Interview with Chloe Hall: Designer, Photographer, and Student

Nashville born and raised, Chloe Hall is a Design Communications major at Belmont University with a minor in Business. Accomplishing every artists’ dream, she has turned her passion into a full-blown business: drawing, photographing, and designing beautiful branding for her business clients. With over 73,000 followers on Instagram, she is both a creative and process-driven professional who has inspired our team at WayUp. Check out her story below.

Tell us how you first got into photography, and why you used Instagram to promote your work.

I started taking an interest in photography in middle school, but I didn’t get into portrait photography and fashion photography until February of this year. My first shoot came up when an artist at Belmont wanted photos done. She had seen my Instagram account and wanted to give me a shot. She offered to pay me, and that blew my mind! From there, I worked almost every day at generating content for social media. Using Instagram has been a great platform for getting my name out there as a photographer and designer.

What is the best part about studying design? What is the hardest?

The best part about being a Design major are the classes. Most of them are studio classes like drawing, or graphic design. There are a lot of hands-on classes that shape our craft and build on our abilities as artists. The hardest part of being a design major is the workload. Our classes are much longer than normal 50-minute classes and we constantly have projects do throughout the week. Each of our studio classes are 3 hours long and nearly every day we have some kind of project due. It is very time-consuming in and outside of the classroom, but it is definitely preparing us for the real world pace.

What’s a photograph that you’re most proud of and why?

I love this photo of [my friend] Taylor because the whole shoot was styled well, and the colors were perfect for the look that she wanted.

What has been the coolest experience you’ve had through your Instagram?

I was flown out to Colorado for a music festival called Rendezvous. I got to shoot photos of live performances by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, Johnnyswim, Holly Williams, and Chris Stapleton. It was a great opportunity that I will never forget!

How do you handle negative comments on your photographs?

You have to be confident in what you do: for every person who doesn’t like it, there are hundreds that do. You can’t be upset at someone who has a valid opinion…Just hold true to what you do and keep pushing forward in improving in your craft.

As an artist, how do you continue to stay creative?

I discipline myself to continually create, even when I don’t feel like it. Being disciplined in any creative field is key to keeping a fresh look on your craft. It is important to post even when you don’t have content because that forces you to put content out and constantly create. It is also good to keep your audience engaged in your work. If you don’t post, people will lose interest.

Some work turns out better than others, but to get into a routine of creating something new, whether that’s photography or graphic design, will only stretch your creativity and ability to problem solve.

What advice would you give students who are looking to pursue photography?

1. Value your work.

2. Continually create and work out of your comfort zone.

3. Reach out to people in your field

4. Post one to two good photos to social media every day (it’s a discipline)

5. Keep it fun. You’ll get burnt out very quickly if success and money overtake creativity.

Top Photo Credit: CW Design