Today we’d like to introduce you to Kirsten Balani.
Hi Kirsten, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I can show you better than I can tell you… it’s kind of a long story – I always had a passion for creativity. When I was in high school, I was a terrible student. I never really felt like college was an option for me, not because it wasn’t achievable but because I never had a desire to go. I didn’t want to be a doctor, I didn’t want to be a lawyer, I didn’t want to do something that I NEEDED to go to school for.
When I was in my 12th grade year of high school, I watched the movie Rudy and after that, we had to do an assignment where we said exactly what we were going to do after we graduated. I remember after we graduated high school, a girl from my class reached out to me and told me “you were the one one in the class to say – ‘this is what I am going to do. I’m going to be a photographer.'”
A month later, I got a call to be the house photographer for the 20th anniversary of the movie Rudy and I found myself shooting all of Rudy’s events. Full circle moment. After that, I was living in Vegas and started doing entertainment photography. I was working with a lot of Las Vegas headliners. One day I was driving around and saw one of my friends on a billboard. I thought “dang I’ve never shot a billboard before.” I gave myself three months to shoot one billboard and within one month I had shot three.
At this point, I’m 17 or 18 years old. I had a studio, I was published in a few magazines, billboards, and had a bunch of insane opportunities yet I was incredibly unhappy. I felt like I had peaked being there. I felt like I was on top of the world but the reality of it was is that I was insanely unhappy. I gave photography up. I was living in Los Angeles focussing on another passion I had, and shortly after I realized that wasn’t what I was called for.
I started realizing what I was passionate about when it came to photography, style, the creativity, and I realized what I wanted to do was pure entertainment. There was something about actually capturing something that was genuine and not staged. Something about capturing the moment and not actually reliving something the exact same ever again.
Fast forward to 2014, I met my (now) boyfriend. He was in Vegas for a show and I was in Vegas shooting that same show. We started talking about the industry and he basically introduced me to the touring world. He said “you should move to Nashville and do tour photography. That’s is what you want to do. You love entertainment photography, you love traveling. This is exactly what you’re looking for” I had no idea that tour photography was a thing.
A month later, I found myself packing my suitcase and moving to Nashville to explore this “path”. I moved to Nashville with two suitcases, I left my furniture, my car, and I move in with some dude from craigslist and found myself really needing to trust God that this was what He wanted me to do.
I moved to Nashville, I networked my butt off for the first while that I was there and about 9 months or so someone finally took a chance on me. I had met a lot of people and reached out to a lot of people. Big and new artists. I reached out to management companies, labels, bookings, Instagrams, Facebook. nearly anyone I could think of. I found that it helped a million times more to make a connection, ask for advice, and ask for direction – rather than to say “hey give me a job”.
Finally, I reached out to a man named TK, I emailed him on a Friday, had a response from his assistant on the following Monday, interviewed Tuesday, and by Wednesday I was asked if I could hit the road that next weekend. The first tour that took a chance on me was Toby Keith.
Currently, I have been in Nashville for almost 7 years. I have worked with artists such as Toby Keith, Dierks Bentley, Morgan Wallen, Kenny Chesney, Eli Young Band, Randy Rogers Band, Elle King, Caylee Hammack, Young the Giant, LANCO, Ryan Hurd, Michael Ray, Kameron Marlowe, and more.
I have opened myself up to so much more besides being just a tour photographer. I do a lot of touring still but also concept shoots, directing, designing, third-wheeling (couples shoots, weddings, and elopements), videography, and editing. I have traveled throughout the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and Europe for shoots. I am pretty much always going to the next place to expand my vision.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It for sure has not been a smooth road. I always tell people “I really like living life on the edge and never knowing where my next check will come from… Can I pay my rent this month? Who knows! It’s exciting.”
That being said – it has been far from a smooth road but I wouldn’t let that stop anyone. Doing what I am so blessed to do is incredible. I honestly could not imagine doing anything else but there are 100% times where I struggle a lot. There are times when things are super slow, usually in the fall time things typically shut down and I won’t have a ton of work for a few weeks.
I also had a lot of rejection, It took a lot of managers who told me no before someone took a chance on me. I have battled a lot with sacrificing my art. I believe God gave me a vision and a talent and I am finally at a point where I love the work I produce and feel like I know who I am as an artist, but I had a lot of days when management or an artist would come to me and say “Hey, we love so and so’s the stuff… Can you make my/XYZ’s stuff look like this?” and I used to sacrifice my art and say “Yes”.
Now, I am at a point where if someone has me hired, it’s because they appreciate my art and not because they couldn’t get XYZ.
I struggled a lot finding myself when it came to my style direction, but now I truly believe (and I try to tell every aspiring photographer or artist this) your art, is your art. There’s no right or wrong way to create something. Just because your style isn’t someone else’s taste, doesn’t mean that it’s not “good taste”. Art is subjective so don’t dim your light to please someone else.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in tour content for sure but I don’t limit myself to that. I don’t want to just be known as a tour photographer. I think that the way I edit my work, my colors, and my tones definitely is what makes me stand out the most.
I would say at this point for the first time in my whole career I am grateful for the work I’m producing and grateful for my talents and vision.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I would honestly say the biggest risk I take is not letting someone else mold me into an artist that I truly am not. As I said, there’s no right or wrong way. Photography is subjective and that vision you have, the way you edit, the way you shoot, that makes you, you. That has also caused me to lose a lot of work though. Haha.
Contact Info:
- Email: kirsten_balani@yahoo.com
- Website: www.kirstenbalani.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/kirstenbalani
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/kirstenbalani
