Meet Jamie Grill Atlas | Brand, Family, and Fine Art Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jamie Grill Atlas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jamie, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
Having a creative career means that life and work are intrinsically intertwined – my life informs my work, and my work reflects my life – the lines are blurred. The term “balance” is misleading. I don’t think of work and life as a balance, so much as a dance – sometimes you step more in one direction, sometimes the other, but hopefully there’s a give and take that feels synchronized overall. Becoming a mother challenged the symmetry more than ever before for me, but I learned over time to adapt my work to my motherhood, too. There is rarely a time when I get to turn life totally off and disappear in solitude to create. So I found synchronicity again by learning to keep creating even while mothering- whether bringing my babies on set with me, stopping for breastfeeding breaks, or pushing myself to create at home, even in the midst of chaotic family life going on around me. I’m working and living at the same time.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I came up shooting commercial stock photography 20 years ago, and in many ways, it came easily in the beginning. Shooting solely stock, it was very feasible to earn a fair, consistent wage. There have been many changes in this industry over the years, as in many creative industries, relating to the digital nature of work now: the ease of getting and mastering technology; the extra competition of an increasingly global market; and the idea that everything on the internet should be cheap or free, which undermines the compensation of artists in a sustainable way. Right up to the introduction of AI these days. It can be a challenge to come to the middle of your career and feel like it’s slipping backwards, or being handed to robots, to give into the idea that the sky is falling. But the nature of a creative career is that it requires constant reinvention. What I’ve learned over the years is to just. keep. creating. Lately I’ve been pouring myself into work that rebels against the over-digitalization of our days. I shoot film and print on paper and rip it up and weave it together. Whether making fine art or shooting for a brand or family, I make an effort to provide a tactile, analog imperfection. No matter how glossy the digital image or how well-trained the computer, we all have a human touch that is only ours to give.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My shoutout is dedicated to my father, Tom Grill. I never went to art school. My whole childhood was art school, witness to the dedicated creative life he leads. My years as photo assistant in his commercial studio was my masters program. Not only did he pass down practical knowledge about the commercial photo industry, where we both focused our career for many years, but, even more importantly, he taught me to live a life of creative pursuits. He taught me to notice. To seek out and observe the beauty around me, which not only fostered success in my photography career, but also feeds my sense of place in the world around me.

Website: www.jamiegrill.com

Instagram: @jamiegrillphotography

Image Credits
Jamie Grill Atlas