Sitting down with Evette Campbell for the first time is like meeting with a friend you haven’t seen in a while. With her warm and welcoming demeanor, it is easy to see why her photography business Kreative Vision Photography has been a success in Champaign for the past nine years. A resident of Champaign-Urbana since she was 13 years old, Campbell’s love for photography started when she took a few film photography classes at Parkland back in the 90’s. Working in the darkroom and being able to be creative inspired Campbell, but marriage, kids, and work took precedence until her daughter’s interest in photography was piqued in high school. Campbell decided to pick her camera back up and started taking pictures from the sidelines of her son’s football games. “People from the stands are like, ‘there’s a Black lady taking sports pictures’ and they would come up to me and ask if I took senior pictures and then boom, I would have like, ten senior sessions lined up.” Campbell saw that “there was a need in the community for someone of color to take photos, particularly family photos and special events like graduation, and it just took off from there.”
Campbell runs Kreative Vision while working an additional full time job. She photographs sports portraits, weddings, and families. But her work really shines in her indoor portrait and editorial sessions. She just moved into a new studio space in Champaign, called Studio Kreate, that has more space for her props, backdrops, and wallpaper walls for background options. But when she first started taking portraits, the shoots happened in her kitchen, with her son sometimes making pizza just behind the backdrop. With her talent for portraits and a growing clientele, Campbell was rapidly running out of room. She found her first studio, which gave her more space to keep growing for the next four years. But if there’s anything I took away from this interview, it’s that Campbell is going to keep reaching higher.
“I wanted to have a studio where I could offer a studio studio sharing rental service because when I first started, I wanted a place where I could rent studio space for an hour or I had enough clientele but didn’t have enough to own or rent my own studio. So this is a dream of mine to be able to have something for the community to be able to grow their business like I grew mine.”
But the dream doesn’t stop there: Campbell also plans to use the space to host workshops and other creative endeavors in the studio, too. This desire to share space and mentor others comes from her inability to find a mentor — specifically a mentor of color— back when she first started. “I didn’t know how to ask other photographers, ‘Hey, can I learn from you?’ I’ve never felt comfortable enough to do that. Because there was no one that looked like me in those spaces.”
As a Black woman, Campbell has a lot to offer people from all backgrounds, but especially for the Black community, she understands the nuance of editing skin tones and colors, and can relate on a cultural level in a way other photographers can’t. But it isn’t always easy. While looking for her new space Campbell had to deal with realtors not calling her back and people counting her out before she could show them what she could do. “I’m kind of a calculated risk taker. So I know not to put everything out on the table at once. I just put out little nuggets and see how it goes.”
In a way Campbell is becoming the mentor she never had. A few years ago, she started a group called Kreative Kollective. Every few months, creatives can register for a meet-up, each event is different. It could be a themed studio shoot, a photowalk, or an on-location session. But the goal is for creatives to get to know each other, learn from each other, and have a sense of community. The event is “open to everybody, it just seems to just to bring together people of color… but we are always looking to keep expanding and learning about as many other cultures as possible.” Her first one of the year will be a downtown photowalk on June 24th, from 4 to 6 p.m.
When I asked her what the future looks like, this multi-hypenate business owner hopes that the Kreative Vision train won’t be slowing down anytime soon. “I would love to have an even a bigger photography studio one day and offer way more options. Podcasting. A whole media hub. I would love that around here.” Campbell is not only building a more inclusive space, but she’s also inviting all of us to come along with her.
