Hatsue | Photographer

From horse camps in Hamilton, Ohio to shooting for major clients and teaching at DAAP, Cincinnati-based photographer Hatsue shares her creative journey with host Rodney Veal.

Learn more about Hatsue online: https://hatsue.site/

Follow Hatsue on Instagram: @byhatsue

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Mike Shea, Hatsue, Rodney Veal, Promo

Rodney Veal  00:09

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Rodney Hills Inspired By. I'm the host, Rodney Deal, and today I get to meet someone who is a Cincinnati-based photographer, mover, and shaker of in the art realm and and all around creative force in Cincinnati and I'm super excited to join to have this conversation and that is with Hatsue.

Hatsue  00:35

Yay! Hello, thank you so much for having me. You're

Rodney Veal  00:39

absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, you know, it's really one of those things where a lot of people don't know, it's like even I have this love of photography as an art form, and as a matter of fact, I'm waiting on a photograph for print to show up that I finally paid off from a photographer, but because I am fascinated, I really genuinely am fascinated by the mediated dimensions and what the possibilities of what you can do with capturing that photography. It's a specific art form that uses technology, blah blah blah, all those things, but I've just really, when I went and looked at your work, and I was like, "Oh my god, I said, "I need to.. Who is this person who seems to be having a lot of fun and joy and the photograph process? And I.. and I read, "So we have to go. This is the hot tub time machine. We need to go back to the very beginning. How did this all begin, and it involves horses. People, by the way,

Hatsue  01:47

they did the research. It began with horses. So, I grew up with horses. So, I'm from Hamilton, Ohio, which is only like 45 minutes north of Cincinnati, I grew horses. I think it really began with my dad's mom, my grandmother, on that side. She had a family friend who had a horse, and I rode this horse a couple times when I was like three years old, four years old, and then another layer of the story is that my dad has always been into Native American history and also historical reenactments, and so I would grow up going to a lot of powwows and gatherings over the summer, and there would be a lot of horses around, and so I think the first ever photograph of me encountering a horse, I was probably two years old, and it's this big black horse, I forget his name, I think his name was like Blackie or something like that, and just like crouched down, like looking at it, and my parents said that I was like looking at this horse for hours, so it kind of like started there, and then I went to horse camp as like a 10 year old or something, so I'm still riding family friends horse, go to horse camp, and then my dad ends up getting a job at YMCA Camp Campbell Guard as their, as their like maintenance facility guy, and they had a horse camp, and that was actually where I went to horse camp. Then my dad kind of starts getting to horses, and then I don't know how, but he ends up becoming like director of the horse camp program there. So then I'm like 15 at this point, and so now I live at the horse camp, like almost I'm there every single day, going for my dad. You're in it, you're in it. Yeah, it lets me go, and I'm just like hanging out. YMCA Camp Kimel Guard used to have their own herd of horses, but now they rent out a herd every summer for their, for their summer program, but they had one last remaining horse from their herd. His name was Onyx. He was a retired race horse, another big black beautiful guy, and he was very, he was very interested in a very interesting horse, because a lot of people were a little scared of him because of his racing past. He didn't like being messed with inside of the stall, he didn't like to be tacked up, where you put the saddle on inside the stall, but once you saddled him up, saddled him up, and got him outside into the arena, he was perfectly well behaved, and so you just kind of had to like move with how he wanted to do things, and so they were trying to get rid of this last remaining horse, and my dad said, "We'll take him if we can keep him here, you know, they had passed. Testers, stable arenas. If we can keep him heal, we'll take care of him, you know. We'll, we'll, you know, pay for his food and stuff like that. So that was my first horse, his name was Onyx. He was really great. We had to saddle him up, not inside the stall, saddled him up, took him on trail rides. He was a great horse, he was a really good guy. Second horse was also retired racehorse. Her name was Aisha, I think. Also came from like a home where she just couldn't be taken care of anymore. And my dad said, 'We'll take her, we'll take care of her. So we got another retired racehorse. She was also, she was a dark bay color, so she wasn't like completely black, she was dark brown in the summer, she was a lighter brown, winter darker brown.

