Meet Xochitl Gonzalez | Photographer

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

Hi Xochitl, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My thought process behind starting my own process was, at the core of it all, pretty simple. I just don’t want to look back on my life and feel that I didn’t give my dreams the fighting chance that they deserve. Sink or swim I’m going to make this work, thats been my pholosophy. 

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My work tends to lean towards the realm of creative/conceptual portraits. I love working with other creatives that are looking to stand out from the crowd and embrace their uniqueness and individualism. My belief system has played a big role in the growth of my career especially in the last year. There’s not really a step by step process I took other than listening to my intuition, believing in myself and following the the threads as they appear along my journey. I have found that to accomplish an extraordinary outcome you must be prepared to take extraordinary action, and that in most cases can involve a lot of risk, fear and anxiety. I think there are a lot of aspects of life that are put in place to keep us nailed down to the day to day routine, in most cases we sacrifice our freedom for consistency and a sense of security. Creating a fulfilling and successful life for myself within the arts has required me to trust my vision and not be easily swayed by the doubts and fears of others. I had to become comfortable with not immediately receiving approval of my work and reminding myself that when you are creating something from scratch it takes time to find and grow on the right audience. Fortunately these days and in the world of the internet, I am comforted and find strength in a massive community of individuals who are also fighting to reach the highest fulfillment of their creative dreams.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
LOCAL MUSIC!!! As a music lover, one of the biggest gifts to come out of pursuing my niche of photography has been showing up to live shows ready to shoot and being blown away by the level of talent that exists in the Dallas music scene. For example on any given sunday at 7pm you can grab drinks and dinner at the Freeman Cajun Cafe in Deep Ellum while your ears enjoy “RAVS & the Akrylx”, a local artist and band that Ive had the joy of getting to know and am still so crazy impressed by every time I get to see them perform . So, in short, I would check out all the local venues to see who’s performing where and decide on itinerary based on that! Dallas has no shortage of EXCEPTIONAL food, drinks, music, activities, the real struggle is just deciding between what to attend!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Daniel Rodrigue, my college photography/journalism professor at Dallas College Brookhaven Campus. Daniel Rodrigue is just one of those teachers that truly embody and go above and beyond their role as a professor. I’m not the first, in fact many of my peers that have been blessed to experience taking one of his courses share the same sentiment and immense gratitude. He truly cares about his students and has a way of really pinpointing and amplifying the raw talent in his students. For me at least, I credit Daniel for instilling the courage in me to commit to pursuing photography to it’s fullest. He was the first adult in my life to 100% change my perspective on art careers as well as help me see the value in my work along with generously offering so many networking opportunities and resources that have been so essential in the growth of my career thus far. I was enrolled in his course at least 3 or so years ago but till this day, he sends me flyers to shows/events that he feels I should capture along with messages of support and encouragement when I publish new work! Daniel Rodrigue is very much a prime example of “not all heroes wear capes”.

Website: xochitl.site

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xochitl.psd/

Other: Working on getting my website back up and running!