Portraitist Miller Mobley on Hard Work and What it Takes to Make It … Twice
Portraitist Miller Mobley is a successful photographer twice over. As a college student, he built a successful photography business in Tuscaloosa, AL, working for both local and regional clients. Later, he and his wife picked up their entire life and moved to New York City, where the now 24-year-old Mobley has managed to land all of his dream clients one after the other.
Photo District News had a chance to sit down with Mobley for the short interview above and a more extended story in their Photo Annual 2013 issue, and discuss how he was able to become successful not once, but twice.
The answer is simple: call it drive, determination, stubbornness, whatever, if Mobley wasn’t shooting, he was pounding the pavement on his way to another meeting or pounding the keyboard composing an e-mail to another dream client.
He got the meetings and gigs he did, first and foremost, because his work managed to speak for itself. Redux Pictures principal Marcel Saba said that Mobley’s entire portfolio “knocked [his] socks off,” and Hollywood Reporter Photo Director Jennifer Laski calls his work “beautiful.”
But in addition to creating great work (whether or not he’s on assignment for someone), he’s willing to do what it takes: like save up a years worth of rent in New York, or miss your flight back from LA to catch a last-minute meeting with the Photo Director of The Hollywood Reporter.
The video interview itself is pretty short, but offers some of Mobley’s insights on building relationships and putting in the work required to gain a measure of success as a photographer. If you want to hear more of Mobley’s story or see a larger sample of his work, head over to PDN Online or check out Mobley’s website here.
(via ISO 1200)
