Power of Photograph Blind Norwegian Wedding Photographer’s Story | Inese Kungurova

Zaakirah Muhammad
So today we have Inessa. She is a Latvian wedding and portrait photographer living in working in Norway. So she's a cat lover, you'll probably see the cat moving around in the background if you're watching the YouTube version of this video, she'd multilingual outdoor the she speaks four languages and has been happily married to her husband, a 14 year, though she photographed her first wedding in 2014 and decided to go full time in 2019, but what can be really interesting about this conversation is that if you're watching on a YouTube video, you'll see that she had two different icons. So we're gonna talk about that and why it's so unique and how it allows you to have such a unique perspective as a photography, and obviously didn't have any didn't start with photography so we're going to pick it all the way down and start with even childhood so Inessa, how are you, thank you for being here on the sea life different podcast.

I'm glad that we were able to connect because we met. Unofficially, I was on a podcast one of your favorite podcasts, and you reached out to me. I was going to sue backpacker, and he reached out to me to say I've never really known many other photographers that will also blind in one eye.

Inese Kungurova
Not you're the only, like, You're the first person that I know, not just, you know, photographer, but first person so I was I was like, thinking the little tick marks.

Zaakirah Muhammad
And, so far what I've learned just from like reading your bio that you submitted for UFOs ever Baiga, it's been it's definitely an interesting toy. So maybe let's start with that because that's a huge part of who you are, right, so let's start with what made Inessa MSF.

Inese Kungurova
Well, it's like they're like which part to like which part. There's a lot of things, like when I look back through the history of when I was a kid, a teen. Young grown up starting, you know, live with my husband, all of that, making family now being here doing what I am, like, all of it for me like the all of the struggles in school like it. Oh, it's just, it builds to the woman that you are today, and I feel like this is not it. Like sometimes you listen to podcasts and you think like, oh, then they're there, they're no I don't feel like I'm there, I feel like I'm going there, like I have a goal I see a feeling that they don't feel like they're there so it's a, it's a journey. It's fun and it's interesting to finally kind of grow into the NSA in this, you know, that I kind of envisioned for myself, like I'd never envisioned for myself, I want to say imagine, I never imagined this for myself.

Zaakirah Muhammad
So when you say this, I know that, um, let's start in 2014. When you were photographing your first wedding because I'm sure there were lots of thoughts going on because photographing wedding itself, like,

Inese Kungurova
Whoo, yeah it was actually so exciting. I had the camera since I live like it's a mix I have been on and off, living outside of Latvia Latvia is my home country. So I have lived in Norway, and I got the money and got the really cool camera, it was actually a Canon 550 D I think you call it, three. Three di or something in America, there's the, the difference I was like looking into cameras and just you know, take capture my, my boyfriend, my travel, and everything. And then when I came back I was invited to this really low budget wedding but, nevertheless, I loved it, like hold the energy and like to be behind the camera, and I felt kind of special even though I was not the bride and I made her feel special and. And I was like, I want to be a wedding photographer. And then remember the next day there was an after party besides, you know like had fun and drunk a little bit so much, that was like still taking my time right, there's all the time in my hand, remember this girl, like 5000 JPEGs, after this like 5000 JPEGs, because I gave everything, you know, and they didn't ask for money, it was just you know I did for myself. But, it clicked and I wanted. So I went to preschool. And when I went to primary school, if you ever have been with old white dudes. You know stuff, And their love photography and they all about like art, and, and this and that they weren't like really no nose up where they really want to do with, like, they finished the school. I did it so that was my from 22, from 22 people that we started, and they half of us finished the school, and it's pretty bad and they said half of your money than last year so I was like, Okay, I had to go through, like I had to be the one that finishes it. So when I finished I was like, So what now. When I remember any like oh, now I'm gonna be this professional. No, you're so far from being professional and you come up with this. You're like, this is like nothing changes but you know, it gives you some kind of perspective of what you want to do what you like what you don't. But to just say anyone like people sometimes ask me probably, you get this question a lot. Like, should you recommend a going to photography school I would say no. Don't waste your money. Take the combined the camera for that money, and find the mentor, and work for free. It's gonna be cheaper and faster, right.

