Stephanie Trattner

Commercial & portrait photographer, Belleville, Ontario

How has the pandemic affected you?

While sharing my love of art [with my six-year-old daughter] has been rewarding, I am nervous about how the pandemic will affect my business. The spring is typically my busy season and having the studio shut down at this time will definitely have an impact on my bottomline for the year. But more importantly, I’m afraid people won’t come back, won’t see the value in portraits, or won’t be able to fit portraits in their budget after this ends. However, perhaps people will rush back to the studio to have portraits done not only as an opportunity to get dressed up and feel fabulous, but so that they have an updated headshot for their online presence or so that they can give it to everyone they love just in case we get split up again... who knows? Only time will tell!

What professional opportunities are you seeing for the future?

Despite the challenges I am grateful for this pause, as it has allowed me the time and space I needed to really reflect on why I became a photographer to begin with and what I want my career and work to look like going forward, something I had been grappling with prior to the pandemic. I have plans to push myself professionally and creatively just as soon as I can be around people again!

Portrait by Stephanie Trattner

If you have been involved in a collaboration, how did you manage that?

Photographer Lola Reid Allin and I put together the Photos for BGH fundraiser, which was a limited time photographic print sale to raise money for Belleville General Hospital to help fight COVID-19. I got the idea from a group of artists out of New York City who got the idea from a group in Milan, Italy. Lola and I created the site and reached out to our photographer networks. I am ashamed to say that before that my local photographer network was embarrassingly small... not anymore! Throughout the run of the fundraiser we kept getting more and more submissions, which was beautiful. In the end, we ended up with 30 photographers all thanks to “a friend telling a friend telling a friend” and social media exposure. The project was all done online so we didn’t have to worry about social distancing restrictions.

BGH Fundraiser Photos

How has this experience affected your perception of the importance of art and artists?

I’ve enjoyed the creative ways performing artists have been sharing their gifts with the world. The at home ballet performances, domestic discos and catalogues of performances from around the world becoming accessible has been great. However, it isn’t the same as going to the real thing. Something bigger happens when you share a cultural experience with other people. It makes you feel part of something that streaming can't give you. I think going forward, if anything, this will push me to take advantage of any and all opportunities for cultural experiences and I hope that others feel the same way.

stephanietrattnerphotography.com