Shammae Shackleford shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Shammae, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Integrity would be the most important of the three to me. Intelligence can be built on and expanded as you age so if you are lacking in intelligence now, it can be rectified with practice and time. Energy is transmutable, fleeting even and can always change from one form to another. Integrity however, is rooted in something more solid-something with a more study foundation: a moral code. To possess integrity is to actively make the decision to be upfront, transparent and honest while also walking the path of righteousness. It is an instilled value that I believe people either have or do not have.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Shammae 🙂
I am a freelance model and photographer with an educational background in Business Marketing and Management, currently based in Miami, Florida but seeking opportunities to travel and expand both my skillset and portfolios.
My modeling is more alternative streetwear and urban fashion centered, with a mix of creative and editorial beauty incorporated as well.
My goal is to be a recurring e-commerce model for fashion brands that I am currently very enthusiastic about as a consumer such as True Religion, Nike, MNML and others similar.
For photography, my work is comprised of Black and White, or Monochromatic shots of musicians, artists or anyone else in the music/entertainment industry. I especially like to shoot in Black and White because it speaks to a more emotional aspect of the photo itself. Normally music events photos are taken in color, but I feel once that saturation is stripped of the photo, the viewer has a more personal opportunity to immerse themselves in the photo and imagine what it may have been like if they were in attendance.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
My earliest memory of feeling powerful was when I was around 8 years old, learning how to create an email account with my Dad. We walked through the steps together which was pretty easy looking back, but the part that stuck with me and is something I will never forget is when it was time to choose my username. After thinking for a few moments I decided that I would use “Shammae The Great” as the name and the reassurance I got from my Dad when I told him the name I chose felt very powerful and monumental for me. It felt as if there was a shift and I started figuring out what my path was and where it would lead me in the future.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
Hearing and truly understanding the phrase “Closed mouths don’t get fed” is what really shifted things for me in terms of perspective and has allowed me to use moments of pain, discomfort or inconvenience as power. As someone doing both the knowledge and due diligence to undo hyper-indepencence, it became extremely evident to me that as much as I want to, I cannot do everything myself and will have to at some point call on others and rely on them to get the job done. It also became evident to me that it was not ever necessary for me to do everything on my own, but was an off-chute of being so reliant on myself and distrusting of others due to previous disappointments or shortcomings where I had to pick up slack where it should not have been left. I now understand that I have a plethora of skills to my avail, but I can use them for other things and can put past mistakes and errors to the side to call in others and let them step up to the plate.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
I feel that the public version of me is the one that I am most comfortable with the outside world knowing-the person they know at face value and have to dig deeper to learn more about. Image and perception have been topics that have been made extremely important in this day and age as we are in a surveillance state where any and everything can be uploaded to any particular platform to be viewed and picked apart by anyone there to witness. There are some aspects of myself that I do not dim or reserve for certain people, but I do feel that it is important to draw the line with how you present yourself to the public and the information you allow them to digest so you not only have control of your image and perception, but also so that you skirt any parasocial relationships from forming due to people imagining a level of familiarity or closeness that does not actually exist.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If immortality were real, what would you build?
If immortality were real, I would build the compound for my family and friends that I have always been thinking of doing. Immortality would be my guarantee to get it done and perfect it to what I feel the place would need for us to all live happily among one another. Community and being able to share moments with the people you care about and love is extremely important to me, and seeing how difficult it is for some people to make ends meet is heartbreaking because at no point would they have time to to think of anything other than going to work and making sure the next paycheck can keep them alive. Being immortal would give me all the motivation I would need to continue my mission of bringing my community together and undoing the effects of individualism that was intended to separate and isolate people from one another in order to promote capitalistic values. Knowing that I would be alive forever would be my fuel to ensure that the lives of others can be easier, better and that they have a community they can call on and rely on when they need.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.instagram.com/shammaeeeee/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shammaephotography/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shammae-shackleford-aa530a201?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
Image Credits
ShammaePhotography
Drey T.