Zaakirah Muhammad
Now tell me what, um, how long would it go for you though.

Inese Kungurova
For me it was two years actually, but it was I think a few times a week in the evenings, so it wasn't like full time school so I had the job and I on the evenings I took the classes, okay but it was fun to find some people and I think, from all of us like to trade does photography, maybe one, I think, does it as a job and that's me, I don't, I don't know any of them that are doing this as a job now.

Zaakirah Muhammad
So yeah, yeah, that part. So I think I asked because I ended up paying well for me. I had been studying photography at two different schools so when I was still in high school, and we have what they call a technical school where you get your high school diploma, you get a certification entry level certification, and so I chose photography that go down,

Inese Kungurova
I, yeah, that is the one that I have. Okay, that is the one that I have only it just definitely went down, like I have the high school so it's just, okay, that's the one I have.

Zaakirah Muhammad
And then I continue that education I wasn't sure if I wanted to, but I did like six months later continue that education into a nine month program, but I was full time so it was literally like Monday through Friday into Saturday and Sunday practicing. So yeah, I did a lot of trade for tsp photoshoots. Um, but I think also now I mean we have an advantage because we got that education, because a lot of people now, at the time that we will go into school we're studying YouTube University which is fine. But yeah, I mean, that's actually where I am now like I'm a mentor to photographers that are literally just picking up cameras, they remember they loved it as a child and you're picking up a camera again, and now they're asking me how do I, you know, make money from it so yeah,

Inese Kungurova
let me turn off my sound I'm sorry for that. This is how unprepared I am. But yeah, it's right like you kinda are a step forward to everyone else, but in reality you know that, of course I didn't have the full time but I think, I think, I added myself a lot of like YouTube University and I now saw just today, that this was actually seven years ago. So, this is like saying, like, almost a decade ago that I was in a photography school. So, things might have changed, but YouTube I think is now even more fuller with information even, Even the big stars like Sue and, and my first sexually mentor was not mentor but like, like a star followed was Susan stripling if you know her. She is all about weddings and she's New York. I don't agree to 100% but she says, but she's super smart and she knows exactly how to explain the upsell, I use everything she teaches into building this business here in our way. Like, I started with her, and that is how I implemented, like all of this. So, having some sort of education that you can easily like a school permit from like no matter is the Babe, it's free YouTube it's your meme, or whatever, always recommended just you know, pick a source.

Zaakirah Muhammad
Yep, I definitely agree. Actually my favorites were actually I knew about one called Jasmine star. Before I had heard. But however, for me, the different perspective of, like, I like to find ones that have similar nationalities as me, but there were no women, there were no women at that time. Um, so the guy that I would follow that one called Matthew. JORDAN SMITH And I came across it books at the library. My mom worked at the library at that time so I can request it books at the library. So yeah, basically we're seeing okay you can publish your work, you can have the call, you can work for a decade he remember, you know how to not do that part of his introduction of a photo book. You can do this for a decade and have, you know, timeless work timeless, you know, what because for me also. I actually started off with chapel photography. My parents gave me a cane when I was five years old, but we will all be done road trips and going to see family and so I had my camera that way. And then, it wasn't until, well without the little history in the family anyway, so I was the one taking the photos everywhere, But really I didn't really know that you could make money from it until it was cool. So yeah, I started out with travel photography and then it would shift over to portrait photography lifestyle photography. The main changes all the time and so now it's also brand photography, but how have you been, kind of making that pivot also especially let's let's, let's talk about 2020 for a little bit. How were you able to make that pivot. You know when there weren't that many weddings.

