shoot that.
This was the year that Erykah Badu, Joey Badass, Willow & Jaden Smith were there and it was a really cool time and this was the first time I ever experienced shooting with an actual camera, concert photography. I enjoyed it then and I think that is what really set it off. I didn’t really take any more pictures in 2015, but for 2016 when Broccoli City announced their lineup for 2016, which was Jhene Aiko, Future, Xavier Omar, and a whole bunch of others, I was just excited because I was going to go regardless. I had created the Made N Chynna Instagram around 2015/2014, so I posted some of the pictures of Broccoli City 2015 (with the caption) “Broccoli City just announced their line-up, here are pictures from last year,” just to do it. Then upon doing it, the media coordinator (from Broccoli City) contacted me asking, “Hey, can we use some of these?” I was like sure, then I figured this would be the time to shoot my shot, “If you guys need a photographer for this year, let me know!”Upon doing that I got connected with the people that created Broccoli City - the media coordinator, etc. From there, I shot a bunch of volunteer events for them prior to the festival and then got a press pass. Since then, that’s where it really got started;after that I started shooting more festivals. In 2017, I shot a good amount, then 2018 I shot six or seven festivals. Just been on a ride since then!
Talk about how you went about getting in touch with festivals versus individual artists to photograph shows and just the business of being a concert photographer.
MNC: After shooting the second Broccoli City in 2017, I started making more connections with photographers. I ended making a connection with one of my friends, Ben, a photographer from Boston, and he runs his own media company so (I’ve been) kind of learning from him. He’s really young, maybe 18 or so when I met him. He had a production company called Roman’s Revenge, and during that time he was looking for other photographers, so when he reached out to me, we randomly met at Broccoli City because we didn't know where to go (laughs).
Just meeting him allowed me the chance to shoot even more concerts and learn more about the process. I learned how to email managers properly and how to find their contacts and emails. Because when I started working with him, I realized a lot of these manager contacts for certain concerts you may want to shoot are on Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook or Instagram -their email is somewhere!
Finding a manager’s email is kind of the start for different concerts if you want to shoot (those), then reaching out via email with your portfolio with your name and what you are interested in shooting and when and just sending a link to your portfolio;your website is probably best -having concert photography if that’s what you want to shoot, having that laid out on your website or the different types of photography that you are interested in depending on who you reach out to. In music photography, doing the research is half the battle; once you are able to find a certain artist’s manager, those are the main people who give you the press passes and give you the confirmation to shoot the show. In regards to festivals, it’s kind of the same in regards to research; for festivals, someone’s contact info has to be on the main website, so being able to reach out that way is a bit easier. I found that once you find that manager’s email, it doesn't really change that often, so you can hit them up for different things. I will say for festivals, if people are interested, the best route is to try and go in-house; that’s where you have to find the in-house media application that is somewhere sprawled out on the web or their website and if it doesn’t work out to do in-house, then another option is through a blog. I have shot for DJ Booth for a number of festivals and that happened because I reached out to the editor and chief and just let him know I was interested, and I found his email on Twitter.
I will say reaching out and following up is a big part. I will say a lot of people may not follow up and I’ve got probably half of my responses after I have followed up (again)! Some may be after the first email, but I say over half are after the follow-up of the second one, of, “Hey, wondering if you had a chance to look at this (my email or my portfolio)”; I remember learning that from Ben because there were different shows we would send out emails for and then a week or so before the show I would send a second one back, “Hey were you able to check this out?”, and they would be like, “Yeah, you are fine to shoot.” I’m sure they get hundreds of emails daily, so I can understand why a follow-up would be definitely important.
Talk about pricing and how you went about setting that for websites and other avenues of licensing, etc.
MNC: I think about that cheesy saying; “knowing your worth” is definitely important when it comes to pricing, and I think people definitely don’t understand what that entails when people say that. If you are going to shoot, you have to take into account the gas money it took getting to the shoot, how much your camera is, how much the laptop you are going to be editing on costs, how much the editing software that you paid for every month is, how long does it take you to edit, how many photos you are editing; all this comes full-circle when you really think about how much you should be charging.
