"I think everyone should just have more fun with life, because you can't control what happens..."

Vivian's journey from Southern California to becoming an international photographer and videographer is testament to her adventurous spirit and continuous pursuit of inspiration. Growing up in California, she never imagined calling New York home, but the city's cumulative drive and the inspiring energy drew her in. Her interest in photography, sparked in high school with an old film camera, led her to explore various creative avenues. Despite initially studying sports medicine and working in a medical clinic, Vivian was always pulled her back to photography, a hobby that she grew into her very robust career.

Vivian's transition from the medical field to the arts was spearheaded by her courage and inclination for photography, but was still rooted by her logical nature. She faced the challenge of leaving a tight knit team within sports medicine, and postponing her trajectory of PA school to focus on the arts full time, but logically mapped out what it would take to succeed within this path within the first year. With the emotional support of her family, Vivian took the next steps. This bold choice lead to significant opportunities, including working with Wrangler Australia and eventually shooting for prestigious events like The Met Gala and most recently, the Olympics in Paris.

Throughout her career, Vivian has remained grounded and focused on what truly matters. She values the relationships she builds, the experiences she gains, and the joy of meeting new people through her work. Vivian's biggest accomplishment is creating a life she loves, being able to balance her professional success with personal fulfillment. Her story is a beautiful blend of authenticity, passion, and the pursuit of happiness.

I was born in Santa Ana, California, near Huntington.

I live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

So what made you move from California to New York?

Growing up, I never thought that I would ever live in New York. I was just like, "Oh, I'm going to live in California." I think coming to New York, I've never been around so many diverse types of people, not even in culture, but just how people live. I think that was really intriguing to me, because I always try to fill my life with new things and excitement.

I also love that everyone here is always pushing to be their best, and whether that's with work or their arts or whatever it is. I felt just really inspired here, and then for work, I feel like it's great, because luckily my work is my passion. It’s great to be in a city that's super inspiring.

So I first picked up a camera when I was in high school. My best friend, Dylan, he had his grandpa's old film camera. We had a big group of friends, and we would just photograph our friend group all the time, and skateboarding, snowboarding, that type of stuff. I took a video editing class randomly, because in high school it was available, so I'm like, why not? I would always tinker with smaller cameras, but I would say my first legit camera was with Dylan.

I studied sports medicine in college, and I was working at a clinic as a medical assistant and I wanted to go to PA school. I was at this crossroads where I would either be starting the whole process of going into my graduate program for PA school or doing this (photography). I remember I was like, “I'm going to set up a small retainer from a brand that I was already working with, and it'll just cover my rent and the bare minimum.

Then from that point on, I'll just work nine to five for myself.” I couldn't see a way where it wouldn't be possible. I don't think going into college I ever thought it could even become my career, because I just didn't realize. I know I'm in California and LA, where Hollywood is and everything, but I still don't think I realized, because my parents weren't in the film industry or anything, that that could be someone's full-time job. I would work with these smaller, local brands in college, but then I was also doing sports medicine stuff. I think eventually I just realized all the other things I was doing, they were fun, but I would just try to rush off of work to go film something or shoot something. When I was working at the medical clinic, I had to wear scrubs and I remember I would get into the parking lot and before I even drove like five minutes home where I lived, I would change out of my scrubs and like put on a new outfit in the car because I just hated being in scrubs. Those were little signs that eventually made me realize that I feel like everything is pointing back to this one thing I want to do.

Honestly, I was super nervous to tell the doctor I worked with because I loved him and his wife and everyone else we worked with. I think I was nervous to let people down because I was leaving and we had such a tight knit circle. When I told them, everyone was actually happy for me and I think they could see that my personality didn't really fit the position I was in.

Then I told my mom and I don't think any parent wants to hear like, oh, I just spent so much money on college and now I want to do this random job, but I'm a rational person, so I had already come up with a plan in my mind for myself. I was like, “Okay, I'm going to do this for a year and I can't see it not growing, but if it doesn't work out, then I'll just go back to what I was going to do.” It’s a year of my life and I was 20 years old or 22 or something, you know. When I sat with my mom and I told her, I remember she just really couldn't ask me any questions because I already had all the answers laid out. My parents have always been really supportive of me and what I do, and I'm really grateful for that. When I was younger, I'd want to try all these things and my mom would be like, you should focus on one thing, but she would still like take me to all of these random things I wanted to do.

I think the thing that's remained consistent is like that filmic, nostalgic element because my first camera was a film camera and I was kind of documenting these life moments. I think that part has stayed consistent, but I think the way it's changed is when I was in California it was just flooded. Everything was flooded with sunlight and I didn't need to learn how to use different types of lights because I just was outside all the time. I just worked off of the sun and I still love photos that feel like they've been baked in the sun but I think my interests have just expanded too, like the things I want to capture. Maybe now my photos feel a little cooler in temperature at times, whereas before I feel like they were always very like warm and sunny and airy. Now it's fun to experiment with different types of lighting, and lately my photos have been really fried looking. I look like a skater boy who's just taking a ton of drugs and like is messing with his computer late at night or something.

Okay, so I think this one was one of the first brands I worked with consistently was with Wrangler Australia. They were my first bigger commercial client, and I think it was just the perfect client to work with because it was so fun. I loved everyone on the team there. It was just a bunch of fun Australians who are now my good friends, and they took me to Arizona and Portugal where we would just capture these really fun stories, these really fun campaigns. I feel like they were always very supportive of me shooting on film, which now is very popular for a brand to do that, but back then it was very much during the digital age where everyone wanted a million digital selects. I feel like they've always let the artist be true to their craft, which was cool. I feel like once I did that, I was so in shock that they would call me back for another campaign or that they would trust me to shoot for a big name like that.