Hatsue  05:46

Third horse was the first horse I think we like actually purchased, he was a three year old medicine hat painted quarter horse, so he's black and white, medicine hat means his like ears top of his head was black, and so that's a very significant Native American coloring, and he had two blue eyes, and his name was Cola, and he was, he was really great, but he was orphaned as a foal, and so he had some like personal space issues, so I tried really, really hard, but anyway, how the photography came into it is that my, my grandma got me like a really cheap point and shoot for Christmas when I was maybe eight years old, and I would take that to the horse barn and just kind of take photos of the things that was around me. I think that's how we all start, start photography, is just like photographing things in our daily lives, and so I took photos like the barn cat. We also had goats around. I take photos of the goats. If anyone went to Camp Kimelguard, they know Damian, the goats took photos of Damien, the horses, and now I'm starting to get into it. So then I get a Canon Rebel, I think, t3 something like that, so kind of a bit, a bit of a step up,

Rodney Veal  07:06

seven foot a point click,

Hatsue  07:09

yes, exactly, by this time it's 2012 and there is starting to be a community on Instagram of teenage horse girls taking photos of horses and posting it on Instagram, so a lot of these, a lot of these people kind of now still do photography, but we all started at the horse barn and we're kind of scattered around the Midwest. There was one girl who was, I think, lived in Michigan. There's another girl in Indiana, a couple in Kentucky, me in Ohio, and we would all have our parent drive us down to Lexington at the Kentucky Horse Park, and we would meet up and take photos at horse shows together, and it was the most like it was that is like the first time I think I really felt a sense of community outside of family stuff, and it was just so fun, and we like learn from each other. I remember one girl we went to, I think it was like Young Writers Association horse show jumping show, or whatever, and one of us, she rented out a telephoto lens, and we're like 13, and all of us is like looking at this white big lens, and we're like, oh,

Rodney Veal  08:32

those are, yeah, yeah, I know, I know,

Hatsue  08:35

we're all like amazed, and like trying to figure out like what what telephoto means, and things like that, but I, that's how I learned photography, going from show to show, dealing with different kinds of weather, moving from indoor arenas to outdoor arenas, capturing motion, because we would also go to the Keeneland racetrack at 667 am in the morning, because they would do morning warm up, and you don't, and you can just like walk in, so we have to capture motion, and that's how I learned how to do photography. I've never still have never really taken any kind of official class or course in photography. I

Rodney Veal  09:15

just, you just like a voyage of discovery, like, like a process, like, well, I got this device of me. Let's go.

Hatsue  09:24

Yeah, I also.. there was.. there's this annual big eventing show. So, venting is show jumping, cross country, and dressage, and they have this annual big one in at the Kentucky Horse Park. It used to be called Rolex, because Rolex was the sponsor, so people would just like say we're going to Rolex. Then it was called, like, I think it's now called Kentucky three-day event, but I think my second time going it was down, and I ruined the camera because it got wet, and I lost. Half of my photos, so I learned the lesson. Then,

Rodney Veal  10:03

oh, you kind of like it again, like it's like, it's like, wow, it's like, so did you think that this was like the intentionality of, like, you know, being in this immersed in this world of photography? Was that the intention of going to DAP? I mean, was like, well, I, because you're in it, I mean, technically you're you, you're photographing kind of at a level where someone could just pay you to do it, and you're professional, and just go, yeah, so I'm just kind of curious about like that, that's just fascinating, like you seem to just enjoy it, I mean, I love that your parents were like, like, let's drive.

Hatsue  10:47

Oh my god. So, shout out to my parents, they absolutely supportive people I have. They've never been really strict on me, and I think as a response to their really like letting go of me being able to do anything I want to. As a response, I want to, you know, make, make them proud, obviously. So I try to get them disappointed in me, but because I grew up with horses, we had a family friend who was a vet tech at Hag Hare Haggard, which is a big equine hospital in Lexington, and this hot, this equine hospital is a is really famous for treating a lot of equine athletes, so like, right, like big name racehorses and stuff, and I was so into that, and so I was dreaming of becoming a horse surgeon for like race horses, that was the goal, and it wasn't until maybe like a couple weeks the month leading up to when college applications were due that I changed my mind completely, and there was a little bit of, like, a tussle between me and my parents. My parents were like, What are you going to do? This is the thing that you've been dreaming of, you know, going to vet school and, you know, living your life with horses, because that's all I have known. And I just changed my mind, and so it was a little bit of like weeks of not knowing what to do, and then my English teacher at high school suggested that I apply to DAP, because I applied to different, all these different colleges for different things, but yeah, mr. Simpson, he just said we, I had another student who applied to DAP, and she likes it, so why don't you apply to DAP, because I know you do photography, and so my parents were not super into the idea of me studying fine arts, but so I studied graphic design. Graphic design seemed to be a little bit more applicable in as a career, so I studied graphic design, and my time at DAP was really, really helpful, because even though I don't, I don't consider myself a graphic designer today at all, even though I have the graphic design degree, on all of my professors were really super aware, because I did, I, you know, would always spit take a spin on my projects to be a little bit more like photography focused, even my senior capstone was like really just photography. I learned so many useful skills, like how to use InDesign and typography and composition things like that, that really helped me in photography, that I think. And then, obviously, the co-op program was so amazing. I did my first co-op that UC has already, so I went to New York and worked at Rockwell Group as a graphic design intern. It was not my best semester, it was, it wasn't the best, because I'm not a designer, that was like the semester that I realized that I don't have to put myself in this box just because I'm pursuing this degree, I can kind of make it my own, I can do whatever I want, and so

