Hi! Well, for me it's usually ALL ABOUT YOU, or at least it is when I am working with you, but this one time I will let it be a little about me!
I first picked up a camera in Milwaukee, WI when I was a little girl and orchestrated all of these complex shoots involving my stuffed animals in various locations. When you're 9 or 10 years old and you're paying for the film and processing out of your own allowance instead of buying candy, it must be love! My next "clue" that I might have the magic in me was when I was 14 and took a bunch of photos at my Uncle's wedding in Chicago, and even though they had hired a wedding photographer, the only shots you ever saw in a frame were the ones I took.
Then in high school, I took another path for a while and studied acting at ECA (Educational Center for the Arts) in New Haven, CT where we moved when I was about to start my freshman year. ECA was an amazing place for me creatively. I really liked all of the acting classes, movement, scene work, etc. but what I LOVED was just being with those people! Cool, real, open interesting people (you know the type…!) Anyway, what I found during my 3 years there, was that although I didn't really get jazzed by being on stage so much, I really enjoyed working on the lighting, being backstage in almost any capacity, and found I especially loved directing. I was able to work with my director, the director of my program, Robert Parker, and he helped me to find my place and inspired me to continue my creative life, wherever it was going to take me.
I started at Boston University, and in my sophomore year, I took photography for the first time. It seemed like it would be creative and fun and I thought, why not? On my first day in class, I dropped a lens on the floor in front of my 40 or so classmates and my instructor, who also happened to be head of the photography department. He promptly spun around, pointing at me and yelled "never do that!" So, a great beginning… Nevertheless, I went back the next day and promptly fell in love with photography. On that day, day two, that was the day and I'll never forget it. Eventually, that same instructor hired me to run the photo lab for him as a part time job, which I did for 2 years until I graduated. He has visited my studio in NY and is very proud of me now! I used to help all of the poor first year students who would try so hard to take good pictures and then screw everything up in the development. I would just do it for them because it was really so depressing to see them fail (Shhh… don't tell anyone!)
So, now I knew my path! From the first moments, I found I only liked working with people. I had many various types of assignments, and somehow turned them all around to my way of seeing and quickly created a personal style. In my class I was known as "cropper Kysiak" because of my special way of focusing in on just what I wanted to show. (Kysiak is my maiden name, don't bother trying to pronounce it.) My instructors were all very cool about letting me bend the rules, and were very encouraging to me as far as my artistic vision goes (so thanks! Go BU!)
Fast forward a couple of years, and I move to NYC because, and I am not joking, I flipped a coin on my birthday and decided heads, NYC, tails, Chicago. I was listening to Frank Sinatra and it was either "Chicago, Chicago" or "New York, New York, if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere.." So, heads and NYC it was. I immediately met Matt Hoebermann, who was to become my husband a couple years later. We were introduced by my friend Heidi, who I used to work with when I waited tables in Boston, who was an actress in NY, and Matt's friend Morgan, an actor who was dating Heidi. (side note: they are married with kids too, but we beat them to it!)
So Matt's Dad AND grandfather were both photographers so I guess he just couldn't stay away from it! We started working together literally 2 weeks after we started dating and have been building Hoebermann Studio ever since.
