Today we’d like to introduce you to Sylvia Mizi
Hi Sylvia, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Hi! My name is Sylvia Mizielinska, but you can call me Sylvia Mizi – I know my last name looks a bit crazy! I was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland. I was known as the “artistic kid” at school, and I was always drawing and painting both during and after school. As a teen, I was given a digital camera and discovered the joy of photography.
Learning English in high school really opened up my world. Suddenly, the world felt limitless! To get more practice using the language in real life, I found a website that connected its users with penpals all over the world. This is where I met my now husband of 8 years. Had he decided not to click on my avatar and leave a message on my profile that day, I would never have discovered San Antonio, which I now call my home. Isn’t it crazy how split second, almost random decisions can change the outcomes of our entire lives?
Continuing my passion for the English language and the arts, I obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in English Studies from the University of Warsaw, then moved across the ocean to be with my husband in SA. Let me tell you, the cultural shock was real – not only are Europeans always shocked when experiencing America for the first time, but my first exposure to the culture was also in Texas, where everything is even bigger and – you could say – even more American!
Here, I discovered endless hobbies, picked up my first professional DSLR camera and also began my career in market research. To this day, I am a market research project manager by day and an artist by night. It is honestly my preferred way to live my life, as it lets me satisfy my analytical side while allowing my creativity to be unrestrained by the crippling pressure of having to make consistent money through it. I can really focus on helping clients achieve their vision, as well as work on the creative projects that I want to do, be it shooting a fashion concept with models, creating beautiful dog portraits, or collaborating with others – for example, currently I am collaborating with Robb S. Garcia on his art project ‘Portraits of Us: A Photography Story of Our Community’.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have loved photography ever since I got my hands on my first camera as a teen, but struggled for a while to figure out exactly how to make it into my livelihood. I did photography professionally, but only part time, since 2019, while working a full-time job as a project manager. I felt a bit like I wasn’t a “real” photographer unless I did it full time. Then, in October 2023 I was impacted by mass layoffs and lost my job in tech. This was my chance to finally make it on my own as a photographer – finally, there were no excuses! So I did. And… Well, having to constantly market myself, stressing over having enough bookings to pay my bills, and not being able to fully express my creativity in the way I preferred was starting to kill me and siphon all the pleasure out of taking photos, turning it into a chore. Incurring an overuse wrist injury from holding my camera during an all-day sporting event really sealed the deal. As difficult as that time was, I am grateful for the experience, as it crystalized for me the exact role that I want photography to play in my life: it’s far more enjoyable to work on my own creative projects or help a client execute their vision without the added pressure of my ENTIRE livelihood depending on it, you know? Deriving my primary income from another job allows me to actually spend more time on my art than I did when I was a full time photographer – which sounds really counterintuitive, but it’s true! I love photography now more than ever, and have jumped into some awesome creative projects. If anyone reading this is in a similar place, please know that there is absolutely no shame in having your primary source of income be something else than your art, like having a “regular” job or a career that has nothing to do with creativity. It changes nothing about the kind of artist you are.
This experience also helped me to identify my favorite types of photography beyond a shadow of a doubt: creative concept photoshoots, nature, people portraits, pet portraits and, as it follows, people with their pets.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a photographer who loves to focus on a single subject and really bring out what makes it special. Where everyone might be taking pictures of an expansive vista, I will kneel down to photograph a unique flower. Where everyone will try to capture an entire scene with all of its components, I tend to notice how one element interacts uniquely with its surroundings or with the light and compose the picture around it. You can usually also tell it’s a Sylvia picture by the strong emphasis on colors, though I have been known to dabble in black and white photography!
I like to come up with a photoshoot concept, then gather the outfits myself and collaborate with models to bring it to life. However, pet photography has also had a very special place in my heart ever since I rescued my very first dog, Sprinkles, in 2019. She was a bundle of nerves we pulled last minute from the death row at San Antonio Animal Care Services. I was determined to help her and dedicated the next 2 years of my life to rehabilitating and training her. Today, Sprinkles is a resilient, friendly and well trained girl who brings smiles onto the faces of everyone she meets. This experience turned me into the biggest dog lover. That is why I love taking portraits of dogs, as well as capturing the bond that they have with their owners.
My experience with Sprinkles also ignited in me a passion to fix the issues that lead to thousands of dogs just like her ending up in shelters and having their lives cut short before they get a chance to change someone’s life the way that Sprinkles changed mine. I am planning a project that will blend art with public outreach and you bet that Sprinkles will be heavily featured in it!
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
In 2022, I found out that I have ADHD, which really explained my whole life and all these questions I pondered, like why can’t I stick with one hobby? I’ve been a food blogger, crocheter, jewelry maker, painter, hair care expert, gardener, clothing designer, musician, dog trainer, yogi, travel blogger, candle maker, fiction writer, translator, and more. I am grateful that photography and research have been the constants in my life, but even then I need to switch things up periodically within those domains. Once I learned about my ADHD, it helped me accept myself and the fact that I do, in fact, like to dabble in different things. To honor that, I am starting a YouTube channel called Sylvia Tries Things, where I will share the random subjects of my hyperfocus. Maybe this way I could help at least one other person embrace their quirks and accept themselves, instead of fighting against their own brain like I did for years.
Thanks to my somewhat tumultuous photography journey last year, I have learned to be grateful for having options, grateful for not being boxed in, and to be proud of my work, no matter how it came to be. I realized that if a piece of art I created is good, then it’s good, and the number of other pieces I created in that same week really doesn’t add or take away from it. I feel like our society wants us to fit into neat labels: this person is a photographer, and this person is a project manager, and that’s who they are, end of conversation. But that’s not how my brain works and I’m grateful that I finally accepted that.
I am a little bit of everything. And that’s okay.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sylviamizi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sylviamizi/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sylviamizi/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SylviaTriesThings
Image Credits
Personal photo by Robb S. García
