Funding a Photographer’s New Studio

“I feel extremely grateful that EJF had a belief in what I had to offer and were willing to help me launch this new phase of my career. It literally would not have been possible had they not shown up at that moment”
SHANNON

It’s probably no surprise that, when Shannon first picked up a camera at the age of eight, it somehow felt just right.

The daughter of a single mother, she remembers spending a lot of time riding on city buses with her mom and, even as a little girl, becoming fascinated by the street art and graffiti she saw all around her. “I’ve always been looking and seeing and paying attention,” she says. “I’ve carried that passion for seeing with me throughout my whole life.”

That passion led her to start a photography career while she began her undergraduate studies at college. She ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric focused on narrative and image—a perfect complement to her passion for seeing.

Following college, Shannon married and soon had her first child. Balancing a variety of priorities—caring for her newborn, supporting her husband’s work, and developing her own career—proved challenging. Soon, two more children arrived. Shannon’s husband became the family’s sole breadwinner while she became the children’s full-time caregiver.

She tried to run her business from home, but the lack of space and the busy household environment were daunting obstacles. As a result, her career stalled, and she saw the artistic life she had always envisioned slipping away.

But Shannon’s passion for photography and ambition for her career persisted. She decided to lease a small studio in early 2000, and then the COVID-19 pandemic just as she was ready to open her studio. “As I handed over my cashier’s check, I said, ‘Pandemic be damned. It’s not like my kids are going to be sent home from school.’ The next day,” she recalls, “my kids were sent home from school, and I was asking for my check back.” Shannon lost her first studio.

As the pandemic began to ease and she was getting more work from clients, she realized she would need a new space for her business. It was a defining moment. “Either I needed to transition back into the world in a 9 to 5 job, or I needed to go ahead and feed my passion for photography and develop it into a full career.”

Shannon decided to feed her passion. Soon, she found the right studio space, but the problem was that she didn’t have the right funds. She and her husband had the money they needed to support their children and maintain their home, but there wasn’t extra cash flow in the business that would enable her to expand her business with a long-term lease for the studio.

She started applying for financing but was not finding lenders willing to work with her or provide affordable loan options. She then connected with EJF and realized she wasn’t dealing with just another lender. “I felt significantly protected. I had somebody to talk to, somebody who went over the terms of the loan with me, who was really clear on the responsibilities that the loan would involve,” she says. “I felt very supported by EJF in those times when I felt like I was taking a significant risk for our family and for myself.”

EJF was confident enough in her talent and ambition that they gave her a loan that enabled her to rent a 750-square-foot studio to grow her business in photography, video, and stop-motion animation and create things she is truly interested in creating. She calls it “kind of a dream space.”

She also has recognized that, in the wake of the pandemic, people are craving to connect with community. So she is exploring ways to use her space to facilitate those connections, including inviting a cinematographer to come in and teach film classes and allowing other artists to showcase their work there.

Shannon realizes that EJF’s support has made all the difference. “Before EJF showed up, I didn’t have a pathway through. I was very stuck in a position where I was going to try to pull these tiny little financing pieces together to make something happen,” she says. “It definitely would not have happened without EJF. It’s such a joy and delight to unlock my door every day. I can’t express the depth of my gratitude for the opportunity.”