Meet Hillary Shapiro | Photographer and Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hillary Shapiro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hillary, career-wise, where do you want to be in the end?
My ultimate end goal is to be able to travel the world and capture as many experiences as possible. I would love to be able to share my work with the world and ultimately devote all of my time to photography.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I take inspiration from the world around me and from my love of cinema. I also love people. People inspire me. I would say one of my favorite things to capture is portraits of people. I feel photographing someone is a unique experience and moment of connectivity between the subject and photograph. There is a level of trust and vulnerability that is involved in photographing someone. You get to present your own unique point of view through your lens that is specific to you. I freelance as a photographer so all of my collaborations and paid client work is through word of mouth and social media. This inherently can be a challenge. There are many moving parts of trying to grow yourself as an independent photographer. The parts consist of keeping up with networking, getting yourself and work out there by sharing posts and content consistently, talking to new people regularly and getting involved in local events to seek out opportunities and network. These are just a few of the things I do to try and expand and grow. My dream with photography is to be able to make it a full time career, travel the world and have as many exciting experiences as possible.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Metro Detroit has so much to offer between Downtown Detroit , Hamtramck , Ferndale. There are so many good venues to appreciate theatre, music and arts as well as countless places to eat. One of my favorite places to frequent is Planet Ant in Hamtramck. They have so many events between live bands, improv shows to drag there is always something going on to bring the creative community together. Campus Martius is known for their skating rink this time of year, a giant tree in lights. People from all over the city come down to enjoy some skating and a meal from one of the hundred surrounding restaurants. In the summer the Detroit Jazz festival takes place there as well and It is a blast every year for all ages. There are so many amazing events going in metro Detroit on any given day all year round. There’s no shortage of fun, exciting and interesting people or places.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to dedicate this shoutout to everyone who has encouraged, supported and worked with me. Without them I would not be where I am currently in my journey with photography.

Instagram: Hillaryilyssa

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hillary.shapiro.1

Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9351936/bio/

Image Credits
All photographs were taken by Hillary Ilyssa.