Unknown Speaker
I have to say, 2020 was a blessing in disguise. I have never been so poor and happy at the same time, I was like, unhappy, but happy I found another mentor, I just, like, I have always this glitch in my head, like, whenever I feel stuck, I'm like okay, you need that location, find it, and then something comes along, but I find another educator she's here, local in Norway, England calmness, she's all about finding kind of you, because all of these big education programs they don't really focus on you as a person that she really zoomed in, Like you know, take all the shit away. And this is why you rock as, what do you do. So, that is when I kind of blossom. I saw what I wanted, I knew exactly what is my client, I knew exactly why am awesome, like that was the heart like the hardest part was sitting down, looking at yourself and saying, Okay, this is where you suck. And this is where you awesome and this is why you should get paid equally or more, because I remember when I, when I moved, I had this mentality of blend in fit in. Shut the fuck up. Sorry, I'm allowed to say bleep that out. But like blend in, and I had this mentality on my life. Because you know, of the eye surgery that I had as a kid, and we didn't even touch this but I actually have crocodile, and that is from because I can't see. So it is something on my face people can see and I hated the idea that I stood out. All my childhood, my grown up like I hated that I stood out. So that is why I started wearing glasses, because nobody looks at your eyes so much, I would say. And I lied to my first eye doctor that I can't see a line that she actually dispersed prescribe me some glass, but I later on started to need them. So, sorry about that this is just a little bit of the background of how shifted my headspace was like I was lending Johnson doubt be black, like, don't have a tape like don't have an opinion. Shut up, and just be as normal as possible, and Ale, England actually was the one that brought in this out, and she was like, you rock. Why do you want to hide that, like, you are awesome at this, why do you want to hide that. And then I remember like I knew, I knew some Norwegian so it was easy. If I would say, quote, not easy to blend in. But then, I have a member I was complaining to somebody, I'm a complainer, so I was complaining to somebody like, Well, nobody's gonna hire me because I'm not Norwegian, just like, shut up. That is why you're gonna be hired because you are not alone. And then I'm like, Yes, this is my, what is that saying, like, the horse rider, like, take it and go, the why was I have been sitting on this horse riding in bad like, no, if you look at the standard a week, like if you, if you live here. They like to not stand out, they like to be with little like don't show too much opinion. There's even a name for it. It's called ?, and it's pretty much, we all as far as one, you don't matter as a person we met as a group. And there's a lot of, like, people that are like trying to have avoid it, but also there's a lot of people that trying to get out of this unwritten law of not blending in like being different and being unique and, actually, not being afraid of standing out. So this is what happened to me in 202. I was at my lowest thinking, nobody's gonna book me.

Inese Kungurova
Nobody's gonna book me rebranding everything, putting on table, everything what I want to be where I want to be, what I want to do, who I want to attract. And then, all of those subraces sayings actually click, you know like, all of that, because you have to still understand she's American or no she's Australian and I'm some girl from Europe, like there's lots of things that fit, but there's still lots of things that doesn't fit. So when she said when she said, no matter how big or small your seat is, and you can sell. She was so right. And then when I came here I see other Norwegian struggles selling, and then like, there's no richer country to sell go sell bad money, go sell. You just have to provide service, you have to low budget do you see how thick I am a business like I'm like, You can do this if I like. Everyone can do this. So, I found my horse, that is what happened to me 2020 I found that horse person. I've been writing it and I'm like super happy and elbows, actually did almost as much in, like, invoices, as I did in 2020. This I was, I wrote in invoices, only as I thought. Let me do it one more time. This August, I brought in invoices, almost as much as I wrote in whole 2020,

Zaakirah Muhammad
because you found your zone of genius, yeah. Yes, yes, yes, I love it. And I'm so glad you mentioned that because I think a lot of people either had to or are still are trying to break down the root of who they are, um, and even, I think even for me I think it's something about the new shift the new virtual grade of getting you to that point mentally of like, okay, the new millennium happening, what are you going to do about it, right, especially with the new digital entrepreneurship space, of course you know old coworker marketing work, but you now have Facebook ads, you now have likely their online courses on on the podcast,