Rodney Veal  14:11

absolutely, yeah,

Hatsue  14:13

I finally gave myself permission to be a photographer, even though if I'm even if I'm getting a design degree, so every co-op after that I found on my own accord I did a photography internship and that really helped me get to where I am today, especially in like the magazine editorial world.

Rodney Veal  14:32

I love that, because you're and the thing is I feel like you're into your co-op internships happen in the COVID years, we always got now we actually call the COVID years, which really well, I mean, I think it helped, I think that kind of helped pivot other artists and those who were it just kind of helped you change your, I mean, I shifted for. Education, here we are, you know, that's like, so I always think about, oh, COVID, just kind of like, well, if you're going to make a change, now's the time, and I just love the fact that, for a lot of people, because this podcast goes to a lot of folks who don't know, DAP is a part of the University of Cincinnati, give me the acronyms, full name, because I, because a lot of folks don't know it. I mean, I do it, but you know, tell them what DAP stands for.

Hatsue  15:27

DAP is D A A P, the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning.

Rodney Veal  15:34

Yeah, and it, it, it is a strong program. Um, as a matter of fact, it was really funny. I met someone at a conference last week, she's a designer, she's a fashion designer, and I know it was just really interesting. What's in compensate like under DAP, and she was just fantastic, super, super sweet, and I just love the fact that it's like she's kind of.. I feel like the program allows you to be a multi-hyphenate without giving you a lot of resistance to it. Do you do.. I'm saying, like, because multi-hyphenism really is what art making is like. Being an artist in today's world, you cannot be the one thing, let us be very clear, people take the advice, take the advice, be more than one thing,

Hatsue  16:27

diversify the income, become multifaceted,

Rodney Veal  16:31

absolutely. And so that when you got to those photography interns, and this is what's really fascinating, especially about editorial work, I mean, your fat, your photography interns, were they in Cincinnati, or were they in New York? One was in New York, was it, or two of them?

Hatsue  16:48

Well, it's the same company, both two semesters. I was at Ann Walsh, Jessica Walsh's graphic design, or I guess would say design company. Jessica Walsh is a big name in the graphic design world. She started out with Stefan Sagmeister, so they used to be partners, Sagmeister and Walsh.

Rodney Veal  17:10

Okay, and

Hatsue  17:11

so big name that I got that internship, so I was in New York City, and it was such a crazy eye-opening experience living in a big city, and also just I was think I was like only like 2021 years old living in New York City, doing, you know, I was like shooting stuff for Google IO and some other like really big name companies for their, for their campaigns and launches, and it was really crazy. I learned a lot. I felt very, you know, when you're when you get yourself into certain positions and you know that you have like this, the skill and the dedication, but you're still like quite young, you feel like a little naive, you feel a little bit like, does everyone, is everyone taking me seriously, and I feel that way a lot still, but yeah, I worked at Ann Walsh, worked there for two semesters, it was really great, Jessica is really great, such such a brain. I loved hearing the things that, like, that she was safe for critique and feedback, and like what she wants the vision of the project to go towards, and she just has such a clear vision. So it's really amazing. After those two semesters in New York, then I got an internship at Cincinnati magazine, and that was also really, really great. And now to this day, I freelance with the magazine quite often, and they're really great. It gives me a lot of opportunities to see new restaurants in Cincinnati, meet a lot of great artists and other people in different kinds of worlds. I met the Cincinnati Barbarians, the guys in the full armored garb who go to, like, Ren Fair, and you know,

Rodney Veal  19:10

really, oh yeah,

Hatsue  19:11

I met them a couple weeks ago shooting for the June cover package, and now this weekend they invited me to go to their, like, tournaments at the Renfrew grounds, and I'm gonna shoot for them again, so like it's just you just continue to meet more people, and the tree branches expand, and that's that's like the main thing why I just love photography is that the photography, you know, is is the job part, but the meeting of the people, the getting to see the behind the scenes of so many different industries, and just like nitpicking other people's brains, is kind of the thing that makes me want to keep going in this field.

