In 2025, I stopped thinking about headshots like an actor and it changed everything
This is my first blog post in a while and, fair warning, this is going to be the businessiest I’ve ever sounded - but I promise there is a point.
If you asked me two years ago what I did, I would tell you that I took headshots. And while that is technically true, this was a very limiting response. Thinking of myself as a person who takes headshot puts all focus on the product I create, not the impact of the product. Likewise, a headshot is, in its simplest terms, a picture of you. It’s a product that only becomes effective once looked at in the context of its purpose. Now, your headshot, when fully placed in the context of the brand it is taken to cultivate and the audience to whom that identity is being communicated, becomes a powerful marketing tool that is uniquely leveraged to push your career forward.
Now if you ask me now what I do, I would say I’m a brand consultant and a creative marketing specialist. Once I flipped this switch in my brain, all of the limitations of who my business could serve and how I can serve them lifted completely. It started to show in my photography, in the way I talk about my process, and has led to a year producing some of the work that I am proudest of.
Branding is Storytelling!
From day one, I’ve called myself a storyteller. This has only become more true. In 2025, I was able to expand my photography business to theatrical key art, production photography, lifestyle photography, weddings, and, of course, more headshots. By reframing what it was that I bring to the table as a creative collaborator, I’ve been able to broaden the horizons of what I do as a photographer, while keeping the key principles of my work consistent. When I am working with any client - no matter the type of photography I am being hired to do - I am always approaching the conversation using three distinct anchoring points (which may sound familiar if you’ve read some of my older blogs): Subject, Story, and Audience.
Whether I’m photographing a musical or taking a headshot, I always want to know the answer to these three questions. What is being communicated? Who is doing the communicating? Who is being communicated to? If you’re an actor, the what becomes the story, the who becomes you, and the who to becomes casting, representation, website visitors, you name it. When you understand these three factors, then you can really be strategic when thinking about the impact you want your headshots to have. This makes things easier for me because it makes it very clear how the choices we make during our headshot appointments can affect the impact of our headshots, therefore we can tweak the dials with a lot more intention than if we just sat down with a goal of taking a picture. Likewise, this makes things easier for the actor because instead of sitting down and consciously focusing on what your face and body and hands are doing, it shifts the focus to the narrative moment with a lot more intentionality - which, as an actor, is what you want to be doing! This also just ties everything together, so your outfit, your accessories, and your posing/posture aren’t just things that are happening, but are all tools that directly inform the story and impact of the headshot.
This Mindset Works Everywhere
Even though headshots were my first offering and will always have a soft, special place in my heart, I have never felt more free, creatively and professionally speaking. I am not just a headshot photographer, I am a brand specialist who knows how to tell a good story. I am capable of developing strong assets for production marketing and branding. I can interface with other creatives to help streamline the ways they’re communicating their image to their audiences. I can think strategically about marketing stories of all kinds and medias, and I’m only just getting started.
I did it, you can too
If you’re an actor, or a creative, it’s so easy to draw the line at who you are. If you get the job, its because they like you, and your talent, and your abilities. If you don’t get the job, it’s because they don’t. That isn’t how I choose to see it. **You are not just the things you’ve done on your resume. You are a brand identity and a business with both a history AND a trajectory. Market yourself for that trajectory and focus on the impact of your work in addition to the substance of it. I agree, it’s a very corporate way of thinking of things. But recognizing it and realizing that there is still room for craft, artistry, and expression in all of this is freeing and creates a layer of separation that I think we sometimes need to not sweat the small things in these creative industries. Go on. Change that job title on LinkedIn. Update that instagram bio. Broadcast that impact.
