We had the good fortune of connecting with Kaleen Enke and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Kaleen, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I quit my job as a teacher when I had my second child. The prohibitive cost of childcare and the allure of having more flexibility and time to be with my children nudged me into the direction of starting my own business. I was very naive about the whole process but just put one foot in front of the other and slowly put together the pieces to create a business while also earning an income nannying. Each step forward revealed a new part of the path that I had never even considered before. The challenge of always having more to learn about running a business is something I love, but it can quickly become a distraction when I let my identity as a student override my identity as a creative.
What should our readers know about your business?
I’m a family photographer, but instead of having families come to me to get pictures, I go to their house and photograph them as they are living their regular lives, often spending many hours with them. I don’t do any posing or directing, but instead I spend time watching and listening. I want to show families that their unfiltered lives are beautiful and worthy of being seen and remembered. I’m not where I want to be as a business yet, as I’ve been learning and building from scratch while also learning and building a family. Both are full of growing pains and can feel really rewarding and successful some days and really draining and full of failure on other days. I try hard not to take any of it too personally and push myself to do better.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Now that we are asked to stay away from our favorite places in an effort to flatten the curve, they seem even more appealing. We would for sure go to El Tesoro to get a mulita and hang out on their patio. We would ride bikes on the beltline to the Noguchi Playground at Piedmont Park. We would have dinner at Gaja in East Atlanta and then go to a drive in at the Starlight Drive-In. Arabia Mountain is a quick and easy drive and beautiful all times of the year.
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am so thankful for a group of documentary family photographers in Atlanta that meet together every month. We share resources, expertise, and learning experiences. We plan events to help our genre become more widely known in our area. We encourage one another and can be each other’s cheerleaders. We really are stronger as a community. Kristin Watkins, Barbara Naso, Megan Carswell Gladden, Amanda Sloane, Chanda Williams, Rosalind Williams, and Heather Tully are some of the other photographers in the group.
Website: www.kaleenenke.com
Instagram: @kaleenenkephoto
Facebook: @kaleenenkephotography
Image Credits
Barbara Naso took the photo of me photographing a family.