Rodney Veal  19:54

Absolutely, I mean, the thing is, and you, the thing is, it's the variety, the fact that you are, I love the. Fact that you, you have the autonomy, like this freelancing, and I, of course, I went on your website, and like folks, I did do my deep dive. This is what I did, like I said, I really love photography. What I love is there's a sense of when I, when I talk about joy, it's not just this, it's not a surface joy, this is a joy of an investigation of shape and form and motion, there's your compositional skills are sublime. I'm sitting, just let you know that's how I feel, and like I'm just I'm fan moind out fully noted, and I just think it's like, and so it's how much of, especially in these freelance things, are they allow it's very clear they allow you to be you and your vision, your vision. And so, what's a typical shoot with you like? I'm kind of curious, like, what it's got to be fun. It can't be, it's a joyous. like, I cannot imagine people going like, no, no, no,

Hatsue  21:07

I, I, yeah, I try to, I don't know if I deliberately, you know, go into it and be like, I'm gonna be a fun person, you know, I just love, I always try to approach my photo shoots as if we're just hanging out, because one, it makes it, you know, it makes the stress kind of go away for the environment in general, but also it allows me to not get in my head about it too much, like, you know, I have these deliverables that I, you know, 1234, I need to get out, and I need to make it look perfect, and we only have this amount of time, and those kinds of things can really make you nervous and kind of hiccup sometimes, but if I'm just kind of going into it and be like, we're gonna hang out, I'm gonna ask this person probably about their life, and I'm gonna learn about some, I'm gonna learn something from them. Then the photography, you know, also happens simultaneously, and so that's kind of that's how I like to approach my shoots. And then it's crazy that I also get paid for it. So

Rodney Veal  22:15

there's that, there's that magic part of it.

Hatsue  22:18

Yeah,

Promo  22:20

I'm Bonnie Miles, membership coordinator of CET. Thank you for listening to Rodney Veals. Inspired by this podcast is a production of CET and Think TV, two local PBS stations. As PBS stations, the work we do online, on air, and in the community is supported by listeners like you. If you're enjoying the show and would like to support our work, please consider becoming a member at Cet connect.org or Think tv.org Plus, when you sign up to donate at least $5 a month, you'll get access to special members-only streaming videos on the PBS app through Passport. Learn more at CET connect.org or Think tv.org

Mike Shea  23:01

If you're enjoying this conversation, the art show, also hosted by Rodney Veal, is available to stream anytime from anywhere on YouTube or the PBS app.

Rodney Veal  23:09

You're making work at such a, at such a level. I mean, why Cincinnati? I mean, no offense to Cecilia. No, I don't want anybody sending me letters like I'm not dissing on the Midwest, because I love the Midwest. I feel very strongly that it's overlooked as an incubator for creativity. I mean, yeah, that's me and my soapbox. I well, because I, well, I'm in a kind of an interesting place to kind of, and we're based, I'm based here in Dayton, but Southwest Ohio is my playground for the station and Discovery, and then, like, like I said, this is so, how do you, I mean, do you feel like you don't feel the compulsive need to, like, I must go to New York to be a photographer, like, because the thing is, you're making stellar work, folks, like, I love the fact that, like, there's some things that were connected with Vogue magazine. Did you do some? I guess I did my digging. So, talk about the Vogue connection. Yes, and no. Explain that to me. Explain,

Hatsue  24:12

so Vogue Italia has an online database collaboration where you can sign up for a profile, you just have to kind of like have a portfolio to prove that you're, you know, a

