andie jael

Even though she was born in the sunny state of Florida, Andie considers the rainy Northwest state of Oregon to be her true home. Hands down. There is something magical about falling asleep to the lullaby of a million raindrops falling just outside your window for 250 out of the 365 nights in a year.

From a very young age, Andie has taken great delight in experimenting with and observing art in a variety of forms—movement, music, ink, typography, shapes and colors. Even more than art, she had developed a great compassion for the stories and emotions of people. It wasn't until she began experimenting with a 35mm camera in high school that she realized that photography has a magical way of uniting artistic expression with real-life storytelling. Since that day, it has become her passion to use her eyes and glass to capture and tell stories in such a way that people are moved to action.

Immediately following high school, Andie moved to Northern England to attend a small Bible school called Capernwray. While overseas, she took a few months to backpack and travel through many cultures and cities she had only dreamed of visiting—Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Ireland and Scotland. During her travels, Andie continued to become more captivated by people and their stories.

After returning to Portland, Oregon, her growing interest in photojournalistic storytelling brought her to the visual journalism program at Brooks Institute of Photography in Southern California. While attending Brooks Institute (known as the 'Harvard of Photography'), Andie sat under the instruction and critique of many leading, successful and highly respected photographers known in the field.

During her nearly non-existent free time at school, she started her camera strap business, HighKey Camera with Tom Baker, whom she met in her visual journalism program. The business has been highly successful and will help aid her financially in the pursuit of her dreams.