From photographing for her high school yearbook, Alice Xue has come so far as a photographer. She began freelancing during college, doing weddings, covering local events, and assisting other photographers.
“It’s hard for me to say,” she shares, referring to when she started photographing professionally, adding that one of her first gigs was photographing models for a modeling agency. “They would buy prints, and that’s how I’d make money in the beginning,” she adds.
But with experience comes wisdom.
In this article, Create Fund grantee Alice Xue shares how photographers can bring more storytelling into projects that are designed to be heavily on brand, like commercial photography. And, more importantly, why this matters.
Shutterstock: Hi Alice! So, you’re a photographer based in Canada, yes?
Alice Xue: Yeah, I’m a photographer and artist based in Toronto, Canada. I originally came from China, a place called Wuhan. You might have heard of it.
I moved to Canada with my parents when I was eight years old, and we’ve been here ever since.
SSTK: Sounds great! And how long have you been photographing?
Xue: I started as sort of just a hobbyist, and then photographing my friends, I would say around 14-15 years old. And then it evolved—I did a lot of photography for the yearbook content.
Then, I was freelancing while I was going to university, doing weddings, photographing events, and assisting other photographers.
So, it’s hard for me to say because I feel like I’ve been getting paid for a long time. I’ve been photographing full-time since 2016, which is almost, oh my gosh, a full decade! Which is crazy!
SSTK: Oh wow. That’s a long time! But I think the thing about photography is that even if you’ve been doing it for awhile, it’s just like writing—you never get tired of it because the creativity flows all the time.
Xue: And it’s always a new experience, right? Whenever the objects change, the environment changes, the deliverables, and the way you’re trying to convey all those things sort of change and the way that you’re approaching things . . . it changes so much.
Like, you know, when I used to shoot weddings, the mindset you have for photographing a wedding versus a commercial project is completely different. So, yeah, it’s always a new way to stretch your creative muscles.
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SSTK: For sure! So, about your photography style, what’s your focus right now?
Xue: I primarily focus on commercial storytelling for brands and businesses. I’ve been really fortunate to work with advertising agencies and sort of larger marketing campaigns, as well. I’m just looking through my recent galleries, and I’ve done headshots for the Insurance Institute.
I also shot a campaign for International Women’s Day for the Royal Bank of Canada to promote women and skilled traits. To show images of them working so that they’re more visible and represented and so that other women can, in turn, be inspired and feel visible and feel that that’s something accessible to them.
SSTK: And why did you decide to focus on this?
Xue: I feel like it’s really, really fun. And I’m really fortunate that I get to collaborate with businesses on strategic imagery because commercial work is so based on specific parameters . . . so goal-oriented, right?
So, yeah, I just really love that challenge and I love the complexity.
And then you get to collaborate with agencies, with creative directors, art directors, and copywriters. And, you know, that’s even another level of portraying complexity in the imagery.
SSTK: There’s this thing that I hear from photographer friends that, sometimes, the most important thing is that you know when to click.
Xue: Yeah! For sure. For sure.
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SSTK: So, for you, I wonder, how do you know when it’s time to click?
Xue: Yeah, that’s a great question! So, I’m actually much more director-oriented. I like to cultivate a very strong connection with my talent, whoever I’m photographing, whether it’s a simple portrait or a much more complex campaign.
You really want to make sure that these people can trust you to be vulnerable and to portray those emotions.
It’s about guiding them through those moments and the points that you’re supposed to reach and talking through that process together—and making it really, really collaborative and really seamless so you can get them to “the click,” if that makes sense.
SSTK: Yes, it does! And what would you say makes a compelling image?
Xue: For me, it’s when you want to feel like you can fall into the photograph and that there’s like a world contained in a frame. That there’s something that can pull you to whatever is going on in that.
I’m such a human-centric photographer that it has to be about the human narrative, even if it’s only a small indication of a human subject. I feel like that really helps anchor and bring people into the picture.
SSTK: Would you say that it’s challenging to bring that into every frame when you’re taking photos for a commercial project versus, you know, the usual journalism project? Because I think some projects have to be so on-brand.
Xue: Yeah, that’s a great comment. I think, ultimately, it’s all about finding the universality and being able to portray the specificity of an experience while making it universal on some emotional level—on some human level.
I’m such an individualist in terms of the way I approach things. I feel like the story of human beings is like the story of individuals, and photography is what documents that, in some ways, as much as writing is too, right?
Photography, in a way, is like the visual continuation of the language of painting. People have always painted beautiful things and of things they love, and I feel like photography is like the continuation—even commercial photography—of that love and that desire to portray things that are aspirational or inspirational.
SSTK: Speaking of painting, I read that you also paint. Would you say that your love for painting is somehow connected to your love of photography?
Xue: Oh yeah, for sure. For sure! I feel like all of us were like descendants of that visual language, you know. It’s like the lineage of the 2D medium, especially portrait painters and portrait photographers.
I feel like documenting individuals and individual stories, and being able to capture that tangent of slice in time, is such a beautiful thing and a wonderful fragment to be able to hold on to.
SSTK: Love that response! So articulate! But now, the grant. How has The Create Fund impacted your business and you as a photographer?
Xue: Oh my gosh! It definitely opened me up to the world of stock and how this process works.
I’m definitely trying to actively find opportunities where we can create that sort of diverse imagery that they’re looking for in terms of fulfilling that mission statement.
Because it’s so cool to be able to contribute, even in small parts, to build a visual representation of people who are not typically represented. People who are not always seen.
I believe in representation and the importance of feeling seen in all aspects of life.
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SSTK: I’d like to wrap with, what’s the biggest lesson photography has taught you?
Xue: Oh gosh, that’s so deep and philosophical! Probably to find the flow.
I think the thing that always brings me back to my work is how present you have to be as a photographer. Because everything is done in pre-production, so much of it is pre-thought and pre-visualization and pre-organization. So that when you get to shoot day, you really make the most of your time, and you’re there to get what you’ve already sort of like pre-envisioned, if that makes sense.
I feel like when those things meld together, it’s like a beautiful synergy of flow. Of being present but also being spontaneous and being able to have fun with the subject, embracing their own emotions and whatever might pop up in the moment.
So yeah, I feel like the best part of your work is finding that flow and feeling lost in time when you’re not trying to control everything. When you’re just having fun in the flow and letting everything unfold.
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