Rodney Veal  24:31

legitimacy. Let's put an air quote. Yeah,

Hatsue  24:34

I think I signed up when I was maybe 16, so yeah, and you just have to prove whatever, anyway. So, I haven't submitted in a really long time, so these details might not be purely accurate, but Vogue Italia online has, like, a Vogue Italia photo website where you get your profile, and then only for, like, a couple. Couple hours a week, they allow submissions to for photographers to submit photos, and I think it's like only up to three photos, so three photos per certain timeframe every single week, and then sometimes they don't even accept on certain weeks because they're like, I don't know, don't have time or whatever, and they will then accept some photos to be part of kind of like this online archival database, so I've had maybe five photos accepted into the database, and so it's it, and then you know when they're accepted they show up online and has the Vogue Italia like logo on it already, and so then you can download that photo back, and it's like Vogue Italia with my photo. Oh, yes, kind of part of Vogue, but also just like this online photography database, and it's actually really cool. It's just kind of a collaboration thing where you get to see a bunch of other photographers. There's definitely like a specific style that is kind of accepted, or like a more like a mood or tone that's accepted into the database, and my, my mood and my tone and my editing style and my look has, you know, gone all over the place throughout my entire life career so far my, my look now probably wouldn't be accepted because I'm too loud and colorful. They kind of love that film subdued look, but yeah, like that's that's really it's a really cool resource for people who just want to submit some photos and see if they can get in.

Rodney Veal  26:42

Well, you know, the thing is, we're talking about, like, let's be very clear, it's a planet with 8 billion people, it's Vogue Italia. There, let's, they, they, they know what they're looking for, and they decide, they decide. It is kind of, I always call it the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Look, I got that Golaski visa little approval, and it's like that's not a bad thing. I mean, but I think it's, but it's just, it just, you, so you apply like you did the 16, like, well,

Hatsue  27:13

something, but that

Rodney Veal  27:15

mythology of life. Just as you get to my age, it'll all be mythology, don't worry about it. There was this time back in my day, so I'm kind of curious about this, this idea that your style now is bold and brash, which I, I like, I mean, I don't. I think I think Society magazine clearly likes. Are you, are you doing any freelance work with any other folks, or is it just kind of people are just picking you up, like just kind of a thing? I mean, yeah, kind

Hatsue  27:55

of just get work from here and there and everywhere. The past two semesters I've been teaching photography at DAP as an adjunct, and so that has taken a lot of my time, and I love teaching. Yeah, yeah, love teaching.

Rodney Veal  28:12

I mean, let us be very clear, no one higher ed does not bring you in unless you got skills. I'm here to tell you, as a former, former higher ed professor, just, just know they didn't hire you just because they like you, which, of course, they do. I can see why, but it's you're coming in with mad crazy skills, and so it's like, what it must be really interesting that they see you and go, oh, she's, she's doing it, like it was like, so I mean, no, seriously, you're dealing like, do they, what, it's got to be an interesting thing, quick, you know, like the students must be like, wow, okay,

Hatsue  28:57

yeah, what's your

Rodney Veal  28:58

response, what's the, what's, what's the response in the classroom, I mean, I, because you know, I always get the all like, oh my, it's the old guy, and all of a sudden I roll on the floor and I get back up, because I'm from the dance background, and so they were like, whoa, he, he spiraled the floor and got back up, yeah, yeah, I can, I can still do it, yeah,

Hatsue  29:18

I think that it's, and you know, before I was going into the semester, like, even in the beginning, I love, you know, I've said before, I love to pick people's brains, and because, you know, I don't know what I don't know, and then different people's experiences, I can learn so much from it, and so I ask a lot of teachers, professors, what their approach is to the classroom environment, like, do they tell the students what their work is like, or do they kind of prove themselves throughout the entire semester by giving good feedback and things like that, and so, you know, I've heard everything on the spectrum and. I think I've, I think I finally formulated my own opinion of show the students what my work is like in the beginning, you know, enough for them to kind of to give them enough reason to trust me, because now they're going to be stuck with me for the next 15 weeks. I need to kind of give them a little bit of a reason to trust me in the beginning, and then, you know, then I gained their trust over the semester by giving feedback and critique, and you know, taking them on a journey, so to say, and so, yeah, I definitely do kind of be like this is my shoot that I did with Rolling Stone and Phonopathy, and these are all of my covers for Cincinnati magazine, and these other magazines, and I worked in New York. Okay, and now let's begin. And so I kind of like, this is what I've done.

Rodney Veal  30:49

Yeah,

Hatsue  30:51

and now let's talk.

