EPISODE 06
My guest today is driven by a sense of creativity that's both multifaceted and multicultural. I first met Hannah Bain over a decade ago when I hired her as an illustrator for a project of mine as she was traveling through India. And over the years, her creative path and continued evolution has produced a freelance career dominated by one word, joy. She is now a sought after wedding photographer, capturing one of the most cherished moments in a couple's life together. She talks to me about her journey, what inspires her and why the concept of freedom is so pervasive in her own life and career.
This is Freedom Unscripted with Hannah Bain.
FALLING INTO FREELANCING
The very first time we had any interaction was you were doing some illustrations for me. That was like 12 years ago?
I got into freelancing by accident pretty much. I was in a job as a designer working in an advertising agency and then I put in my request for a holiday and it was two and a half weeks and they pulled me to the side and said we can't give you that.
And I booked the holiday already. So I said, oh actually I'm going traveling now, not just going on holiday and then handed my notice but handed my notice too soon. So I still had two months left of before I had to go away.
I still needed money because I'm going travelling. And that's how it started.
CHOOSE LIFE
Freelancing, especially then, really suited the way I wanted to live my life. I didn't like it when I was told you have to work.
You're just a born free spirit.
Yes. My thinking was I didn't want to be working for big companies anymore. How do I become the company? Or how do I work with smaller businesses?
You have more creative freedom when you work with a smaller business, because you're working with the owner of the company, you're working with the founder, you're working with someone who's got the passion for what they're doing.
These aren't just props. One of them has a very particular significance to you, right?
Yeah. That one is probably about 200 or 175 years old. One of the first compatible cameras.
This is your great grandmother using this very camera.
Yes. She's holding it in a picture.
Maybe that's the thing, maybe that's why you cherish it so much.
ADAPTING TO LIFE'S CHALLENGES
I never meant to do photography professionally.
I liked travel photography and it was my way of documenting where I was travelling that I really liked and it was a hobby. In 2020, I had three weddings booked and then obviously they all got cancelled because no one could have a wedding in 2020. Then I got pregnant which again was kind of a miracle in itself. Then the weddings came back and I had a little five-month-old baby and I was like, oh I'd already committed to doing their weddings so I should do them.
I did it and I was like, I get to use my camera again. And because of all my freelance experience I'd been doing, I knew how to set up a little business, how to kind of market myself. Everything I'd done before, all led up to building this photography business.
And actually becoming a mother made me a freelance photographer because suddenly, I've got a baby, I can't simply take this camera out and care for the baby at the same time.
One of the things that you and I have talked about in the past is balancing parenthood and career. How does that work as a freelancer, where you're wrestling both career, running your own business, you're an entrepreneur of one, as well as being a parent?
There's no script for it.
And to be honest, I was really worried about starting a family and how I'd do it, and to the point where I actually, I took a break from freelancing. That was actually the beauty of photography - it reignited my wanting to freelance again, and that was something I never thought I would feel with a five-month-old.
Anyone who has children, one moment life changes from everything about you and then you have a child and it's like I'm really down on a pecking order, it's all about this child.
And actually doing this photography was like, it's about me again. And it's something I love. It felt like right doing it. And I think it helped me be a better parent. Because it's like, this is my passion and then I come back to feeling happy doing it.
BALANCE IN RELATIONSHIPS
How does a free spirit like yourself, who has now been a freelancer for a very long time, then connect with someone who is almost the opposite of that. How do you find the balance in that relationship?
So he works in finance and I'm a very creative person. For me it works better not being with another creative person. Because, and this is probably something I've got to work on myself, I can get jealous. I needed to be with someone who thought I was amazing.
I needed my own cheerleader.
Yes, of course - we all need that.
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
So when you were freelancing in Goa, aside from Goa being the most idyllic place to be a freelancer, you were working with Swedes, Indians, Australians, Brits. Did they all see freelancing the same?
I'd say they all kind of came there for the same reason I did. They didn't want a full-time job.
They wanted to kind of be away from where they were and live a kind of different lifestyle.
And living in Goa was more cost-effective than, say, living in London. So your outgoings weren't as huge, so you could kind of do things a bit more affordably.
Where do you get your creative inspiration for your photography?
I connect with more photographers and through them, I actually get a lot of inspiration from their photos and see how they do things. And then from everything like watching films and documentaries, I look at how shots are done, how they've done the colouring and how they've done the lighting.
At the start of this episode, I talked about the sense of joy Hannah brings to her freelance career. She pursued a freelance life for very specific reasons around freedom and family. She knew that it wasn't going to be easy, but for her the payoff was so worth the undertaking, it drove all of her decisions. And the by-product of that pursuit of joy reveals itself in her work that has resulted in a wait list that, well, let's put it this way, if you're thinking of proposing to your significant other, it's probably worth making the next call to Hannah and checking her availability for your special day.
- fin
