When Awa Mally first picked up a camera, the goal was simply to have a hobby. She’s always wanted to take photographs, freeze moments, find beauty, and remember the mundane.
Today, Mally’s work in the entertainment industry—photographing artists and concerts—has flown so far from the high school hobby.
“I feel like I’m self-aware enough now that I have imposter syndrome. To sort of like catch moments where I feel like, you know, I’m thinking about that,” shares the Twin-Cities-based artist.
Mally balances working at a black wellness center and building her photography business, all while continuing to learn to navigate through the many things every artist experiences—finding opportunities, knowing yourself, and dealing with imposter syndrome.
Here’s more from our conversation with photographer and Create Fund winner Awa Mally.
Shutterstock: How did photography start for you?
Awa Mally: It started as a hobby for me in junior or senior high school. I was in a few youth programs and high school groups, and I was about to graduate.
I thought that it would be a great idea for me to pick up a hobby to use for my applications. I’ve always wanted to try photography, so I thought it was a perfect time.
SSTK: When did you decide to monetize it?
Mally: Honestly, I was kind of pushed to monetize my photography because, once I started taking photos, people were telling me that my photography was great and that I should start doing it for work. So, I just kind of started [doing that].
I don’t remember but, I would say, probably doing senior pictures was my first monetizing opportunity. From there, I was getting connected to other opportunities to shoot for events and other gigs.
SSTK: Would you say that monetizing it was the right decision?
Mally: It definitely was the right decision, but I wish I had found a balance between hobby and monetization.
I follow this film photographer, Willem. I don’t know his last name, but he does a lot of photography vlogs, and he always talks about just taking pictures of things you want and doing your own self-study.
So, he went to this one mountain in California and spent a whole weekend documenting the mountain from different angles and at different times of the day. And so, I want to get into more passion projects, like just taking photos of what I really, really want to capture.
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SSTK: What does your business look like today?
Mally: A lot of the work that I do now involves event photos, concerts, and sometimes headshots of artists. We have a lot of artists in the city, so sometimes it’s cover art, behind-the-scenes photos, and stuff like that.
There are a lot of photographers in our city, but not always a lot of photographers that look like me, so I feel like I have a really good standing business-wise.
Right now, I’m trying to move from amateur photographer to something more professional and having everything in order.
I’ve also been overcoming my imposter syndrome, but [I see myself] in three years with a gallery show with work that I feel heavily resonates with me.
SSTK: What do you mean by there’s not a lot of photographers in your city that look like you?
Mally: Minnesota is already like a very majority-white state. And then, Minneapolis is one of our cities that’s very diverse. But even still, it’s still majority white.
And then within the arts, the access to the arts, the environment in which people can do art, the resources, these aren’t really there.
Mally: I live in Minneapolis, which is a really popular city for photography, but we don’t get the same opportunities as bigger commercial cities.
I want to help bridge the gap because we have great talent here and, with more opportunities, people would be able to see the creativity we have brewing in the state, making it worth investing in the creatives here.
But right now, here, it’s like a dead spot. Our whole area is just an area that people like to really overlook.
SSTK: How do you think we can do better when it comes to that?
Mally: I think people can make more intentional efforts to just build that bridge, even a little bit. If you have a budget for the year and you have your big cities all circled out like, okay, take a little bit of that and try to give to one person in a smaller city.
I think if more people just try to give even just one person an opportunity in a small city, it would make a really big impact.
SSTK: You mentioned passion projects and balancing work and play. If you were to choose, what type of photography would you want to focus on and why?
Mally: I think not completely documentary style but more storytelling photography. This is hard, though, because I really love beauty photography, campaign photography, and commercial photography.
But if I had to stick to one thing, would I want to do that forever? So yeah, storytelling photography.
SSTK: Is that the reason why you chose photography as a hobby back in high school? Did you want to tell stories?
Mally: Yes. I am a storyteller and just like a capturer. I had an iPod touch in middle school and I still have photos from that on my old Flickr.
I was just taking pictures of my friends hanging out. I just love capturing memories.
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SSTK: You also mentioned imposter syndrome earlier. I’d love to dive deeper into that. How does that look to you? And how do you notice, “Oh, this is imposter syndrome?”