I just love meeting people. I do feel like life is like an empty vessel, as cliche as that sounds, but you can fill it every day with experiences or people or just whatever you want. I think for me, the most exciting part about my career is just getting to fill that with amazing people, fun travel, getting to do something I'm passionate about.

I think keeping a balance, you have to be really intentional because otherwise you can only be working. You have to say no to so many things and even then you're still like stressed. I think I'm just obsessed with what I do. Sometimes I'll just be saying yes to everything and I get burnt out, you know? I think just knowing how to manage my own time, especially in a creative field.

Okay, I have a few. I would love to shoot a Miu Miu campaign. I also definitely want to work with A$AP Rocky. He is just is doing his own thing, you know? I feel like he makes stuff that's elevated and polished and also kind of gritty. I like his style.

Also, I want to just make shorts and potentially a feature one day, like move into that world. I'd rather like do it intentionally instead of like just for the purpose of going into it, you know?

Oh, one day, having the billboard on Houston.

To the Paris Olympics. That was really fun to be in. My friend Peter, who works at Highsnobiety, he's a producer and he was looking for a producer in Paris. I was like, “I can try to find you one.”

So I'm messaging and I was like, “What dates?” He tells me the dates.

Then he's like, “Are you available?” I was like, “Yeah, I'm available.” This was like four days out.

He's like, “Would you want to do this? I have someone holding, but like, I trust you.”

So I was like, “Yeah, I mean, I'm down.”

I love when something's so spontaneous, it makes me want to say yes more. I'm like, when am I going to go to Paris for the Olympics? So I was like, okay, I have to do this.

I went for Highsnobiety and we did some content capture around the Olympics. Just whoever we got matched with. I ended up being there for three weeks, but I shot for the whole two weeks. It was so crazy and I'm so grateful. Watching tennis was insane, like Carlos Alvarez and Rafael Nadal. I think that was one of the moments where I was like, this is so cool, you know?

But I think at the end of the day, another work trip that came to mind when you asked what was memorable was my first international job to Portugal with Wrangler. I think at that point I was like, oh, I'm in another country shooting for this big brand. What makes it memorable is also is the people you're with. I can be anywhere in the world and in the nicest hotel or whatever, but I really don't care about the condition of things as much as I care about how fun it is and who I'm with. I feel like my best life moments are camping in Mexico with my friends, going on surf trips or going to Australia by myself to meet up with my friends, and we're like hiking with big blankets to go camp out on this rock in the middle of nowhere.

I think I always would make videos. My first video camera, which is pretty cool for like a 22 year old, but it was a super eight camera. My boyfriend at the time, he knew I wanted to film with one, but these weren't very available, and he found me one on Craigslist. He gave the best gifts and he got me this old super eight camera.

I feel like I was always tinkering with that, like making mini movies. Then I would say over the past few years, that's just gradually turned more into directing because it's nice to work with people who are much more technical than I am, and I feel like you need a big team to accomplish like a bigger vision.

I honestly think that my younger self should give more advice to me now, because I was journaling recently and I was like thinking about all the things that were stressing me out, or like any anxieties I had. When I was young, I really did not care and I lived so freely. I was thinking back to when I was younger, and I was making certain decisions for my life. I'm like, wow, like I really had it right all along.

I think everyone is like that in a way. When you're younger, you just kind of trust your intuition and your decisions aren't so flooded by what's right, or what's the best way to do it, you know? Honestly, as of this year, I feel like I started to really respect like when I was younger.

I think it's just being able to like create a life I love for myself and also prioritize the right things. I feel proud of myself that I can prioritize like my body, like how I'm feeling, you know, because it can get really draining, but I feel like I've learned to like pick up on when I feel tired or out of balance.

Then prioritizing my family, because I think that when my parents pass away or when life goes on, I'm not going to be like, “oh wow, I shot a campaign for Miu Miu.” I'm going to be like, “oh, I was able to spend all this time with my parents or help them with this situation or spend time with my brother.”

In five years, I would be down to like be having this experience still.
Okay, let me go to 10 years. Maybe within the window of like five to 10 years, I could see myself like settling down a little bit, starting a family.

So I guess in the next five years, I should do everything I can before getting into that mode. When I do get into that mode, I think I'll switch on to this other mode I have where I'm just like so zenned out, like and baking banana bread every day. I do love doing that. And going surfing. I think I'll be somewhere closer to the beach again.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Flying or making everyone happy in the world. I feel like I get really sad if people are sad and it's like, it would just make me so happy if everyone's problems were fixed. Then the flying thing is because I'm a daredevil in a way. I love adrenaline and I think that would just feel so cool.

If you could only use one camera or video camera for the next five years, what would it be?

My primary, I would do my Contax T2, I was going to say G2, but maybe I would go Contax T2, because it's super easy, and I feel like I'm not such a technical person where I'm like, oh, I have to have this lens or whatever. I think I just like capturing every day moments the most, so that is a camera that's like super easy to bring around and it's kind of made for that.

Then if I could sneak in an extra one, I would do a Super 8, because I can take stills and videos with that.

Is there anything you feel like you would like to get out there that we didn't cover?

Okay, if there's something I could put out, I would just say that I think everyone should just have more fun with life, because you can't control what happens in life, whether that's a bad thing or a sad thing or whatever, but yeah, I think everyone just needs time to be outside and play, and just experiment, you know?