Inese Kungurova
all these possibilities, all these possibilities,

Zaakirah Muhammad
and so it's easy for people to get overwhelmed and forget who they are at the core. So, I've been through it too, it's like okay after remember like I was doing marketing for so long for other nonprofits and small businesses and startup, but photography that my cool, I mean it's in my name, like literally now yummy bright light. I was saved by the bright light of a photograph the camera and I were given a camera at age of five so photography is a part of who I am, and so of course you know when I get away from that. I don't like it. I don't light up and I'm not like happy and I'm not making money, so it's like okay what do you what do you, who are you in what do you really want, right, so you definitely got to boil down to, to that and I think that's what a lot of photographers have to really realize, don't do just because your family said hey can you take pictures. If you prefer to take pictures of landscapes do that, and if you prefer to take pictures of babies do that and so I think you know that's where a lot of people had to really reflect on you the mentor, or whatever you need to do to reflect and remember, like, hey I like helping people, and I need that one on one opportunity to catch your people. So, you know, that was it for me so I'm glad you mentioned that so I know a lot of

Inese Kungurova
big question, always ask, Why do you love it. Why do you love it, like what, why do you live it. There is a huge question in there like you can be selfish in a bit stupid, it can be not simple to be smart, like why, and that's why I was answering that one, I kind of know it. I have answered that, but then I again laugh at him like, no, why is still there but if I ask you why do you love what you do, like, why can you,

Zaakirah Muhammad
me, I mean, Yeah, can you shoot it. For those yeah for me. Why do I, why do I do what I do I love capturing the essence of people I love, allowing women especially, to be able to step outside of their comfort zone and into a new level of confidence that actually allows them to tell their story visually.

Inese Kungurova
Yeah, that. Do you can I go deeper, and you can stop me if I go did it. Do you find that that has to do something with you. Thank you maybe want to do things like you know, make others feel the way you want to be feeling

Zaakirah Muhammad
them. Yeah, I think that that's, that's what it is you find your wife who what you did I get going on. A lot of times, yeah,

Inese Kungurova
yeah. I have to say, I don't have baby photos of me.

Zaakirah Muhammad
Hmm.

Inese Kungurova
I, my mom had four children, and she was busy busy busy, and nobody had a camera. And when they did, I was not, you know, the one that got the attention that was the one that grabbed the film. The film but you know the camera that was loaded with film. The My mom was angry that was in the film, but I didn't have baby for those me, and the only photo I have of me. The first one with my face is from first grade, actually, for grade school, and I cherish that photo too much like so much and I'm there with my brothers and everything. And the only other part of me is of my backside so I don't, I have a kid now. She's four, and I hate that I can't see the similarities between her and me.

Agree. Give me a second. Agree. Somebody is on the toilet. This is the reality of

being a mom. And, but all of that saying, I remember, never like, like when the teenage years hit. I remember never liking myself in photos. I hated how I looked. I hated how, like how I was photographed. And I always thought that it's my problem. It's a knee problem, right, because I look shitting in photos. And then I understood that that that is nothing to do with me. It's just the shipping photographer. So my why is actually a once, shame make others feel how I wanted to be treated like a mate, I want to give others the photos for they're gonna love themselves. Like I would want for myself. And you know it's so hard to get good photos of us usually the photographers get too much, you know, on the other side of the camera. Yeah. Mm hmm. I agree. You know I'm on the podcast. Okay, I hope we can get some fantasy. This is the reality of working from home, it's actually hard six here in Norway in a me, and what time is it that you're home

Zaakirah Muhammad
1130 in the morning.

Inese Kungurova
Can I ask if you have children, I didn't. Because I saw I was listening to a lot of your podcasts about a lot of stuff and the one that resonated with me was, don't ask me how, what was her name but she talked about infertility, and finding the motherly issues and all of that, it sounded really similar. So, this is another time.

