Angela Karen
written by: Michelle Amaral | photos by: Angela Karen
It’s long been said that the key to a successful career is doing what you love. Considering that the average person spends more time at work than at home, it only makes sense to devote such efforts to an occupation that elicits passion from within. Indeed, local photographer Angela Karen is living proof of this adage, cleverly combining her love of fashion and photography into a satisfying career.
According to Karen, growing up in small-town Alabama required that she find creative ways to entertain herself, a predicament soon resolved when she received her first camera at the age of 8. From that time, she was rarely seen without it; photographing family and friends became her favorite pastime.
“I’ve always enjoyed documenting life through the lens,” she says. “Most fondly, I remember looking at fashion magazines and having my friends channel the attitudes from the photos in our Vogue or Seventeen while I stood behind the camera directing them through rolls of film.”
Following her interest in photography, Karen enrolled at the Savannah College of Art & Design and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. It was during this time that she landed an internship with Joyce Tenneson, a world-famous photographer in New York City whose work has graced the cover of such magazines as Time and Newsweek. Karen believes this experience was a turning point in her career; it was instrumental not only for her knowledge of photography, but for the business side of this vocation as well.
“I learned how to manage a studio and handle many of the aspects that go along with it including legal issues such as contracts, invoicing, and proposals; I also learned a lot about effective marketing strategies. The internship gave me an opportunity to observe a number of business-related situations and various ways to handle them. This experience was worth its weight in gold.”
The benefits didn’t come without sacrifice, however. Financial concerns dictated Karen’s living conditions while in New York City, forcing her to sleep on a pull-out Murphy bed in Tenneson’s busy photography studio; she had to borrow a coat to stay warm that winter; lack of sleep coupled with sheer exhaustion depressed her immune system and, thus, she was sick during most of her stay; she didn’t have enough money to fly home for Christmas, so she spent the holiday alone that year.
Upon completion of the internship, Karen returned to Birmingham where she worked three jobs, only one of which was related to photography. With $275 dollars to her name, she decided it was time to start her own business.
“I had spent so much money on my education, and I needed to utilize it,” she says. “It was a pretty scary decision. Every night, I stayed up until the wee hours reading books about business success stories and figuring out the best way to market my business.”
In 2005 she launched Angela Karen Photography and kept busy photographing weddings and portraits and freelancing for local magazines. But in 2007, she ran a special promotion for Valentine’s Day to attract the female demographic; it was a move that would forever change the face of her business.
“[Birmingham Bombshells] was a happy accident,” she says. “There were so many requests that I decided to turn it into a business all its own.”
With Birmingham Bombshells, Karen carved her own niche in the world of photography by combining it with her love of classic, 1940s- and 1950s-style fashion. The concept is simple: women are transformed into glamorous pin-up girls reminiscent of iconic silver screen goddesses such as the stylish Jackie O., the seductive Marilyn Monroe, the alluring Dorian Leigh, or the classic Audrey Hepburn. The resulting portraits are keepsakes that they can give to family and friends.
“I think the overall effect is uplifting to all women,” Karen says. “The long term effect will be most gratifying when these ladies look back at the photos one day when they’re ninety. It's a legendary documentation of our identity at it's best!”
Karen’s interest in the fashion industry is arguably genetic. Both of her grandmothers were seamstresses and her mom made her own clothes in high school, including her prom dress. In fact, her grandmother and her mom have sewn several of the dresses in the Birmingham Bombshells wardrobe. It’s no surprise, then, that Karen herself will soon release several sketches for her own line of dresses along with a few items that have already come to fruition.
She recently raised the Birmingham Bombshells concept to a new level by recruiting local women to be featured in a 2010 calendar. Those chosen to represent each month were selected by their fundraising support for a cause very close to her heart: ovarian cancer research. She chose Laura Crandall Brown, a 23 year old who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer shortly before her wedding, as the cover girl for the calendar that year.
To date, Karen’s efforts have raised over $60,000 for ovarian cancer research and educated many women about the disease. A portion of the money was even used to fund a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for one year, a feat that still moves her to tears.
Although Karen faces a number of challenges each day as the owner of her own business, she says that she’s satisfied with the experience overall.
“It’s been hard but worth it. I wouldn’t change anything and I don’t have any regrets.”
2011 Birmingham Bombshells calendars are currently on sale. Details about auditions for the 2012 calendar will be announced later this year.
Angela Karen’s work can be seen each month in her column that’s featured in B-Metro Magazine, a local publication she fondly describes as “Birmingham’s version of Vanity Fair”.