Rodney Veal  30:52

Let's talk, and it's because it's because it is because it is a mediated imagery. It's like, it's like that's honestly, that's the best way to start. It's like, hey, so no one's going. They're like, we're all in, we're all in, because it's.. and you said something really interesting, like a journey as a voyage of discovery, as like, and so that is such an important lesson to impart, and because this is kind of like your life, it's your life. I mean, I was so like it went from horses to photography. I'm like, that's a talk about a journey. Yeah, and that is you. And so when you're, when you're talking to not just students, I mean, because this, like I said, this podcast is about inspiration, and you're inspiring. It was like, it's like, because you, because, because you're just so committed to it, and I had a really great conversation with someone this morning, as a matter of fact, Brandon Raglan, who's the artistic director of Dayton Ballet, and he just said, I said it's about the journey, it's about the process, it's like digging in and discovery, like peeling things away. Oh, and it's like I think it's a very similar, and I think that's the similarities and art forms that we all share, that all the art forms share. You gotta love peeling back the layers and going, I did know that. Oh, and you just get excited, and it's like your whole day is filled with excitement, and even if it doesn't always work, like some, you know, you know, we all have those things, we're like, wow, that didn't work, but, but I'll try it again,

Hatsue  32:29

yeah, and even if the photo didn't work, it's the conversation that I got from the process, the journey, like the journey is learning about all these different people, and you know, I like to think of my camera as just like an agent that allows me to get into, you know, specific buildings or into someone's life, and so, you know, I have the camera and I am taking photos, but I am also talking to these people, and like, that's kind of my main priority, is because, like, I'm coming at it as a photographer, but also I'm a freelancer, I'm a person, I'm on this constant journey of just like learning about other people's lives, because I'm just so curious about it, and I'm doing this personal project in which I photograph retired racing greyhound dogs, and so I've been photographing all of these greyhounds around Cincinnati, and it is, it's, it's, I've never really done a long form project like this before, in which I go into strangers' homes, and we're meeting for the first time, and I'm like going around their entire house and photographing their dogs and things like that, that's a very like intimate, personal thing, and so I have to like talk to them because I'm just a human, you know. I'm not, I'm not, you know, using their, their life for my benefit. It's never like that. It's like a this, this. We're helping each other out, we're learning from each other, we're talking about what their greyhound did in the beginning, because I also have a greyhound dog. I do. This is my.. these are my tattoos. So, this one, the one on my left side, is of my actual dog, because she has half a tail. And then I need to stay like visually balanced, so I have another one on the other side. So, I love greyhounds, and. and this project is to learn about what other people experienced adopting their Greyhounds and what it was like in the beginning, and so my camera is just an agent to open up those conversations with people,

Rodney Veal  34:34

I love that. So, what popped in my head is because you talk about this long format project that you're doing the Greyhounds, which just sounds really, really.. actually, it does sound cool, because it is like ground.. grounds are just beautiful dogs. I mean, I.. you know, I'm a cat person, but I do appreciate dogs. I do absolutely do. So, my question is, I'm curious, as a photographer, who inspires you in photography?

Hatsue  34:58

I'm inspired by so many.. People, a lot of my friends, mostly because I get to see into their process and like how their brains work. I do get some, I don't know, inspiration can come visually, it could come through conversation, it can come through life experiences. So, when I'm thinking about inspiration, it's not particularly like I see a photograph that I really like and I'm inspired by this photograph to create photographs like it or influenced by it, and so a lot of my inspiration comes from talking with my friends and like their ideas or their experiences, and like, how can I.. I don't know, use that experience and translate that into color or composition. It's a very like abstract idea to be inspired by stuff, but sometimes it just like it just hits.

Rodney Veal  35:57

I love it. It just

Hatsue  35:59

hits, inspired by my dog's journey from being a work animal on the racetrack, and her journey from starting to become comfortable with me, and learning how to play with toys, and learning how to jump on, jump up on the couch, and lay on my lap, that inspired me to photograph other greyhounds in their homes and talk to their owners about what that experience was like adopting a retired greyhound.

