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"I never thought of my work as a business. I was a freelancer..."
For generations creatives were taught that you had a side gig to pay you so you can make the work you wanted to make on the side, and that simply isnt the case any longer. From educators like Cat Ford-Coates and Sue Bryce portrait photographers are learning that their work IS valuable.
Jana was a street photographer for years and then in 2014 decided she wanted to learn more about studio lighting and dove into a personal project with the transgender community that, by all standards became wildly successful and her work toured for six years.
It was in this space that she discovered the transformational power of portrait and never looked back. A lifelong student discovering again and again that part of the creative process is yes, about what you want to create but also what you want to share with the world. Uncovering the things in the world she didn't understand and finding answers through her camera was the way she chose to connect more deeply with the world around her.
Her father greatly influenced her perspective through his writing. As a famous writer his philosophy was to create work that you want to create and shaping that work to have meaning for others, and it is this philosophy that has shaped how Jana has shown up in her multiple iterations as a professor, as a street photographer, a documentary photographer, and a portrait photographer.
Jana moved on from her ten year chapter in representing the transgender community through her portrait project and was inspired to photograph women and at an exhibition, one of her clients in attendance saw her image hanging, 30x40", and began to cry. Confused, Jana asked why and if she was ok and the client's response through her tears was "You captured the woman I've always wanted to be seen as, but didn't think the world saw..." and Jana rediscovered how her work had value and impact for others, again.
Photography is powerful both personally and professionally and is no longer relegated to photojournalism but for everyday people's lives.

To find Jana: 

• website: https://www.janamarcus.com/
• instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jmarcusphoto/

Full conversation on YT here: https://youtu.be/JDHae99v4DM

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ABOUT CAT FORD-COATES

Cat Ford-Coates has been told to soften her whole career.

She didn't.

She built a multi-six-figure business teaching photographers that the thing keeping them stuck was never the market, the portfolio, or the pricing. It was the voice. The one that sounds like wisdom. The one that keeps moving the goalpost and calling it patience.

She's spent over a decade in rooms with photographers who are extraordinarily talented and somehow still convinced they should be grateful for what they have.

She disagrees. Loudly.

Cat serves photographers who already know what they want. Who know what they're capable of. Who have known for a while, actually, and have spent years finding sophisticated reasons not to claim it.

The question was never whether you're ready.

You already know you are. Stop pretending that you don't.