Alumni behind the lens

Graduates combine university education and passion into photography business.

Working from a charming turn-of-the-century house in Calgary’s Marda Loop neighborhood, Janet Pliszka and Amy Brathwaite are cousins, friends, University of Calgary graduates, photographers and most recently, business partners.

Pliszka, BComm’94, has always been a photographer at heart and started her own business, Visual Hues in 2006 after eight as a marketer with Air Miles. Although photography hasn’t always been her livelihood, Pliszka documented the beautiful places she travelled to through her lens and found herself constantly being pulled to the faces and personalities of those around her, which led to her launching Visual Hues.

This passion for people is what helped her to start Visual Hues. “There were so many beautiful things to take pictures of,” says Pliszka of her travels abroad, specifically while living in Japan. “But when I looked at my pictures, you could see how I gravitated towards that type of photography.”

Brathwaite, BA’01, returned to Calgary four months ago after seven years of development and humanitarian work with the United Nations and Non-Governmental Organizations in Bangladesh, Indonesia and most recently, Haiti. “I’ve always had an artistic side, but never fully pursued it,” says Brathwaite, who, until recently, employed photography “to contextualize the environments” she was working in for friends and family at home.

Brathwaite’s return to Canada and her role at Visual Hues “was quite serendipitous.” It happened one night over a Facebook chat. Brathwaite wrote to her cousin, typing “I love humanitarian work, but I want to follow a more creative path.” It was then that Pliszka offered her the chance to work alongside her at Visual Hues. It was the perfect remedy to merge the two worlds of photography and humanitarian work and also the beginning of Global Hues.

“It’s been an adjustment,” says Brathwaite, joking that she’s been permanently cold since returning from the Caribbean. “It’s a jarring cultural shift, but I am excited about having a safe return home where I can re-familiarize myself with my country.”

Although Brathwaite is away from the soulfulness of the Haiti for now, she’ll be returning there in February to photograph local artisans she is working with and to visit the beloved island. Visual Hues is also working on the launch of Global Hues, the international arm of Visual Hues, which combines Pliszka and Brathwaite’s passion for photography with their desire to help fair trade and humanitarian organizations in the developing world. Pliszka also continues work on HYTES–Helping Youth Through Educational Scholarships –a nonprofit she started with her husband in 2004 to help teens in developing countries finish secondary school. So far HYTES has provided over 700 scholarships to children in East Africa and Guatemala.

Visual Hues will also be launching an online photography program for kids and they’ll continue using their central studio space as a hub for the community by renting it out for events and classes.

“A lesson I learned while at university was that you don’t always need to do what’s expected of you,” says Pliszka, of the choices that have brought her to Visual Hues, Global Hues and HYTES. “You need to do what’s in your heart.”

For more information, please visit www.visualhues.com

Visual Hues has a special offer for University of Calgary alumni:
Family, newborn and child photography custom sessions booked before December 15, 2011 are eligible for a $100 print credit to use towards your order. For more information, please contact Amy or Janet at 403-252-7971.