Meet Skyla Jenkins | Photographer | Creative Director | Stylist

I’ve always had a very determined and resilient personality. However, I’ve experienced different phases in my life of feeling inadequate to keeping going forward. When I turned 22, my life completely changed after the passing of my grandmother. She was my best friend. My other half. She was one of the people apart of my support system who always made me feel more than adequate. When she passed, my perspective changed. I changed. I was at an all time low. It wasn’t until I decided to make my brand “UniqueIdentity” an official business in 2020. I started photography as a hobby two years prior, and due to clientele and networking, it inspired me to pursue things further. That’s when it hit me. I finally discovered my life purpose! Taking pictures is just a portion of it. My life purpose is making others feel good and help them find their true unique identity. That’s when I knew I couldn’t give up. I couldn’t stay in the low vibrations that I’ve been in. It’s definitely been an up and down process for me because of grief and personal issues, but again I always had resilience and I had to remember that within my craft.

I am a photographer who specializes in Fashion, portraiture, and Headshots. My brand revolves around showcasing everyone’s true unique essence within & out. What made me start photography was being around the modeling and artistic industry within the friendships and family relationships that I share with others. photography wasn’t something that I ever imagined myself doing; it was kind of some thing that popped out of nowhere, but in the end been being a blessing in disguise.I instantly fell in love. I then began to do more research and I taught myself everything I needed to know about the Nikon D 5200 a.k.a. “Nikki the Nikon” that I use for my content creations. That’s the first camera that I’ve ever had the pleasure of using and with that camera I was able to teach myself how to navigate certain settings, knowing how to create different concepts, maneuvering lighting, and most importantly, knowing the best lenses for certain concepts.

I started out doing photography as a hobby and officially turned my brand into a business in 2020 and so far it’s been a very up-and-down process and journey but I wouldn’t change anything or I don’t regret how things have flowed thus far. I feel like now things are starting to fall into place and I have so much more to offer within my brand and I’m also creating new ways and opportunities for other creatives and models to expand their their crafts and expertise as well.
I must say the most challenging part of being a photographer is knowing how to make others feel comfortable. Although I naturally know how to do that on a daily basis, it’s a little different when you’re in a creative realm and I knew after doing a couple of shoots that my personality was also going to have to be a huge factor in making others feel comfortable; that way when the image is captured the uncomfortable energy doesn’t show through the image. Over the years I have realized that sometimes other models or clients are a little bit more shyer than others, so you may have to do a little bit more extensive observation in order to really fully understand that person‘s comfort level. Now it’s like second nature and everyone always ends up enjoying their time while creating with me!
The most valuable lesson I’ve learned with being a small business owner is not allowing anyone to come in between you and your vision. I’ve had so many instances where I’ve allowed others opinions or perceptions to get in the way of what I envision for my brand or what I feel like would be a good opportunity for others and I had to understand the importance of individuality and the whole sole purpose of what my brand means; which is being able to capture an individuals unique essence, therefore anything that’s interfering with that capability shouldn’t even have the privilege to be within that creative realm. That’s why now I feel very motivated, inspired, and unstoppable when it comes to creating and showcasing my work. I am so excited to see how far things will go and the amount of love and support that UniqueIdentity will receive in the near future! I am based in Atlanta, Georgia and I do travel outside of the city limits depending on the mileage, therefore if anyone is interested in being apart of UniqueIdentity’s creative realm, please don’t hesitate to check out my work on my Instagram page @theeuniqueidentity. I am also a stylist within my brand therefore, fashion is the main focus so I do have a page (@theeuniqueidentityscloset) strictly dedicated to what I create, style, or customize with clothing. I’ve always been into fashion since I was about 12 years old and I started styling, creating, and customizing my own clothes once I reached the age of 16. Ever since then, I’ve always wanted to style and be within the fashion world. Thus, as of fall 2021 I decided to incorporate that within my photography brand especially due to the fact that I end up styling my models most of the time anyway! One of my all-time goals is to attend New York fashion week or even in Paris!

In addition I am so excited for what’s to come; I love what I do and I’ll continue flourishing within my passion.

Being that most of my friends are creatives, finding a place to go is always easy! My first suggestion would always be an art museum or the Krog Street tunnel; which is a tunnel within the city of Atlanta that has beautiful graffiti art done by graffiti artists all around Atlanta. I’d also even suggest going to Piedmont Park which is really great for outdoor shoots where you can capture greenery or to do outdoor activities and even grab a bite to eat because it’s right next to the beltline which is connected to Ponce city market that offers different shops and foods that are really popular within the city of Atlanta.

I want to additional thank everyone down to family members, close friends, and the talented creatives that I’ve worked with within the last four years. Each and every one of them has taught me so much about what it truly means to be a photographer and for that I couldn’t ask for a better reason to keep going and having the pleasure of creating new connections.