Meet Camilla Frontain | Actor & Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Camilla Frontain and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Camilla, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
So, my sessions are called “Honorings” for a reason. The name actually comes directly from my acting training.

Years ago, I was on an improv team in college called Comic Frenzy. We would begin each new semester with something called The Honoring. It includes a lot of trust exercises like carrying each person across the room, sharing eye contact for unreasonably long periods of time, and ultimately having a genuine chat with one other member of the team. We would ask each other about fear, vulnerability, passion, love. All the good things.

And then, drawing from that conversation, we would come back ready to “honor” each other. The task was to prepare something that captured the essence of the person you talked to, and to share this with the rest of the team. Because we were in theatre, a lot of times people would write songs for each other, or sculpt their teammate’s face out of play dough, or bake them a cake.

After graduating, I progressed as a photographer and I found myself having lengthy conversations with my clients before our shoots. Eventually, I had to start calling my shoots “Honorings” because I’m doing what I was taught to do in my improv training years ago.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I like that in my art, photography and acting are constantly informing each other. It’s all the same, really. I’ll learn about breath work and vulnerability in my acting classes, and then I’ll go do a shoot and find that how I breathe and how my client breathes TOTALLY affects what we are capturing. Or I’ll be in class watching a scene and I’ll see a visual picture in front of me (maybe it’s how the two characters are sitting or reaching for each other, or whatever), and the lines, the colors, the visual weight in front of me will totally frame and capture the essence of the relationship they are representing through their bodies.

It’s all the same! In both fields I am working to uncover and honor “character.” What are the individual parts that make up the person standing in front of me? In acting, it takes a committed investigation to uncovering and understanding those parts. In photography, working to uncover those parts can result in really beautiful moments.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’ll be honest, I spend most of my waking life in the Owens Arts Center at SMU. If my best friend was visiting, I’d make them come watch some scene performances in my acting class because my classmates and professors are BRILLIANT.

I’d love to take them to the Bishop Arts District and explore around a bit. I’d show them the giant mural Kyle Steed just finished at Tyler Station. While we’re there maybe we’d find an excuse to shoot at the TX Studio. Fun stuff!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I dedicate my Shoutout to Trevor Hill. He taught me the principles of improv, which I believe are incredible principles to live by. “The Honoring” comes directly from Trevor and when I take pictures it is always in the spirit of “Yes… And.”

Website: camfrontain.com

Instagram: @camfrontain