Company: Lily LaGrange Photography
Age: 17
School: St. Joseph’s Academy
Inspiration: Her grandfather, Port of New Orleans President and CEO Gary LaGrange
For many photographers, dealing with the business aspects of the job—priming the pump, getting deals in the hopper, managing the money—is the worst part about the profession. Photographers are artistically inclined, as a rule, and not enthusiastic about sales, accounting and such.
Lily LaGrange (above right, with model Mallorie Saia) is no exception. In fact, for her, it’s even more challenging than for most to run a portrait photography business: She is just 17 years old and still a junior in high school.
“I find it really hard, so I try to put myself out there on social media a lot,” she says. “I do it because I love photography, not so much because I’m trying to make money.”
But LaGrange is good at what she does—and she is making money from her small, portrait photography business, Lily LaGrange Photography. She has already done senior class portraits for several of her fellow students at St. Joseph’s Academy. She has landed gigs for her neighborhood newsletter in the Country Club of Louisiana, “Country Club News.” Perhaps most impressive, she has contracts to do two weddings this summer.
“I’m really excited about it,” she says, explaining that she prices herself very competitively in order to get the business. “Many wedding photographers charge $2,000 or $3,000. I’m charging about $250.”
LaGrange has been an avid photographer for as long as she can remember. It’s all she ever wanted to do. She got serious about it when in seventh grade she got her first digital camera. In the years since, she has gradually upgraded her equipment and taught herself how to be an ever better photographer. She practices on friends and family and spends weekends scouting scenic locations for landscapes. She watches YouTube videos to learn the technical aspects of her craft and shadows local professional photographers to watch them in action and get tips on the best equipment to use.
Earlier this year, she bought a professional caliber camera, a Canon 7D, which she paid for with money saved up from her photography and other odd jobs. It is, she says, “the best thing that ever happened to me.”
LaGrange currently spends several hours a week on her photography, though mostly on the weekends, shooting clients or roaming around, scouting for locations. She also makes time for her other creative pursuits, which include playing guitar, piano, violin, and bass. This summer she is attending a songwriter workshop at New York University. She is also “really into French,” and is involved in other extracurricular activities at SJA.
When she looks to the future, LaGrange is sure of one thing: She wants to be a professional photographer. She is less certain whether she wants cultivate her own business. At the moment, she is leaning towards a career in photojournalism and aspires to work for a national publication based in a major city.
“I like having my own business,” she says. “But I would ultimately love to work for National Geographic. Anything having to do with photojournalism would be good, but especially National Geographic, because I love to travel and learn new things.”
