Listen to the interview here!
Maria Stamy
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project, brought to you by Berks County Living magazine. Today I am thrilled to be with Maria Stamy. Maria, welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Maria Stamy: Thank you very much.
Toni: So Maria, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Maria: My name is Maria Stamy. I’m a Berks County resident. I live in Exeter right now. I am married only 2-1/2 years.
Toni: Congratulations.
Maria: I work. I have a normal job. I’m blessed to have a job, and I also own a photography company, so I’m busy all the time.
Toni: Wow. You’ll have to tell us a little bit about that later. Let’s go with the very first question of the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Maria: Inspiration to me is someone or something that influences the way you look at things, influences the way you feel about something, and I also think it means really looking outside of the box and seeing things in a different way. I feel blessed. I think I’m inspired all the time, and I think it can happen anywhere at any time.
Toni: When was the last time you were inspired?
Maria: Honestly, it’s every day. Like I said, I do photography, so every time I’m with my clients, with people, whether they’re adults or whether they’re babies, I’m inspired differently by each one of those people. Honestly, it’s almost every day.
Toni: Now, you said that what inspiration means to you is that it influences how you look at things or how you feel about things. You’re in your business, and you’re doing the work that you do – give me an example just for clarification of what that inspiration means to you. How does a client influence that inspiration for you?
Maria: What I mean by anything, everything, and every day I’m inspired is I could be walking by a building, and it can be falling to pieces, and I can see it for its beauty. I truly believe that anyone or anything can look beautiful, and that’s what I mean by I’m inspired. Like I said, I can see a building that’s falling apart and just be like, “That would be really cool. That would be really artistic.” I can be walking in West Reading and walking by Sweet Surprises … I’d love to throw a little kid on that bench right there and give them a lollipop. That’s the kind of stuff that inspires me.
I truly feel like there’s beauty in everything. I know that sounds so cheesy, but I really do. I can be driving to my house and I don’t even know what it is – it’s a shed or it’s a garage, it’s been neglected and it’s falling apart, but the contrast in it to me would make a great background for something. That’s what inspires me to want to put my next client in front of that shed that’s falling apart; it’s convincing them.
Toni: Wow – it almost sounds like potential that you see.
Maria: Exactly.
Toni: Not only the beauty, but you see the potential in everything, to be more than maybe it is.
Maria: Absolutely. That’s what I mean when you see something and you’re influenced by its potential.
Toni: So how do you put that inspiration into practice here in Berks County?
Maria: Again, I’m blessed to have people contact me and want their photos taken, so I try to use different locations in Berks County. I’ve shot in Exeter. I’ve shot in West Reading. I’ve shot in Womelsdorf. I’ve photographed all over the place. I’m always looking for new locations and sharing my art with Berks County Living whenever I’m approached. I just feel really blessed to be able to do that.
Toni: If you’re inspired and influenced by the potential of something, I would imagine also how you might put that into practice is that if someone comes to you and they’re a little shy about having their picture taken, I would believe sitting across from you (which of course the listeners don’t have the privilege to do so, but I know they’ll get this with listening to you) that you can take that person and take what you’re inspired by, your work and what you’re about to do for them, and inspire a different way for them to think about how their picture might look.
Maria: I sure hope that I can do that. I know in the past I have, and I sure hope that I can do that. It was funny, when I was in college, my final project was shooting the same person twice and making them look completely different or bringing out two different sides of them, because I wanted to show that you can make anyone or anything look the way that you want them to look through your own eyes. That was my project. I would take somebody and have them in regular, plain clothing, and then have a dramatic side. I hope that I can bring that out in people.
Toni: I would imagine, especially if that’s what moves you and inspires you, that’s what you’re doing. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Maria: There are a lot of people. Not only my clients that I deal with on a business level and on a regular basis, but in my personal life. I just have so many people in my life. The first person that comes to mind, though, and the biggest inspiration, is my sister.
She’s not artistic. We’re actually very opposite, but she has a lot of courage, and she’s a risk taker. She will try anything, where I think I lack that a little bit. When there is something that I want to try or that I’m inspired by, something but I’m a little bit shy about approaching, I think of her. “She said ‘yes’ to that challenge and she tried it, and whether or not she failed or succeeded, she tried it and now she has that under her belt.”
I think you have to have courage to really act upon your inspirations, too. She really comes to mind. Like I said, we’re actually very opposite. She’s very book smart, and I’m a little bit street smart. I’m more artistic and she’s numbers and math, but she’s courageous. I think you need to have some courage to really act upon what inspires you, and to really try it out. Does that make sense?
Toni: It does. Actually, it makes total sense, because what inspiration means to you, one of the things that you said, is that it influences you to take action, so it would make total sense that if you see your sister as a big inspiration to you, she takes action and there’s courage behind that. That makes total sense, but you also inspire people with your photography to have courage in order to have their picture take and to put themselves out there. I see the same thing.
Maria: You’re right.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Maria: That’s a question I never thought I’d ever have to answer.
Toni: It doesn’t have to be a legacy when you’re gone, but think about it from the perspective of a living legacy. What legacy do you want people to take away after they’ve met you when they think of you?
Maria: I would hope that people would after experiencing time with me, whether it be a photo shoot or whether it be over coffee or just a first encounter or anything, I would hope that they would see that I see them for who they are. Again, through photography, through my camera lens, I would love for somebody to look at their picture and say, “Oh my God! This is what I’ve always wanted to look like, and she made me look this way and she brought this out in me!” Like I said, even if it’s over a cup of coffee. “Wow – she really listened to me and got who I was.” I hope I do that. I try to do that.
Toni: There’s an authenticity there, isn’t there?
Maria: Yes, absolutely. I think maybe because I expect that back. I expect people to see me for who I am and not put a title to me or anything like that – just in general. I really try to see people for who they are and that’s again, whether it’s through my lens or over a cup of coffee.
Toni: That’s awesome – for people to take away that when they’ve met Maria, that there’s authenticity, you make no apologies for it, and you see the potential and the beauty in everyone, whether it’s through the lens or whether it’s face to face, correct?
Maria: Perfectly said.
Toni: Wonderful. Thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Maria: Thank you. It was an honor.
Maria Stamy