Zaakirah Muhammad
We're talking about it, but first I want to go backwards, we I'm sure we have a lot of listeners like okay, I'm, I'm still looking at her I and I still want to know what happened to her eyes so you want to tell us what happened. So I

Inese Kungurova
was looking for. I was four, and mom, me and my cousin was playing around. And we lived on this big farm. There's a lot of garbage around my dad always likes to, you know, throw stuff around and he fixes stuff and some things, you know, never put away. And me and my cousin was playing and jumping up of the rope onto the table and from the table to the ground. And we did it once and then they flew again with a little plastic bag in the me from that thread, but the long story short, in one of those jumping downtimes. I jumped on the wire that was coiled like this, and up. So I remember starting to have, like, I couldn't open my eyes, or close my eyes and I never went to the load like I knew where my home was so like I just went back home and a little bit open my eyes and there was just bright like too much light that couldn't go but then I sat down crying with my mom and she's, she's told me the other part, I don't remember that, but she told the other part that she was one year the second year and the next year was a year with the love the neck. So, and she said, It's like a god gave. She just not that it happened that a god gift was that a week ago. Before that, she read in this small little calendar you know with the notes where you can take it away. Like, it's a small calendar really small, and then you can take away the paper for that. On the next day, and there's tips and on one of those pages there was a tip about what to do with an eye injury happens and that paper said don't like push put pressure on it, so I'm happy, they could make my eyes look like my eye, I don't stay with it. I can't say it's not fixable like there's nothing that gate that any doctor can do, but at least I have, like, you know that IRS, because a lot of kids when I was at hospital, lost, even that part and they were with white tie lesson one, a white guy, I don't know if you're so like if you remember any of this part like if you had any kind of, you know, being an eye hospital or something, when you were the kid probably something like that has been around you. Anyway, if you have not, now you know it. Yeah,

Zaakirah Muhammad
I know, yeah, I know you're talking. I'm happy

Inese Kungurova
that I have an iris and it kind of looks like my my only issue is that the eye wants to wander away because I physically don't see anything from it, and I hope to get it fixed finally this year. Now, to get them looking straight, both because that is my last and I mean security I have, I have to say I have always had, find it hard to look people in the eye, because of it. And, you know, I don't want to I don't want to confuse people. It's just, I don't want to talk about it, like, with, with strangers, and all of that, like I'm okay talking about it when it's one on one, especially with somebody like you that understands. But when it's like, I don't know you don't ask me the questions about this, and especially small kids.

I have these million ways to push them off of the topic and get them off the topic, because it's, you know, you like, I don't, I don't want the attention about it, like anything else to give me attention about it. I don't want to, you know,

Zaakirah Muhammad
oh, yeah, no I get what you're saying, only because even, even though that you know my I completely thought that it was, it was actually you know taken out from surgery I was nine months old. On my many hospital visits, I meet others, a few others who have the same cancer that I have, and some of them still have their, their cancer with detected in advanced technology so they still have the eye but they too cannot see in it. But also, I know what you're talking about because it was a full circle moment on my end, remember the word, but it was like my dissertation for high school I had to you know do something similar get to get my certification in high school and my mom and I chose medical photography so I went to shadow the photographer shadow the metaphor, medical photography that worked with the doctor that saved my life. So I learned even more about eyes so I know what you're talking about. And I also know what you're talking about with the insecurity, especially with little children cute, little children, they mean no harm but they add the animal, honest way. What happened to you at. So, yeah, I mean of course you can't control when you I want to move on when it doesn't even with my eyes still connect to the muscle but sometimes. How would you feed people out in the kind of wave it in like a desert. So for those of you watching YouTube video this is gonna be fun. But yeah so I completely understand what you're saying, especially with the insecurity, and especially with how would that for you getting a driver's license. How old were you when you started driving, and how would that be you getting a driver's license.

Inese Kungurova
Back home, you can start learning when you're 17 and you can get your driver's license when you're 18. But I always thought that there's gonna be some issues, but we have like a medical certificate that you have to go through doctors, where they asked you, where do you meet bunch of doctors and they ask you questions and they like examinate if you're dry like you, you can be on almost on the road, I don't know if you have something like that in America, but it's something that we had back home. I don't know even Norwegian has, has it, but I had the big like, let's see what's going on so I went to the eye doctor, that's one of the doctors that you have to go through, And she examined me to look totally fine. There's no issues. The only difference. I don't know if you have driving classes is that we do a lot of this. A lot them head bending back and like blind, like the blind area that other people have we have more, so we do a lot of like old ladies on the street like we look up, I look around, and thank God. I have never been in the car accident because a month I see something but I have been multiple ways like almost practice or something almost drove on to somebody or somebody almost trusted me because I didn't see that. But other than that has to be on this would be as good, I think I'm better driver than most of the people here on the street so that's what I like to drive really good like I like to drive some, you know, a little bit aggressively. I'm a librarian though, If you would know how likely and dry, we are a little bit more like in kids in India. In India, how you seen movies, how people drive. We are between those in America, like we are a little bit politic, a little bit of not listening to the law a little bit aggressive so I'm more on that side of the spectrum of how I act on the street but I'm better off the living, multiple years here in Norway.

