004 Sylvie Gil on Getting Published and Destination Photography

Elan of RPL: tell us a little bit about yourself, your story, how you got started all that good stuff Sylvie Gil: It was a pure accident, how did that happen again. I was a fashion photographer in San Francisco and i shot a wedding for a friend and the wedding got published in a magazine in Canada and I don’t know if it exists still, I think it does Elan of RPL: What is the name of the magazine? Sylvie Gil: Brides something rather no it was called brides its Canadian magazine, but anyways after that the phone started ringing, I was like no am a fashion photographer just don’t know much about wedding  but I was also pregnant and if anybody can name me a fashion photographer and made a career out of it while they had children. I will give you the rest of the [1:16] because it simply doesn’t exist like when you a fashion photographer it’s really difficult you have a family that make you work 20 hours per day they can’t sense you are pregnancy they think you gonna hurt yourself, it’s a very difficult career to have as a parent so I thought maybe the weddings is the thing to do as a mum. Then I went and trained with a bunch of local photographers enough to 3 years of training and I let the word out and first year I shot fifteen weddings Elan of RPL: What year was that? A long time ago, over thirty years don’t wanna talk numbers. Elan of RPL: Am over thirty years Stop talking numbers that was a while ago I can’t remember Elan of RPL: So you mentioned briefly that you were a fashion photographer, how do you get started in photography like what sparked the passion that you wanted to be a photographer. That was another accident, I was actually in college for business I started marketing in business in college in Paris and came to America to travel around and I loved California I mean who doesn’t like California and I picked up my camera actually my… okay. Any parents here raise your hand. This is something you gonna remember, when I was fourteen my dad told me you should be a photographer and I was like are you crazy that am gonna be starving for the rest of my life that am gonna be an artist will just never work. He even had me visit a photography college in Paris and I was like there is no way I was gonna be a wedding photographer so guess what whatever you think your kids are gonna be its gonna turn out that way because the parents know better, they do. Elan of RPL: It’s interesting coz actually the parents are always trying to talk you out of a career in photography. Sylvie Gil: No Elan of RPL: Like get an education and then you can try this Sylvie Gil: No they are crazy in my family we are all artist so we are not, so I came here with a business degree and my father snuck a camera in my pockets and I took a tonne of photos while travelling across the USA and then I actually ended up at [3:14] with a black and white picture I took somewhere in US as most promising female photographer and I could barely speak English. It was really interesting so then I thought maybe I should pursue this photography thing and then I took a few classes am pretty much self-taught. I didn’t take a lot of classes I didn’t go to a lot of photography schools am pretty much self-taught Elan of RPL: So how did that kind of work your way into the fashion? Sylvie Gil: So I started knocking around in san Francisco on fashion studios because I love fashion and then this woman had me started sweeping floors and ordering lunches and was really using chilling and then I worked really hard at that position so I could climb up the ladders. When it comes to work and career I really believe in taking your time. Elan of RPL: Sure Sylvie Gil: I know now it’s a whole lots of concepts. So basically I went to auction in a lot of studios in san fransisco and started at the bottom like didn’t know much about anything. I really started sweeping floors and ordering lunches and then I became the fifth assistant and then the fourth assistant and then climb my way up to first as --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thephotoreport/message