In the beginning, I’m sure it’s hard to figure out, because (on)my first photoshoot, someone asked how much I charge, and I said, “I don't know, maybe thirty dollars an hour?” It was a friend of mine that I was shooting, and I really didn't know what to say at the time. After shooting, I was like, ok, that doesn't make sense (money wise) to charge that little because it took more time than just an hour to do what I was doing and my camera at the time cost five hundred dollars, the lens I was shooting with cost two hundred dollars, so when all those things come into play, it doesn't make sense for only getting thirty dollars for one photoshoot when you are using all these resources and this time to have a shoot. I definitely think researching, it’s not fully out there on the web, but researching on the web gave me something to start with. I think some websites say that beginner photographers start out at $50 to $75 an hour and then people that get a little better/more advanced can go to $100 to $150 an hour and then go up from there! But I think it also depends on what you are shooting. I would never charge, say, $30 an hour for a wedding! If something is a longer amount of time, you wouldn't charge by the hour, you would charge for the day like a day rate such as a wedding or festivals because you are going to be there for many hours, much like a nine to five workday, say, six to eight hours or however long you are going to be there - you wouldn’t want to get paid just say $100 to shoot something for eight hours!
Regarding licensing, I’m still learning about that. I have had blogs use my photos but I haven't gotten into the licensing of photos out (to other outlets) as of yet. But it definitely should be discussed as it is important!
What has been your biggest win this year and what has been your biggest lesson?
MNC: I feel like this year I have benefitted from my hard work last year, and I felt I made a name for myself in terms of shooting the different festivals such as Rolling Loud, A3C, One Music Fest, Trillectro, Broccoli City. At the festivals, I was able to network with a bunch of different people, get my name out there more, and I think this year I’ve been able to really pass down a lot of knowledge. Just like doing this interview, I’ve had a lot more interviews and invites to be on different panels. This is the first time this (interviews/panels) has happened this year and I enjoyed it and I’m able to pass down knowledge to different people, which I had always wanted to do. I never believed in keeping all this information to myself and I’m perfectly fine with sharing it!
Regarding shooting, the first day of the year, kind of a cool thing, Wale calls me out of the crowd to on stage to shoot the remainder of the show, since normally as a photographer you can normally only shoot the first three songs of the show. Honestly, I didn’t even know he knew who I was until he said,“Where’s Chynna?” I was just shocked cause I was just trying to sneak photos while I was in the crowd with some friends afterward and he was asking, “Where’s the press at?” We had shot the first three songs and we left the area. This was at The Filmore Silver Spring. Every New Year’s Day, Wale does a concert in the DMV at different venues, but usually it’s at the Filmore, and I’ve been for a couple of years. That kind of solidified that my name is out there and something that I wasn't expecting and we have definitely developed a Twitter relationship (laughs). It was kind of like a full-circle moment because I’ve always loved listening to his music and he was the first-ever DMV artist that I started listening to in sixth grade with my MP3 player and I remember listening to Wale and all the boys being like, “What do you know about Wale?” Just having that moment (on stage with Wale) and then remembering being on a bus in Charlestown East fifteen years ago to now he actually knows who I am and is calling me out to take pictures of him, and I think that was really awesome! I live off of the full-circle moments that come from the photography thing.
I think another one is the Dreamville fest! I always have a running list of my favorite rappers, and Cole has always been one of them since he started with “The Warm Up,” and actually the first time I heard Cole was on “Beautiful Bliss” by Wale. So high school days, going on blogs to find the latest music of theirs and listening to it, discovering it, that was a very important and impactful time in my life because I vividly remember growing to love these artists just off their music and getting to know the people that they are just from what they were talking about. I always have been a big Dreamville fan from Cole, Bas, JIB, Ari Lennox, Earth Gang, all of them. They were originally scheduled to have the festival I believe last September, but there was a hurricane that came through at that time; I was waiting to hear back from them on in-house and I hadn’t heard anything yet so it was kind of making me nervous -I really hope I could shoot it! That was the one thing I really,really wanted to do (was to shoot at the festival) to say I did it! And then this year, a couple of days before the festival, they finally reached back out to me and said they wanted to invite me to be on the in-house team, which was pretty amazing! I had worked to try and gain connections for the past year reaching out to different managers - Ibrahim (Cole’s manager), who’s a great guy, Dee from Dreamville, also a great guy, just reaching out and trying to find a way to get there! When that happened (getting the invite) I’m not going to lie, I cried; it’s somethingthat I wanted for so long, and for it to happen was really amazing! It’s another one of those full-circle moments that encourages me to keep going because I never knew I could get as far as I am now and I’m still here, so obviously I’m doing something right!