Mally: I feel like sometimes when people are maybe one person in the room, they feel empowered by that. But for me, feeling like the only person in the room that looks like me or represented me is very isolating.
Also, for me, the rush of hobby to monetizing . . . I just didn’t feel like I had grounding in photography. I was still trying to figure out who I was and how to work and all these things. So, I just didn’t feel confident in myself.
I knew that work was good, and I knew I was a good photographer, but the ability to be like, Okay, I can structure my business how I want to, I can speak up for myself . . . all these things I was still figuring out.
So, yeah, sometimes I feel like I don’t know how to do this.
I don’t know if I have the capacity to continue on because then I felt like I was short. So sometimes, I’m like, Oh my gosh, I don’t know how to progress or how to support myself to the level that I could be at.
SSTK: Would you say that you now know better how to deal with imposter syndrome? Or still bouncing here and there?
Mally: Bouncing here and there. But, I think I’ve been taking the past few years really trying to focus on that. I feel like I’m self-aware enough now that I have imposter syndrome. To sort of catch moments where I feel or think about it.
Now, I can challenge myself to show up in this way or ask for this thing.
SSTK: Do you think self-awareness sometimes gets lost in translation? Because I feel like sometimes, especially for artists and creatives, we are so driven to create and post things. And self-awareness kind of just, you know, gets lost in translation?
Mally: Oh, definitely! Because I feel like you are yourself. And then, you’re also you as an artist. And then other people are also viewing you as an artist and you as yourself.
Sometimes my art relates to me, and sometimes it doesn’t relate to me. And I always struggle with the two. Like, can people separate the two? Can people separate my art from who I am? Can people put those things together?
SSTK: How important do you think it is for us as artists to learn how to separate ourselves from our work? And the work that we put out.
Mally: I think it’s very important because, for me, that’s how I can really make the art that I want to. That’s how I can be in control of my art.
Like, if I know who I am and I know the art that I want to make, I can choose when to make it. I feel like it’s good to know who you are and what art you’re making, because then you can also tell people too, Oh, this is about this or this is about me.
Sometimes art is for interpretation, but you can also be very clear about the art you’re making and why and who it’s for.
SSTK: I wanted to circle back real quick to imposter syndrome. Do you think we’re talking enough about it?
Mally: Mmm . . . I feel like we talk about it but we don’t spend a lot of attention on it. I think imposter syndrome shows up in so many different ways and we don’t talk about all the ways that it shows up and all the ways that it affects people.
SSTK: Let’s go to your craft. What do you want people to feel when they see your photos?
Mally: I want people to feel comfortable. And supported. A lot of the photos I have now are of friends and I always have some sort of connection to the photos that I’m taking, so I want people to feel happy and reflective and grounded.
Yeah, I want people to feel grounded in my photography. And feel like they can take photos, too! I take a lot of photos of things that I like and I hope people feel inspired to take photos of the things they like.
SSTK: How has that journey pursuing photography impacted you as a person? And what did you discover about yourself?
Mally: I’d say I started it like kind of exiting high school, and it’s been a really big part of my personality or branding. A lot of my connections are not only because of my personality and who I am, but also because I am a great photographer.
So, I feel like that’s really helped me brand myself and position myself because, from high school, people have known me to be the photographer. It’s really a blessing to be able to have a job where I can pick what I want to do, and when I want to do it.
Learning about money through that is better because I feel like learning about money through freelancing is so different from learning about money in a typical corporate environment or like your typical work environment.
License these images via Awa Mally x2 x3.
SSTK: How has The Create Fund impacted you as a photographer?
Mally: When I applied to this, I didn’t get it the first time. Then, I got an email from Steven. So, that taught me to just apply for things because I never knew that if you apply for something you didn’t get the first time, you could still be on a roster for future opportunities.
As an artist, working for money can be challenging, so the money from the grant helped too! Cause then it’s like money that you worked for, but you get to, I guess, use it in different ways.
SSTK: What did you learn about yourself in this journey?
Mally: My biggest takeaway is that I’m capable of teaching myself something and becoming really good at it.
I taught myself photography, you know, and I did have help on the way, but it was something that I picked up, and then I was really committed to it.
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