Hadley Hudson: Fall 2021
Hadley is deeply connected to her creative urge through her appreciation and need to magnify the truth of being human. She see’s the beauty in our scars and approaches her work with empathy and non judgement. From documenting up and coming models in their less than glamorous model apartments, her raw and feminist empowering album packaging for Peaches, to her intimate portraits of youth culture you see a common thread in them all. Everyone has forgotten she is photographing them and are completely exposed, real, and feel safe to be their true selves.
After many years of being a professional well respected photographer in the art and commercial world in Europe and the US, she has made a career shift. She is now using her talent as a psychotherapist with a focus on artists and trauma.
Many artists have made career shifts this last year. There is no shame in changing. We must allow the artist to be able to evolve and create new roles. Art is not linear and nor are the titles. I hope her interview will empower other artists to align and search out their higher purpose.
Thank you, Soul Sister, Hadley for being willing to be my first interview and forever my creative sister in arms.
What sign are you?
Sagittarius
What is your first memory of creating something you loved and wanted to share?
I took my first photography class in high school in San Francisco. Up until then I had not considered myself creative in any sense, as I was terrible at drawing and painting. My photography teacher saw something in my work and began to challenge and push me. When I was 16, I shot a body of work about scars. I photographed the physical scars of friends and people close to me. It was then that I tapped into an idea of photography as an emotional language, where I could express deeper feelings, which were not known to my conscious self. Although the images were not of me, they expressed deeper parts of myself. That was the first time that I was excited to share my creative work.
What aspect of the creative process do you most look forward to?
The unknown! As I mostly shoot people, I am always fascinated how the image reflects the meeting of me and the other person.
How were you creative or not during the pandemic?
I was finishing graduate school for psychotherapy during the pandemic. I was seeing clients via zoom and also finishing my thesis which was based on my own photography. In that sense, it felt creative, but I did not feel driven to create new projects in photography.
What creative milestone do you want to achieve this year?
To create a bridge between photography and psychoanalysis!
What grounds you?
Writing, running, dream analysis, swimming in the ocean, laughing.
You have recently made a career shift. Can you please tell us about it? Do you feel it is still connected to your journey as an artist?
Yes, I recently became a therapist and I see it as directly related to my work as an artist. As a photographer, my job is quite literally to see people. And to create an atmosphere of safety and containment where people can feel free to reveal themselves. The work of a therapist is quite similar-to create trust and safety, and to deeply see and hear another person. I had a wonderful Jungian analyst when I was living in New York named Margaret Klenck. She taught me about the intersection between art and therapy. She would connect my dream images to universal imagery, symbols, and mythology. This brought greater depth and meaning to my individual experience. Similarly, I am working with client’s images, symbols, and metaphors, as they offer an incredibly rich way to explore their unconscious material.
What does being an artist mean to you?
Quite simply, being an artist means creating meaningful imagery. In The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine, depth psychology, scholar Christine Downing wrote:, “We need images and myths through which we can see who we are and who we might become. As our dreams make evident, the psyche’s own language is that of image, and not idea. The psyche needs images to nurture its own growth; for images provide a knowledge that we can interiorize rather than “apply,” can take to that place in ourselves where there is water and where reeds and grasses grow.”
In a sentence what advice would you give another artist?
Embrace your symptoms! And if you are feeling stuck, read the impassioned letter that artist Sol LeWitt wrote to sculptor Eva Hesse where he advises her to shine as her own unique creative version. “Don’t worry about cool, be uncool. Make your own. Make your own world.”