The Shoot That Started My Interior Photography Career
Before I photographed interiors for designers, architects, and builders, I had to figure out how to photograph my first one.
By Stacy Markow
In 2022, I had made the decision that I wanted to explore interior and architecture photography more seriously. There was just one fairly significant problem: I didn't have an interior photography portfolio.
And without a portfolio, how was I supposed to convince someone to hire me?
Figuring Out Where to Start
I considered just about every option.
Maybe I could photograph real estate and hope that eventually I'd encounter a home that was portfolio-worthy. Maybe I could convince friends with beautiful homes to let me photograph their spaces. Or maybe I could assist an established interior photographer and learn the craft while seeing how someone else approached a project.
Assisting felt like the most natural route.
I had spent 11 years working in hospitality, where learning alongside other people is simply part of the culture. In restaurants, doing a stage and spending time learning in another kitchen is commonplace. I assumed photography would work similarly.
So I started reaching out.
Twenty-seven emails later, I hadn't gotten anywhere.
It became clear that waiting for someone else to give me access to the work wasn't going to be the way I built my portfolio. I needed another approach.
The Advice That Changed Everything
Around that time, I spoke with a friend in real estate about the possibility of using real estate photography as a stepping stone. She encouraged me to reconsider, explaining that the speed, pricing, and objectives of real estate photography were very different from the kind of work I ultimately wanted to create.
Then, during a call with my photography mentor, Monika Normand, she gave me a completely different suggestion:
Rent a beautiful house and photograph it.
It was simple, but I hadn't considered it.
Monika sent me Stock & Seed, a modern Scandinavian-inspired ranch in Argyle, Texas that she had previously used for branding sessions with her own clients.
So I booked it.
Two Hours in Argyle
One July afternoon, I packed my equipment, drove to Argyle, and gave interior photography a try.
I had rented the property for two hours.
There was no client. No shot list. No deliverables waiting at the end. I could simply move through the house, experiment with compositions, make mistakes, move the camera, and figure out how I wanted to photograph a space.
And I loved every minute of it.
There are moments in a career when something simply clicks. Photographing Stock & Seed was one of those moments for me.
I felt completely at home working through the rooms and deciding how to translate a three-dimensional environment into a two-dimensional photograph. By the time those two hours were over, I knew this was the direction I wanted my photography to take.
Looking at These Photographs Now
These aren't photographs I would make the same way today.
My understanding of composition has evolved considerably. My approach to lighting has changed. I've invested in education and equipment, photographed hundreds of spaces, and spent years developing a much clearer point of view about what an interior photograph should communicate.
But that's also why I still value these images.
They're evidence of where all of that started.
Stock & Seed wasn't a client project. It wasn't an assignment or a commissioned portfolio shoot. It was an investment I made in learning a new craft before I knew whether anyone would ever hire me to do it.
That afternoon ultimately gave me the first photographs I could use to begin showing people what I wanted to photograph.
Those photographs led to opportunities. The opportunities led to experience. And project by project, the work evolved.
From the Archive: Stock & Seed
I originally photographed Stock & Seed in Argyle, Texas in the summer of 2022, at the very beginning of my transition into interior and architecture photography.
Looking back at the photographs now, I see plenty of things I would approach differently.
But more than anything, I see the afternoon I figured out what I wanted to do.
Here are a few photographs from the shoot that started it all.
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