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

Hi Mary, what’s one piece of conventional advice that you disagree with?
Fake it until you make it.

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 began photography in a very unexciting way…by just take bad photos on my dad’s digital camera. Fast forward 15 years and I’m in love with making photographs. Specifically film photographs. I love the manual aspect, needing to know the exact light you need, having one shot to snap it, manually progressing the roll, and only having around 36 exposures in each roll. My career as a photographer has been a series of gut decisions, changes, and realizations. I live my life a bit nomadically and I shoot similarly. By that I mean, I don’t have one particular thing that I shoot primarily, nor do I edit the same twice. I don’t use presets or focus on conventional ways of shooting. I love blur, I love candidness, I love capturing someone in their natural state, because to me, that is the most beautiful.
The hardest thing for me is continuing to make money from this industry. To be absolutely transparent, it feels as though if you don’t already have connections or present as a specific sort of artist or have a large social media following, you aren’t seen and therefore aren’t hired. It’s discouraging to want to create subtle art while being a subtle person with a loud story to tell.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well, when my sister was here this summer, we basically did the dream trip. We went horseback riding in Malibu, parasailing and scuba-diving on Catalina Island, then to the Getty Villa Museum, up to the Griffith Observatory at sunset. We went swimming in Santa Monica, went to a concert or two (Billie Eilish at the Forum and Ashe at the Fonda), saw some local music at the Goldfish in Highland Park, coffee of course at Intelligentsia in Silver Lake, Bowling at the Lucky Strike on Hollywood Blvd, and sushi at Sugarfish.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to my sisters. Without them, I would not be who I am today. Their encouragement, support, listening, and unconditional love can never be replicated and I love them more than I can say.

Website: www.marykantnerphoto.com

Instagram: marykantner

Twitter: marykantner

Other: Patreon: www.patreon.com/marykantner

Image Credits
Personal photograph of me by Haley Busch.

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutSocal is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.