Talk about being a woman in photography and either a lesson you had to learn or advice you want to give to other women starting out.
MNC: I think women photographers pay a lot more attention to details then men, that’s what I have noticed; our eye is very special! So I know it’s probably discouraging and really hard when you’re the only Black woman there or just the only woman there or you are the shortest person there.
There’s a lack of women photographers out here in the music industry; we are far and few but I think the community is growing! What is something that is very important to me and that has always kept me going in this photography game is the connections I’ve made with other photographers! The DMV has so many different photographers, and that is something that pushed me to keep going! I’ve met some of the only Black women photographers just at different festivals, like Lourdes Sucari, Avi the Homie, Ravie B, Renell - there are a bunch of us out here but I think we just got to keep going and don't be afraid to ask for help from people that look like you. I know speaking for me, I’m down for giving advice! Rising slowly but we’re still here! As long as people see more representation then that might push them to keep going! Anyone that has called me an inspiration, it's pretty crazy; I just do what I do. I'm proud to say that’s happened and people look at my work as something to aspire to, especially the different Black women that want to be concert photographers or be in the music industry or just photographers in general, and I love that!
I remember hearing Ravie B’s story and reading an article with her years ago where she was talking about being at her job and making more money doing photography than at her job, and she knew that was what was making her happy so she left and now she’s on a crazy route! The representation of women photographers matters and I think we are out here and we’re working!
I saw you recently started a new account on Instagram, Community of Creatives; what was the reason behind that and what do you hope to share with this account?
MNC: That is what I have been speaking about, the network of photographers. Me and Shaugn Cooper, who is another awesome DMV photographer, he’s currently on tour with Ari Lennox, killing the game! We just wanted to create an account and we’re still in the works of what we want to do with it since we just created it a couple of weeks ago; we just have a desire to put our friends on basically and show off the different talent of the people we know. It’s just not a DMV thing; we’ve met people from California, Atlanta, Miami, New York, Philly, and Chicago. We know a lot of the different photographers, and being able to have a hub to put these people on and one of the angles is to have people reach out to us, “Oh I’m looking for a photographer for this,” and they are able to see people’s work and they may be up the street from you! There is a big community of creatives that are out here working right now; this is just an area that spotlights them and puts them on right now to bring them exposure and at the same time being able to share some of the knowledge we know!
What do you envision for yourself next year as you grow your brand and business and style aesthetic goals of your photography?
MNC: My main goal (of my photography) is to make people feel like they were there in that moment; I know that is what photographers are always capturing. I have heard people say that about my photography, which makes me happy because that’s always been my goal. I also love bold photos, bright photos; I really like using color and if I’m not using color, I like making a black and white photo stand out! That’s something I’m always looking to do with my photos is to make sure my photos are bold and capture a moment with the artist smiling or singing. With the photos I just shot of Ari Lennox, when I shot it, I felt the drama of the lighting, what she was wearing, how she was singing. I wanted to capture that drama, and that's how I approach a lot of photos when editing, how was I feeling when I shot this and how I want others to feel when they look at my photos.
I think next year I want to try and shoot in-house for more festivals; I would love to work with more brands and do more portrait photography. If the money was right, I think it would be cool to go on tour, which seems like an interesting piece of photography that I haven't tapped into yet. Just continue to grow Community of Creatives, expand the knowledge there, make that the place where people reach out to different photographers to shoot these festivals.
Final Thoughts?
MNC: Just keep going, that’s the biggest thing I tell myself all the time! Even in those times of self-doubt or you aren't getting the answers that you want, you just have to continue to keep working because it’s going to pay off, because you wouldn't be doing all this hard work for nothing!
Dreamville Festival 2019: Rapsody, 6Lack, J. Cole in Raleigh, NC
Top left : Lil Uzi Vert 2018 Bristow,VA, Da Baby 2019 Made in America, Gucci Mane Rolling Loud Miami 2019, Cardi B Made in America 2019
Ari Lennox at Anthem in DC 2019
Wale & Chynna at The Filmore in Silver Springs, MD 2019 photo credit by: Terence Daniels @tshootsraw
