the photographer + the magazine
Photo by Nichole Clark
Hi! I’m Carli Rene.
I'm so grateful I haven't paid a penny to advertise since 2008. All of the business then and now has come from past happy clients and/or social media, a testimony to the incredible people I work with every single day.
I am a photographer full time and mom to 6-yr-old Emiliana. I just wrapped up the shooting of Eric Silverstein's cookbook memoir, owner of The Peached Tortilla and Bar Peached. From the images you've seen thus far on my site, I'm not exclusively a food photographer. My shooting weddings for 7+ years gifted me the confidence and belief that at the end of the day, I am photographing essentially two things: light and people.
It has taken me almost ten years to realize it all boils down to this.
1) How do I put this [whatever I am shooting] in the best light, no matter the circumstances?
2) It is getting to know and better understand the people, whether in front of or behind my lens, asking the right questions and learning more about what they decide to pour their hearts into [their business, families, etc].
I've completed Instagram campaigns with Tiffany & Co, Samsung, Gap Kids, to name a few, since 2011, and that same year was on Mashable's Top 15 Instagram Photographers, in the same light as MTV and Burberry. I frequently get asked how I have 100K+ followers on Instagram. Being the shy-away-from-the-spotlight kind of gal, the short story is by a serendipitous twist of fate I was put on Instagram's suggested users list in 2011, barely a year after the company began and far before such structured algorithms. It was even before they actually informed you that you made the suggested users list. It feels weird for me to say I was an early adapter of the Instagram campaign. Before my joining the app in 2010, a few weeks after the app premiered, I had just started my photography company, shooting primarily weddings and portraits. Now I focus on creating content for businesses' social media/web presence and always enjoy photographing families, newborns and couples.
I went to the University of Texas for photojournalism but never completed my degree. I blame Steve Jobs and Bill Gates as my inspiration. I tell you this because I want to give you inspiration that if there is a will and a desire inside of you to do or be, then a degree is only one path to getting there.
Having lived in Austin since 2005, I whole-heartedly support local. My heart and soul live with small businesses as I am one myself! Peached Tortilla, Peached Social House, House of Margot Blair, Summer Moon Coffee, Define Body are a few brands here in Austin I've had the privilege of helping to build/photograph.
It's a pleasure to help them find their voice and then give them this gift of photographs that we create together.
I believe every job is a collaboration.
Your heart, my art, and lots of open communication.
I've traveled from NYC to the Middle East on campaigns, oftentimes with my daughter and sometimes just solo. I feel it is the biggest gift in this lifetime that I get to do the two things I love with my whole heart: raise a daughter and get paid to create.
Thank you for trusting me to create moments that define these things you pour your heart into.
The joy is mine.
I N S T A G R A M