Rodney Veal  36:28

I love it. I love it. So, there's a question that we ask a lot, all of our guests, just like, because it, you know, I love the fact that it's, it's not a formalized training and photography, but it's an experiential based exploration of photography. What would you say to someone who might not think that they have the thing to kind of be a photographer or leap into it, because, because they're not, they're not professional. Well, because you know there's a little bit of like imposter syndrome that stops people in their tracks. What would you say to them

Hatsue  37:07

if they want to do it? Just continue doing it, you know. Being a, being a quote unquote professional is such, it's it's a label, it doesn't really mean anything. The difference between me and my friends in the Northside Photo Walk group, that we just walk around Northside and take street photography, most of all of them are amateur amateur photographers, but a lot of them know way more than me about their specific gear or about film development and things like that, and so being a photographer is being an image capturer and a storyteller, and if you're dedicated to doing that, then I would, I would call you a photographer.

Rodney Veal  37:54

I love that. No, that's so true, because I think we get hung up on labels like we have to be, and it's like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, because I always, I always think about that in terms of dance, and I was thinking about the early greats of dance did not go to college, they didn't have a master's degree, Martha Graham didn't have a master's degree, she just, she just do

Rodney Veal  38:21

it to do it.

Hatsue  38:23

Yeah, because, like, I also play violin, and so it, you know, it's also a thing of, do I call myself a violinist? I'm not a professional, I don't play in some kind of ensemble, but I do play my violin every single day, so I call myself a violinist. I play violin.

Rodney Veal  38:41

Yeah, it's like your comfort level with the process, like you being inside the process makes the process work. I mean, I, yeah, it's like you got to get comfortable to tell people we're here to tell you. Oh my goodness, and so I have a curious curiosity about, like, where do you see yourself going with this? I mean, are you, are you that sort of person who goes, are you? I mean, I'm being honest, I mean, I mean, yeah, meeting for the first time. So, like, are you that kind of a person, or you just, like, you know what, I'm just gonna let it unfold? What kind of, how do you, where do you see this, where do you see this goal going?

Hatsue  39:18

I definitely have a planning personality, I like to imagine what my life will be like in two years or five years, and I've really been loving teaching, and you know, living the university lifestyle, and also kind of sectioning up my year into semesters. It kind of makes the year a little bit more digestible, and making curriculums is so fun, coming up with projects, and you know, this semester is a journey. I like to take these kids on a journey of, yes, we learn about photography, but what can we do with that? And so this summer I'm an artist in residence with Artworks, which is very. Exciting, and so I'm still kind of like in the midst of planning that, and yeah, like what kind of journey, and like that's kind of like the teaching is really fun, but it is also the planning of what I'm going to teach is really fun. So I kind of see this whole experience as this avenue that I'm going to go towards, because as a photographer, there's like a couple different, you know, options, you could go like the wedding photographer route, or you could go completely freelance, or you could work for a magazine, if magazines are still hiring staff photographers, which doesn't happen a lot these days anymore, and so, or, or you can go the teaching route, and so I've kind of been at the trailhead of all of these paths, and I haven't really known, like, which one I wanted to do. I've been doing freelancing for a while, and it is fun. You have a lot of flexibility, but it also is just a constant grind, chasing after each dollar, and I don't really want to do that forever. So, now that I have found this passion for planning and taking students on journeys and teaching, I'm really loving that. So, I think, and I keep telling my friends this, because I'm trying to, you know, do the whole.. like, I'm a violinist, I have to manifest, you know, I am going to get a master's degree, hopefully, maybe in like two years, get a master's degree, and then hopefully maybe become a full-time photography professor. That's what I would love to do.

Rodney Veal  41:33

I love that, and still make the work. It's like, it's still, it's still. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I will always

Hatsue  41:39

be taking photos forever.

Rodney Veal  41:40

This is, this is this is your jam, and it shows I love that love for being able to say like this is your jam, and then but it really genuinely is, and you do it with such a deafness and just johnavie, so you're awesome. I love the fact that when Nadia Ellerhorst, who's one of our producers, who did the shorts, I mean, I was like very nice, it was like, and I just love that you're just in it, and it's like, and it's just, you're just create, you just, you're creating such a wonderful kind of presence in the, in the fabric of the art scene, not just the photography, but the art scene in Cincinnati, and it is so really strong.

Hatsue  42:25

It is absolutely

Hatsue  42:26

are so tightly woven, and that's why I just love, I love it here.

Rodney Veal  42:33

You're, you're doing it, you're doing it. And thanks for being on the podcast to talk about it. It's been fun.

Hatsue  42:38

This, my first podcast, is

Rodney Veal  42:41

it really? Oh, you're, you're, you're gonna have, you're gonna have many more, many more.