I met Nicole through my good friend Justine Ungaro.  Hailing from the East Coast, this girl is one cool cat.  She is unassuming and easy-going, and her photography makes me want to be a better person– her style is so distinctive and unique, she really pushes the envelope to create works of photographic art.

Nicole was born and raised on a small island off the coast of New Brunswick Canada. She was a lobster fisherman’s daughter with a love for the sea and the simplicities in life, but with a longing for a world far different than she had ever known. She grew up very geographically separated from other ways of life but it nurtured a love for family and people. Nicole describes herself this way: “I am a people person. I could sit all day and talk to a total stranger just because I am intrigued by other cultures and capturing faces and lives on film. I love to travel and feel so fortunate that my job allows me to do that. I speak a French, “un peu”, I love to sleep on boats and dig for clams with my grandpa, I love cheesy 80’s ballads and I am obsessed with Horror movies and my favorite food is a sea vegetable called Dulse!”

Nicole, her husband Brad, and her business partner Jeremy started SOTA Dzine back in 2001.  They now have two Studios, one in DC and one in Chicago, but they travel worldwide, specializing in photography and graphic design.   They are not just a photography studio, but a company that comes up with creative solutions for graphic design and other print and online media.  They have traveled all over the world for work — Italy, China, France, Canada, The Caribbean, Mexico and South America.

“We have stayed under the radar for so long,” says Nicole,  ”But I want more people to see that there are really cool other things going on out there, We really push it hard to create work that is innovative for our clients. thats why we are doing all this new Studio Stuff, cause its never been done.”  Nicole finds inspiration in a number of different media.  For example she styled one of her shoots to reflect  a Burton ad.  Her clients loved to snowboard, so Nicole wanted to reflect their love for winter and winter activities in her shoot.  They had imitation flakes flying through the studio, and created a winterwonderland for them, as well as some amazing imagery.

As much as she, Brad, and Jeremy think they are under the radar, their work is clearly getting noticed.  Their imagery has been featured in People Magazine for shooting singer/song-writer Lisa Loeb’s wedding last year,  MyDay Magazine, Bride and Bloom, Destination Weddings and Honeymoons,  The Knot Real Weddings Magazine, Brides, PDN, AARP, Pepsi, Clear Magazine, Coature, and Kettle One.  She has received accolades in WPPI’s 16×20 competition, placed in PDN’s top Knots 2010, and been listed as the “Ones to Watch” by the Washingtonian 2009.

Nicole’s work was featured at Foto Week DC as the winner of the PDN World in Focus Contest sponsored by National Geographic Traveller along with fellow Coffee Break photographer Catherine Hall.  Her work entitled “Sea of Faces” will be on exhibit at FOTO Week DC this Fall. This has been a labor of love for a number of years, documenting the local fisherman on the island where she is from, and she’s focusing on publishing a book of the work.

I always enjoy these Coffee Breaks, because they give me a chance to learn more about these amazing and inspiring people in our industry.  You are going to LOVE Nicole’s interview today.  She’ll challenge you to take another look at yourself and your talent, to toot your own horn, and to give back to the community. Take a moment and hear what Nicole has to say about our Learn, Grow, Share motto:

LEARN: Well first off I am always learning how to be a better artist. I think it is so important to recognize that you are only as good as your last shot and that you should strive to constantly push yourself to the edge of your own creative being. I think it is impossible as artists to create work that is innovative, thought provoking, and inspiring if we just continue to do the same thing day in and day out. It is our responsibility to create new ideas, to be excited about the possibilities of our own imaginations and to then share that with our viewers and in turn our clients.

Something that I wish someone would have told me is that the art world has a tendency to be very cut-throat. In the beginning of my career I had a very self-hate attitude towards my art, that there were so many people better than me and that I could never be at the level of some of my peers. Thankfully, through great mentoring and a reality check, that attitude changed quickly. I always say to young artists, don’t ever doubt the possibility of what you will become! We as artists need to be open to the possibility of failure and from this nourishing ourselves and recognizing our need for growth. We are our own worst critiques but we also should be our biggest cheerleaders. Our talent is a God given gift that no one else can take away. Technique can be learned but talent is innate, you either have it or you don’t, and if you do, push yourself to exceed your own expectations and create work that makes your heart explode. If you aren’t passionate about your own work, who else will be?!

GROW: Wow, I have grown so much since I started photographing professionally in 1997. The past five years however have been the most difficult and the most rewarding of my career. My husband Brad, business partner Jeremy and I came through a time with our company where we never thought we would come out on the other side. We soon discovered that even though we were artists, we were business people too. We had always focused on great imagery, design and branding and developed a really great website http://sotadzine.com and blog http://overexposedblog.com but knew that in order for our company to succeed, we needed to take more risks with our business, and recognize that our art was our business!!

We recognized the importance of networking and selling ourselves.  Taking great photos and having no one see them was not going to grow our company. We were never big on talking about ourselves but soon realized, if you don’t toot your own horn than no one else will. Get out there, beat the streets, show your portfolio to the people that need to see it in order to get you your clients. The longer you wait, the more opportunities you will miss out on and the job will go to someone else! Attend WPPI and enter as many contests as you can, get your work seen and appreciated by others in the industry. WPPI has been an amazing way that I have been able to connect with other friends in the industry and learn and grow from each other.

SHARE: I feel like I contribute to the industry by not allowing myself to be in the middle. I feel like in order for me to be the best photographer I can be, I can’t allow myself to become mediocre in my art. We at SOTA are constantly pushing the envelope, not riding on anyone’s coattails, and making our own mistakes but also our own successes! Make an imprint in the industry, take risks, do it for yourself and for your clients.

One of my all time favorite quotes is from Cecil Beaton.  He said “be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”

One way that I share my love for photographing is by mentoring high school kids. I am involved with an organization called Critical Exposure that fuses the power of photography with the voices of our youth to help bring about policy change in order for students to get the best education possible and the opportunity to succeed. I am also volunteering my time and my photography this year to She Dances to help bring awareness to the horrible situation of sex trafficking across international borders.

I guess the most important thing for me that I try to remember, and hopefully others will to, is that I am documenting the human experience! That’s a big responsibility, and I don’t ever want to take it lightly.

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Nicole, thank you!!  Your answers are so thought-provoking and empowering… much like your imagery below!  I love it.

I’ll leave you with this quote from Dr. Suess… I asked Nicole what her favorite children’s book was, and she gave me this fantastic quote:   “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?” “When you think things are bad, when you feel sour and blue, when you start to get mad… You should do what I do! Just tell yourself, Duckie, you’re really quite lucky! Some people are much more…Oh, ever so much more…Oh, muchly much-much more unlucky than you!”