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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the latest installment in a series of stories looking at local photographers as their businesses boom during the prom, graduation, and wedding seasons.
MANSFIELD — Tracy Graziani of TogLoft Photography firmly believes the better photographers in the community are, the better it will be for consumers.
At her photography studio at 41 East 4th St., she hosts classes to help teach novices and those comfortable with shooting photos new techniques.
She opened the business in 2014 and is currently the only employee. She has a network of 22 photographers who join her for photography and entrepreneurship courses.
Entrepreneurship is a passion, she said. One of the classes she offers is titled ‘Quit your day job,’ helping moonlighting togs put the pieces together to be able to shoot photography as their only profession.
“There are a lot of people who have an OK side-hustle going, but they don’t have enough business to be a full-time photographer,” Graziani said. “One thing I love doing is helping people get over that hump.”
She said allowing creative people to develop their skills will help raise the art of photography in the area.
“I really enjoy it. I think it is really rewarding. I had a brief period where I was general manager in an electronics store,” Graziani said. “Digital changes everything; I found so many people were buying cameras and they didn’t know how to use them. They didn’t have a place to go and learn how to use them.”
Graziani was given her first camera at age 8. It was a lavender Vivitar camera. She polished her skills in the dark room at her high school.
Now she feels her studio provides a “working environment” for photographers who use her space instead of spending a lot of money to own their own.
“It’s like a gym. Some members are more active than others,” the former Richland Source freelance photographer said.
Contact Tog Loft at TRACY@togloft.COM or by phone at 855-434-9746. Visit the website at www.togloft.com. The business is located at Tog Loft, 41 B E. 4th St. Mansfield, OH 44902.
“Digital changes everything; I found so many people were buying cameras and they didn’t know how to use them. They didn’t have a place to go and learn how to use them,” Tracy Graziani said.