Zaakirah Muhammad
Yeah, I think I'm with you on, we're kind of better drivers because you naturally have to look out for everything, but actually yet, that actually with a teacher, you know, in at least in my driving classes, to not depend on a mirror, because mirrors are closer than they should be. So, you look yet look to your left, look to your right, but also, again, technology, I ended up getting blind spot mirrors on my car so now I'm kind of lazy of like I'm just I'm literally just you know looking at the mirror so I have blind spot mirrors but those. Yeah, it's like a little mirror that goes on this bottom corner of your mirror lashing most cars. Well, at least my dad's SUV has it, have a smaller mirror not a mirror yeah but even seen that I've seen that, yeah. So, even even those, you know, helpful, but yeah,

Inese Kungurova
I'm so here we go,

Zaakirah Muhammad
man. Man, it's crazy. A lot of people get anything from Europe and London anyway so nothing is original in America, but, but also what we do on my driver's license. I mean, for a while, on my driver's license they said you know, to always have like extra mirror, and never really drive at night, so of course you know there were certain restrictions, but I think that, you know like we say I've never, thank goodness, never been in an accident, the only thing has been is I've been too close to another car or another power too close to me, but I never enacted. Yeah, thank goodness for that.

Inese Kungurova
My question is also, did you experience as a person that doesn't see what we're not and you know like, I think we have the same side. You remember as a kid, going into walls, do you. And also, do you still find that you pick up your glass with your fingers like a little bit like touching versus the point, instead of just grabbing it, I use sometimes you use heat it, because you can't measure the distance perfectly with your eyes, you kind of trust your gut feeling. Yeah and also if you move, if you move or you're in strange location you have never been, never been before, like keeping your legs a lot just because you know you're in strain, and you don't. Yeah, like you haven't inculcated yourself.

Zaakirah Muhammad
Yeah, because what happens is, well one I've always tested myself in that way I knew that it's called peripheral vision where you can't see out the corner of your eye, so I've already tested myself in that way so if I'm working on a computer, and I have my glasses over here I think I know where it is but I'm looking, I'm like, oh, it's not even there. But the other thing is, I've always had to tell my family. Well luckily my parents know this but you know any friends and family that I'm around like okay, I need either a nightlight if we're going to a different location, or I need, I need to I need a few minutes myself, let me go check out the place myself so I can see what while I may or may not be bumping into. So yeah, especially at night. If there's you know, most people that buy I used to hate sleepovers and growing up, because everybody operated differently, and wouldn't fully understand like I need to like our buddy me the light on or, you know, definitely that though. Yeah, I get it.

Inese Kungurova
Yeah, yeah and driving in darkness like when it's dark outside when you don't have any lights on the street. Oh, that's the worse. I have stopped multiple times, I have my husband legit like takeover, I'm the driving because like con because every time a car comes from to me light it becomes. What's the name, like, to me, all I see I think is that they're, they're like, We have a lot of beer here so I'm like, always too afraid that I'm gonna hit a deer or something like that, on that driver you dry because I feel I don't see as well, and I see the same with my husband like he has the same perspective, almost the same prescription as I do, are among my one that and he's both, and he sees better with his both eyes than I see with my one eye, like he can see better on the street he feels he doesn't need them during daytime, I can't go out without like my glasses and I'm minus one. I'm not that blind with my other eye. But like in reality, I have to have my glasses on, otherwise I, I don't feel like I have to walk in the into the shops like I'm an old lady and look at every single practice